JCB "10X" More Power Ultra alkaline batteries - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 01:47:50 am
content: JCB 10X more power of what? Capacity or burst rate?https://www.amazon.co.uk/JCB-Ultra-Alkaline-Digital-Batteries/dp/B0041MAGKC/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=jcb+aa+ultra&qid=1621906382&s=electronics&sr=1-2QuoteI found the information just now on Amazon that it lasts ten times longer than a zinc battery but doesn't state zinc on that claim in the packaging.Do you think that is misleading?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 02:15:16 am
content: Yes, it is misleading. Intentionally so. It is just marketing, you get away with as much as you legally can.I just buy Amazon Basics and other non-branded batteries that don't make stupid claims. That probably pushes other brands to come up with more and more outlandish claims, but I don't really care.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 02:33:26 am
content: Quote from: MrMobodies on May 25, 2021, 01:47:50 amTen times more power than what? A piece of rusty baling wire?

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 05:13:24 am
content: Grammatically at least, their claim is correct."Up to" ten times means ten times or less. No more than ten times. So if it's 1.0000001 times then all is well.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 06:04:05 pm
content: I think this is very misleading, as a zinc battery can hardly be considered "standard" any more (actually for at least 2 decades now).The only place I know of having zinc batteries is some kind of discounter, offering mainly chinese crap and some overstock food items. However those batteries are 3 times the price of alkaline batteries from Lidl or Aldi. Still people buy those. AFAIR those are even branded "GRUNDIG", which nowadays means: DON'T BUY ME. I'M JUNK.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 25, 2021, 06:32:06 pm
content: To be honest about their claim, they don't even say ten times longer than abattery, they just says ten times longer. So it would be misleading to delude yourself to thinking that they meant a battery or any particular type of battery.

author: newbrain
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 26, 2021, 11:16:43 am
content: It must be noted that the wrapper is talking about power, not energy.And there seems to be an asterisk after the claim, might be something along this lines:* When used on a load with 0.1 × internal resistance or less.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2021, 10:46:43 pm
content: They state "Capacity Range: 2300.0mAh - 2850.0mAh". It's unclear what that means exactly (is this the capacity under a specific drain current, or a range for various drain currents? If it's the former, this pretty wide dispersion in capacity looks concerning.) And anyway, it's pretty much standard values for AA alkaline batteries. Actually, good AA alkaline batteries from the major brands have greater capacity than this (often over 3000 mAh). How could it "last" ten times longer? Longer than what?

author: Someone
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2021, 12:13:38 am
content: Quote from: newbrain on May 26, 2021, 11:16:43 amIgnoring the power vs energy thing (they are almost certainly talking about energy as internal resistance of an alkaline isn't going to be 10x lower than a Zinc-Carbon) its nonsense as the asterisk note is not printed online and there are no photos of the packaging showing it either.This is likely to be the usual test that all the manufacturers use where they test a high pulse drain "standard" load profile (lithium L91 example specification below) and then compare to whatever plausibly acceptable baseline they can pull up. On those sorts of comparisons even a Zinc-Manganese Dioxide can be technically 10x better than Zinc-Carbon.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2021, 12:18:56 am
content: It's just marketing wank. "Premium" batteries always compare to cheap nasty carbon zinc batteries in the marketing. I think 10X is optimistic even compared to dollar store carbon zinc though.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2021, 06:37:29 am
content: Quote from: Circlotron on May 25, 2021, 05:13:24 amThe only thing that would make it more ridiculous is if it said "up to 10x more poweror more".

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2021, 08:09:21 am
content: Quote from: amyk on May 29, 2021, 06:37:29 amI put something like that in my pet peeve thread.