IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BATTERIES

1. Buy Extra Spare Batteries.  Batteries die when you need them most -- Murphy’s law.    One battery is never enough.   If you lack spares, then all action stops.  Keep spares in your pocket or purse.  When one battery dies, then replace it quickly with a new one.

2. Buy Batteries in Advance of Need.   It costs less to buy now, then to be troubled in time of emergency.  And in emergency, you may say, “forget it”, and suffer loss of your equipment completely.  Buy at least double what you think you need, and BEFORE you need them.  Purchase ahead to make sure that you don’t run out.  An emergency trip costs more than making one large purchase up front.  Extra batteries NOW costs less than the value of gas, time, and trouble later.

3. Keep Batteries Fresh.   Keep the rechargeable ones fully charged.   Rechargeable batteries lose about 2 percent daily, which means after 30 days they have lost almost 50 percent of their charge.    

4. Buy the Correct Battery.  The manufacturer has recommendations of what batteries are compatible for its equipment.  Equipment with high battery drain requiring more power is best with rechargeable batteries.  Rechargeable batteries reduce lifetime cost.  They also reduce the number of times that your equipment runs down and requires battery changing.

5. Follow Battery Charging Rules.   There are 5 major battery types, which in order of preference are (1) the new long‑lived lithium (Rechargeable), (2) the new long‑lived NiMH (Rechargeable), (3) the older NiCad (Rechargeable), (4) the alkaline (disposable), and (5) the familiar metal paste (disposable).  Each battery type has its own charging rules.

6. Plan Ahead Before Use.   Buy your batteries BEFORE you need them.  Buy enough to make sure that you will not run out.  Recharge them a day or two BEFORE you know you are going to be needing them.  You should procure extra battery chargers so that you can charge 2 or 3 sets simultaneously, for those times of high use that last longer than expected.

7. Rotate batteries in Sequence. Rotation makes sure that all your batteries experience the same discharge history, to better insure they age uniformly and maintain similar charging lifetimes and similar reliability characteristics.  Otherwise, you may switch in a set of batteries that are old and be surprised that they don’t last as long or perform as well as you expected.