BR330T battery hog

[delta_p]

Why's my BR330T eating batteries so much faster than my BCD396T? Both are on at same time. Battery save..no backlight...and all, I get about a full hour or longer out the 396T. Go figure?

PP

 

[Dubbin]

Not all batteries are created equal.

 

[Pain]

The GP2300's that come with the 330T are terrible. I only had them a few weeks now and 2 out of 3 of them are already completely shot. Good NiMh batteries will go at least 10 hours of continuous use with the backlight off.

 

[freqhunter]

I use Energizer® Rechargeable AA 2500 mAh batteries in both my 330 and 396. I would say I get better mileage out of the 330 than the 396. I have the backlight on all the time as well as the battery save feature off on both.

 

[delta_p]

yeah... I chunked the GP's with both scanners and using a set of 12 between energizer and Duracell to rotate between them. Could be the differences in batteries but it doesn't seem to matter in the overall picture...the 396t always outlast.

PP

 

[MarkWestin]

How old are your Energizer 2500s? All (48) of my Energizer 2500s failed between 9 and 12 months. (I'm not impressed, especially since I have 40 Energizer 2300s that are still working OK). Some of your Energizers could be going bad before the others.

Mark

 

[delta_p]

How old are your Energizer 2500s? All (48) of my Energizer 2500s failed between 9 and 12 months. (I'm not impressed, especially since I have 40 Energizer 2300s that are still working OK). Some of your Energizers could be going bad before the others.

Mark

Not that old, probably about a month or so.

PP

 

[spastic31]

My 330 seems to be rough on batteries as well. I originally had a 246, but upgraded to the 330 after the 246's LCD went out within 2 weeks of purchase. The 246 seemed to sip on its juice, even though it used 2 AAs.

I think part of the problem is that the 330 uses 3 AAs, and my charger only charges in groups of two. (I don't use the scanner to charge the batteries because of the heat.) I bought (12) 2500s, labeled them and rotated them out (4 sets of 3). After they were all used up, I would recharge them in 3 groups of 4. The battery performance seemed to steadily degrade until they would only work ~1/2 hour on a full charge. I assume that the differences in the remaining charge affected the recharged voltage. Not sure though.

I usually just use the AC adapter at home and a car adapter for the road.

 

[Pain]

Batteries are only half the picture, the charger is just as important. Get a charger that has an independent monitoring channel for each battery.

I use a MH-C401FS but there are other good ones out there too.
http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/item.asp?idproduct=178

 

[delta_p]

I had one charger for both, so I wasn't sure if that was the problem but it could be.

PP