BC72XLT battery usage?

[HelixArray]

Hi, I just bought this little handheld nascar racing unit, I've only had it 3-4 days and I have been through 4 pairs of batteries! However, admittedly the first pack I bought were cheapos($5 / 24 pack), but now I've burnt through two different namebrand pairs. Is this commonplace for this scanner?

The last handheld scanners I had took banks of six and four batteries but it seemed like they lasted several weeks with the backlights burning....I rarely use the backlight with this new BC72 .




BC72XLT - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[UPMan]

You should probably switch to rechargeables.

Since you don't mention how long the scanner was on each day, it isn't really possible to say whether it is normal or not. If only a few minutes each day, definitely not normal (I'd expect fewer batteries used). If 24 hours a day...also not normal (I'd expect more).

 

[nanZor]

I'd definitely try this test again with fresh quality alkalines, or use rechargeables - the 72 is the most frugal power-sipping scanner I have.

I ran a test on some alkalines that made other scanners give up - for instance the 95xlt with 800mhz started giving me the battery warning and left to go dead. When those batteries were placed into the 72, I got about another HOUR of normal scanning / searching and with decent sensitivity and audio (such as it is). I wasn't running Close Call at the same time though. If I sat on hold on a frequency and let the battery-saver circuit do it's thing, I could go even longer.

Even if you upgrade later, hang on to that 72 for just this reason!

 

[HelixArray]

Ok, thanks for the replies. I will do an hour by hour test. The "family dollar" brand batteries literally lasted less than 3 hours continuous operation, a few manual backlight presses. The second round/pair of "family dollar" batteries weren't too far off.That's about the time when I went out and grabbed "energizers" which went out shortly after 6pm-1am continuous use and maybe some intermittent scans I would say. And then the duracell followed suit roughly the same usage...from memory of course, so still anecdotal.


I did have close call set to DND alert-light..does that use more from the batteries?

 

[HelixArray]

Completed two pair of batteries so far. All used the same settings, volume at max, CC off, same one frequency set to Hold(to try out that battery-saver circuit) and no backlight

"Family Dollar" brand at continuous use over a 24 hr period --- 6:11PM - 8:24PM before the battery warning beeped.

"Energizer" brand at two sessions of continuous use over a 24 hr period --- 8:25AM - 3:00PM and 5:45PM - 10:26PM before the battery warning beeped.

Trying out Duracell now.

I will check my time stamp logs from my BC15X rec of the same frequency for the total minutes of speaker usage, but it won't be very long.

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Side note: I really like this scanner, but I just need to know if it needs to be exchanged for another or not as my return window is closing. Thanks.

 

[StoliRaz]

I use Sanyo Eneloop batteries. They last a long, long time before dying. I highly recommend them. I have a BC95XLT and I don't have a battery problem at all. I really wish these scanners had the "battery save" mode feature that my GRE PSR 300 has. That extends battery life even more.