BCD436HP Battery Life

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NJEMT12982

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Does anyone else have issues with battery life with this scanner. I just put brand new batteries in it yesterday and less than four hours later I get a beep telling me the batteries are low. The amount of money I spend in batteries makes me with I went with the 536 instead. Even rechargeable batteries seem to drain quickly.
 

KK4JUG

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If you get the rechareable batteries, don't use the internal charger. Get a "smart" charger. I use the Maha C9000 pro. This model just came out. It replaces the C9000. The new one works almost exactly like the old one. It has a little smaller footprint and some minor settings changes but it works great.
 

seesharp15

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Yeah.... FWIW I just order the bulk AA batteries from Amazon. Lasts about a month Or 2

on the plus side, as long as I have batteries I don’t have a dead radio...
 

rgchristy

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I have 3 packs of Amazon AA rechargeable batteries, just like Bugkiller above. I use a Maha C9000 charger and rotate as necessary. I do get much better than 4 hours on each pack. I would go with KK4JUG's suggestion about the Maha C9000 pro. Also, if you use it in the car, keep a spare charging cable with a DC USB charger in the glovebox.

 

KK4JUG

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FYI: Higher mAh batteries tend to have fewer recharges in them. Your batteries might have 500-600 recharges whereas a 2000 mAh battery might have as many as 1000 recharges. That's simply the nature of the battery. It seems to have worked well for you.
 

daddyjohn

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Does anyone else have issues with battery life with this scanner. I just put brand new batteries in it yesterday and less than four hours later I get a beep telling me the batteries are low. The amount of money I spend in batteries makes me with I went with the 536 instead. Even rechargeable batteries seem to drain quickly.

That is the nature of the beast. I only have the light come for a few seconds when something breaks the squelch and I have no alerts set. And I still change out a set more frequently than I think I should be. Would have been nice to add another cell but it is what it is. I only use rechargeable batteries and only charge out of the scanner with external charger. I have used several different brands of rechargeable batteries and from now on I am only using IKEA LADDA 2450 batteries. At $6.99 for a 4 pack plus the fact that they perform just as good as eneloop pros, they are hard to beat.
 
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