Battery expiration - CNET Computer help Forums

Answer Best answer as chosen by user mackywooha

Not that I'm aware of

In Reply to: Battery expiration by mackywooha

Not that I'm aware of, since it would be difficult to put an expiration date on batteries. Environmental factors play a huge role in that sort of thing. Store them in a hot and humid place, they will not last nearly as long as if they are in a cool dry location.

Seems like at least for the AA-D type batteries, the manufacturers already put that info on the packaging. Whether or not they're required by some law to do this I don't know. Regardless, it's just an estimate of how long the average battery should last if stored in ideal conditions, so basically meaningless.

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user mackywooha

Not a date you can set in stone.

by R. Proffitt - 2/11/13 10:35 AM

In Reply to: Battery expiration by mackywooha

Given the list of factors that I'll list change the expiry date greatly I don't think it can be done.

Factors such as temperature, humidity, manufacturing variables, shock, drop and more can often reduce the life span. There are many fine articles about storing a battery but I'm going with the following advice.

Don't buy too many in advance of your needs. I keep about a year supply here but no more than that. The only reason I have that many is we use too many at the office and want the bulk pricing.

Now that we have a nice shop that takes the spent batteries back to be recycled into new batteries, we don't feel so bad.
Bob

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Battery expirations

by mackywooha - 2/12/13 9:30 AM

In Reply to: Not a date you can set in stone. by R. Proffitt

Thanks very much for the information. Very helpful, and I think these answer my question, regarding legislation.

I have been looking at it from a stock handling and disposal perspective. For example if there are 2 batteries on a shelf, with one having 2 years left on its life span, and 1 with 18 months, the one with 18 months would be picked and dispatched out. Also this would allow disposal of one that had a few months left or so, as I don't imagine customers would be happy to receive a battery with a expiry date of 3 months time on it.

I can appreciate it would be a difficult date to nail down with anything specific, but you would have thought even a Manufacturing date would be required at the very least.

Can I use a carton of milk as a comparison?

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I'm going with maybe.

by R. Proffitt - 2/12/13 10:08 AM

In Reply to: Battery expirations by mackywooha

Since manufacturing of milk varies, it can have variations in the expiry date.

UHT Milk can last for months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-temperature_processing

So the manufacturing date does not carry much information except for production recalls.

For batteries, using the shortest time to expiry date rotation method is a good choice.
Bob

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