Poles love these batteries. I just exposed their secret

First of all, it should be noted that Duracell cannot be accused of lying. Nevertheless, the results obtained are less spectacular than one might expect. Of course, having already had a pack, or rather two packs, of batteries in my hands, I couldn’t resist carrying out a comprehensive test and checking the batteries not only in the scenario declared by the manufacturer.

To carry out the test, I used Duracell and Duracell Optimum batteries purchased in a home store. Were they stored in appropriate conditions before purchasing them? I have no idea. However, this is not a laboratory test, but rather a pseudo-laboratory one. I check what an average customer can buy in a discount chain, not what comes out of the factory. In the case of batteries, this is very important.

To discharge the batteries, I used an artificial load and discharged the batteries continuously with a constant current of a given intensity. Is this the test Duracell refers to? In no case. As we can read on the manufacturer’s website:

Longer life compared to leading AA zinc batteries, based on the 2021 IEC High Energy AA Battery Test using a digital camera (www.iec.ch) Results may vary depending on device and usage.

Unfortunately, in the search engine on the IEC website I found only one PDF document relating to Duracell. However, there was only a mention of a wireless charger with the company’s logo, not batteries. However, it is worth emphasizing that the IEC has issued the entire cell testing procedure. This is the IEC 60086-2:2021 standard.

It should be explained here that this is an international document specifying how disposable batteries are tested. It contains precisely described test scenarios that include both the battery discharge device, how to use it, and external conditions. This allows manufacturers to compare results according to the same principles.

The problem is that access to it is paid. This is an expense of PLN 1,542. Only after purchasing this document could I find out what digital camera was mentioned and how it was used during the tests. I would also have to purchase such a device and use it in the manner described in the standard.

Instead, I placed a constant load on the tested batteries with a relatively high current. This mention is also worth noting:

(…) compared to leading AA zinc batteries (…)

This means that much better results were obtained compared to zinc batteries. This is a type of battery that does not cope very well with high loads.

Of course, I can compare batteries with a declared life of 15 times longer to those with a declared life of 30 times longer. However, I also decided to add a zinc battery to this list. Since the Duracell description did not mention a specific brand, I chose batteries sold under the KODAK brand. I considered the battery to be discharged as its voltage dropped to 0.9 V.

I decided to start the test with a relatively high battery load, i.e. half an ampere. In this test, the standard Duracell battery, i.e. the one that works up to 15 times longer, lasted 2 hours, 40 minutes and 43 seconds, giving off 1.55 Wh. So let’s use this as a reference point.

In the case of Duracell Optimum, a battery that lasts up to 30 times longer, I achieved a result of 2 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, giving away 1.60 Wh. The result seems slightly better. The problem is that this only informs us that in a given scenario these batteries hold a similar charge. However, the result adopted in the IEC tests could be completely different.

Interestingly, however, the KODAK zinc battery withstood such a load for 33 minutes and 57 seconds, giving off 0.3 Wh. The difference is noticeable, but the operating time is about 5 times longer, not 15 or 30. However, it is still worth emphasizing that this does not mean anything.

So we double the load to see how Duracell handled this scenario. And so the basic variant gave us 56 minutes and 45 seconds, giving 1.03 Wh.

With such a load, Duracell Optimum was able to work for 52 minutes and 8 seconds, emitting 0.99 Wh. The result is therefore noticeably worse than a potentially weaker battery. This does not mean, however, that in a test scenario in which the load was neither constant nor continuous, Duracell Optimum would not perform twice as well as its cheaper brother. However, it is clear that constant loads clearly do not help him.

What about zinc battery? It died after 2 minutes and 7 seconds. This confirms that there is a scenario where Duracell Optimum lasts up to 30 times longer than a zinc battery. However, it suggests quite clearly that this is a scenario where zinc batteries make little sense.

One thing is clear from this: Duracell advertisements reflect the actual situation as closely as possible. The problem is that we are only talking about a specific scenario with a specific device. This does not mean that Duracell will always and everywhere work 15/30 times longer than zinc batteries.

Duracell batteries are not cheap, and the manufacturer compares them to obvious weaklings. Therefore, I decided to conduct comparative tests with a competing product from the Energizer brand. Actually, three products, known from the previous test: Energizer, Energizer Max and Energizer Max Plus. The results here are as follows:

• Energizer: 2:05:05, 1.17 Wh
• Energizer Max: 2:10:28, 1.27 Wh
• Energizer Max Plus: 3:17:15, 1.86 Wh

• Energizer: 34:29, 0.62 Wh
• Energizer Max: 41:24, 0.77 Wh
• Energizer Max Plus: 54:10, 0.98 Wh

This shows that Energizer Max Plus copes much better with high, constant loads of 500 mA and 1 A than Duracell batteries. Still, Duracell batteries perform better than Energizer and Energizer Max.

Of course, there is still the matter of working with a lower load. And I’m not talking about low load, because that would be the work of a wall clock, and the test should have started long before I started working at Telepolis.pl. Here I decided to test Duracell batteries with a constant load of 100 mA. Here, Duracell lasted 23 hours, 53 minutes and 50 seconds, giving off 2.97 Wh.

Duracell Optimum, on the other hand, squeezed 23 hours, 42 minutes and 35 seconds, giving off 3.05 Wh. So how does it compare to Energizer batteries? You will find out from the comparative test of AA sticks from this manufacturer.

If you intend to use devices with constant load, such as lamps, a flashlight, or a retro game console such as a Game Boy, purchasing a Duracell battery is not necessarily the best possible choice. According to IEC tests, the results of which I neither confirm nor refute, they gain a lot from variable loads in cameras.