David Papp Blog

How To Test Your AA Alkaline Batteries by Dropping Them

Recently I was at a friend’s place who heard about this quick method to test your AA alkaline batteries. I found it hard to believe when he described it. However seeing is believing and this does work! Upon returning back home I searched online and realized other people have discovered the same thing.

THE DROP TEST

Take a AA battery, hold it over a hard surface (one that you won’t worry about scratching) about 2″ up, and drop the negative flat side unto the surface. One of two things will happen:

  1. The battery will “thud” on the surface and might even stay standing up.
  2. OR the battery will “bounce” and fall over.

The batteries that thud are still good. The ones that bounce are bad.

Do not try this on your lithium ion batteries, only alkaline.

The scientific explanation for this has to do with hydrogen gas that is released as the alkaline batteries are used due to the chemical reaction inside. This creates pressure inside the battery with the trapped gas. It is this gas that causes the battery to bounce and fall over if it is a “dead” battery.

My friend and I ran the test on a number of AA batteries, sorted the solid thud ones from the bouncy ones. We then measured them all afterwards using a digitial multimeter. The test was 100% correct. We were both amazed. I am not sure if this works for other sizes (AAA, C, D) but it definitely does for AA.

I ran a search online and found a short YouTube video demonstrating this.

 

 

112 thoughts on “How To Test Your AA Alkaline Batteries by Dropping Them”

  1. Ah another helpful article, this is great I go threw so many batteries and save them to recycle now I know Ive got an easier methods of seeing if a battery can still be used.

  2. Great article! I’ve so many batteries with no simple way to check if they’re working or not so I usually end up throwing them.

    This should really help me in that regards. Thanks!

    • Isn’t this such a great way to test out random batteries you just found laying around you’re house? I think this is going to save people frustrating minutes of switching batteries to see if they have energy in them.

  3. Yes, this is quite amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this info along with the video.

    I used to rely on putting the AA battery I wanted to check in a mini-flashlight I have that takes just a single AA. If the light was dull or not working at all I would know the battery was no good. A fairly good test so long as I had that flashlight handy. But this is so much faster and, no doubt, much more accurate.

    • That’s exactly what I’ve been doing! It’s really useful to know that there’s a much quicker way of finding out!

  4. This is really good! We have lots of batteries lying around (because of our Xbox 360 controller) and we don’t really know now which ones are good anymore. Usually we just try to reuse them over and over until it’s clearly not working, which can be fairly tedious. I got funny looks though when I was trying this out.

  5. Wow, that is really interesting. Who knew that such a simple method can test batteries. Now I don’t have to buy a battery tester. Thanks!

  6. Great advice! I’ve never heard of this method before. Like a lot of other people who have already commented, I usually end up throwing out my batteries because I’m not sure if they work or not. This seems to be a good way to save money on buying new batteries unnecessarily.

  7. What a neat little trick. even though I was and still am skeptical, I’ve multiple sources telling me this trick works, so I’ll give it a try myself, hoping that I’m not disappointed.

    You’re the first one to give it some kind of scientific explanation, thanks for that.

    • Give it a try, you can grab the batteries from your television remote or something. It’s good to compare against a set of known dead batteries though, otherwise you might be leading yourself on with a false positive.

  8. Oh that’s really interesting. Too bad all my batteries are lithium otherwise I would try these. I’ll probably pass this on to other people. I never knew you could test if a battery is still “good” by seeing whether or not it bounces”.

  9. Awesome. Just tried it and it really works. Can’t wait to make a bet out of this to my friends! I really look forward to read your blogs. Keep ’em coming.

  10. Thanks for the tip! I just tested it out and it definitely works and saves me some hassle of trying to dig out the battery tester that used to come with some battery packs. I’m definitely going to have to share this with my friends!

  11. Definitely a very nifty trick but I’m not sure how effective it is. I took two alkaline batteries, not one pretty new and one rather old and they were both quite unpredictable, there was perhaps a little bit of correlation but I wouldn’t really trust it in the long run.

    • Are you just talking about the age of the batteries, or their overall charge level? I mean, batteries are usually good to hold their charge for over a decade assuming proper storage conditions.

      Try a brand new battery versus one that will barely keep a flashlight on and you should see the difference quite clearly.

  12. I think this is really neat. I have to get new bateries first to know the difference. All the batteries I have here now are old and they will all most probably bounce. In the absence of a battery tester this is something that people can do. My father doen’t have a real tester. He uses a short cable and a flashlight battery to test batteries. I should teach him this technique. Thanks!

    • Getting new batteries really helps just so you have something to compare it to. I had to also correct my father because he’s been dropping other sorts of batteries too. It only works for alkaline batteries.

      • Haha, I recall when my dad read about alkaline batteries getting some more life if you tossed them in the freezer, of course my father didn’t really read the stipulation that it only worked on alkaline batteries.

        So, several Lithium Ion batteries later, we had to replace a handful due to the cell getting ruptured during the freezing process. Wasn’t a cheap lesson.

        • At least you’ll have something funny to talk about! I guess that’s also why people try all sorts of weird fixes even though it sounds like it won’t work. The draw that it might be the real deal also is something many can’t resist. Heh.

          • Well, aren’t humans curious? I guess it’s exactly that kind of curiousity and will to have success with something that keeps people and society growing and improving.

  13. Very cool. I’m genuinely happy I found this blog because I’m really looking forward to impressing my scientist boyfriend with stuff like this. I can see it now…ME teaching him a science lesson for once. Knowing me I’ll end up botching some part of this though 😉

    One question- do you say not to try this method on lithium ion batteries because it’s dangerous to drop them, or simply because lithium batteries don’t have the hydrogen gas?

  14. Hello again! I have gotten new batteries and tested them. The thud of the new one is “deeper” than the used one. They also bounce less than the used ones… But they do bounce. They aren’t supposed to do that right? I tried dropping them on a wooden table and a marble floor. On both surfaces they bounced and fell over. Hmmmm… I think I will get an energizer this time. I think the alkaline battery I got was inferior.

    • While I’m not sure what the case might be exactly, I have noticed that batteries will occasionally hold a small charge despite not powering some devices. For example, a set of batteries will have trouble powering my xbox controller, however it doesn’t have any issues in the television remote. It might just be that the battery wasn’t completely discharged, hence the slight bounce.

  15. That’s a pretty neat trick David – and here I thought I was pretty clever shoving my batteries in to the television remote and seeing if it’ll turn the damned thing on!

    My girlfriend was pretty confused when I had assembled every alkaline battery I could get my grubby hands on in the kitchen and started dropping them. She didn’t even believe me when I explained to her how it all worked, we had to end up referring to the video above before she’d let me proceed!

  16. This is cool, and I’m not only taking your word for it but also put it into use. No more trial and error method to test my alkaline batteries as I’d been doing before. Basically, I test out batteries by putting them in a small unutilized radio set in my house which can really be time consuming.

    BTW, David; seeing is not always believing, sometimes we see wrongly.

  17. Thank You David ! Now I don’t have to waste time checking if random batteries around my house will work in my remote controls,Next time if I find random batteries lying around my house I will absolutely going to be trying and testing this method out. This very helpful method is really going to be helping me out,May I ask how you found this out?

    • So I’m not the only one who had a trusty electronic product to use as a makeshift battery tester! I mentioned earlier that I have a AA flashlight that takes a single battery and that was my tester.

      Yesterday, I did give this new method a try and it works! I was amazed to see the difference between my worn out batteries and the new ones, which wobbled only slightly but did not bounce or fall. They stood up straight and tall on the kitchen counter. I had to do it a couple of times, I got such a kick out of it.

  18. This will help me save a lot of time going from one battery to anther to check if they have any juice in it. I am not a very organized person and I put batteries anywhere so this would help but the time of me checking one by one, putting them into electronics to check. It also a neat trick i have to show my friends.

    • I do the same thing with pens and batteries. Even if the pen or battery is dead, I’ll still stick it back in the jar, or back in the drawer that it came from. I have no idea why I have this habit, but it can get rather annoying the next time I’m looking for a pen or battery. Now at least I’ll have a solution to the battery problem!

  19. This is a great tip! Sorting good batteries from bad ones is a huge hassle but this makes it much easier. Being quite unorganized, I find myself mixing my good batteries together with the bad ones and end up throwing out a lot of them because I don’t want to go through them all. This is really helpful for a person like me.

    • Yes. I am the same way. I think battery sorting laziness is probably pretty common. This way we can know if random batteries we find are good or not. In fact, it enables us to be lazy with batteries; its now so easy to tell which are good and which are not 🙂

  20. This is such a great way to test batteries! I had heard that keeping them in the refrigerator can help to extend their life span, but I haven’t had much luck with that. Now that I know this trick, I can weed out the dead ones from the ones that are still good. Thanks for sharing!

    • Someone told me if you put batteries in the sun, it will somehow keep its power better. I’ve heard so many weird things to fix or make stuff better, it could still be a hit or miss. But these exercises at least make me open to simple, strange possibilities instead of just dismissing them.

      • I heard about this too. I does work, the sun heats the chemicals in the batteries allowing it to release some energy. I would not do it though, this might cause damage to your electronics and cause a rapture in the battery which can release harmful chemicals.

        • I’ve actually practiced putting batteries in the sun in the past. And one thing I can say is, it worked without causing any harmful effect to anything. At least nothing that I was aware of. But, the refill wasn’t all that great; it worked ok few or some hours extra depending where it was used. On the hand, I’d heard about the freezing technique but never tried it ’cause of the eatables and drinkables in the refrigerator.

          • Good to know that it does work to some degree! I used to just do that when I go out and then get it back after some time. I haven’t done any definitive tests to know if they actually work though if it doesn’t work well with the Xbox controller, I can still use it with the TV remote controls.

  21. Wow, one more useful article. Loved it. I actually tried it and it is really a good idea. I had one bad battery, good that I know about it.

  22. Wow! Thanks for sharing this. Just tried it with a few old and new batteries and it works! Nothing like natural physics.

  23. Interesting test. I’m not sure that I fully understand how it works, however, I did try it a few times and it works well. I’ll have to use it regularly now, very interesting article, thank you for taking your time to provide this!

  24. This is awesome dude! Now I don’t have to keep on relying on trial and error to see which batteries are good or not. Thanks for the interesting/really helpful article. You should keep on providing these tech tips.

  25. Don’t the Duracell ones have this battery life indicator on them that shows if they are alive or not? Anyone try it?

  26. Really appreciate you posting this tip. I myself have dozens of random batteries lying around my house and it’s always a pain when I need some and have try out countless batteries to see which work. I will definitely be informing others about this helpful information as well.

  27. When I read the title of the article, at first I thought it was a joke! But after reading it whole, I think it is pretty cool! I love the science behind it. I am going to try this next time I have some batteries I doubt about – and this is likely to be soon. Thanks for sharing this!

  28. And that really works? I mean, don’t you often let a battery fall down by accident? I’ve never seen one doing anything else than falling on its side and rolling around. But I will try that for sure.

  29. I definitely need to use this method before buying any alkaline batteries to my razor machine, that thing drains the hell out of every alkaline battery I use, be it duracell or any other brand, haven’t found anyone that could last more than a month on a twice a week usage.

  30. Thanks for posting this tip. I have never heard of this before. It sounds hard to believe but I guess it makes sense. I am definitely going to try this method out the next time I get a chance. This would save a lot of time instead of trying battery after battery to find which one is good.

  31. I remember as a little kid I loved playing with my battery-powered toys. To the old Game-boy Advance to my favorite toy robot, nearly all my toys had batteries in them! Every time the toy’s lights would fade a bit, I only assumed that it was time to buy new batteries. This would have been a very helpful tip if I knew it as a child, I would have known when to buy batteries. I will definitely recall this before I buy new batteries for the TV remote. A great money saver, at the same time interesting fact. Thanks again David!

    • Yes, I can relate. I went through a lot of batteries as a child — with all my various toys as well as my portable radio — and probably even more so as an adult!

      And also, I think children would really enjoy this kind of battery testing. In fact, it would make a great classroom project for a science class. It’s something I would have enjoyed doing in school. I think it’s important to find ways to get students interested in science and especially in ways that demonstrate to them how science can help them in daily life.

      After all, look at all of us, we are adults — presumably — and we are completely captivated by dropping batteries!

  32. Thanks for such an informative article! I didn’t know this. I guess you learn something new everyday. This will save me a lot of time when testing all of my batteries. I use batteries for so much around my home and they are always dying. The dead ones are always getting mixed in with the good ones, so this is such a wonderful way to quickly test them. So efficient, and scientifically reliable! Not only does this method save time, but money as well! Thanks again for the tip!

  33. This is a very interesting article. Out of all the ways to test batteries, I would never have guessed this to be a way. I am definitely doing this test when I get home tonight. Thank you for sharing this interesting information.

  34. If I saw this randomly or on Facebook, I’d automatically say “no way” and dismiss it as another hoax. I might even submit it to Mythbusters for testing (OK, I still might do that). However, to read it on a legit site and have the author say it works is awesome! Thanks for sharing this neat tip.

  35. That’s actually a very cool and fun idea. I’ll have to try it the next time I am in need of batteries. I used to use rechargeable batteries until my charger broke. That has to be the best way to go about using electronics that require a battery source of power. I’m going to e-mail this article to my entire e-mail contacts list. You made my day!

  36. Thank you for this helpful piece of information. I am always switching out my batteries between my remote and wii controller. By dropping them on the ground, I will be able to now see if I need to replace the batteries, or keep reusing them.

  37. This is very informative. I use batteries all the time and I wish I had known how to perform this check to determine the battery life. Thanks for the post.

  38. I’ve known this trick since the Gameboy days as a kid, but I really never knew the science behind the phenomena. The explanation in this article makes perfect sense though, from a simple chemistry or physics perspective. I do recall it being a little more difficult for me to determine with AAA as they’re slightly thinner, but I’ve never tried them with a C or D. That would be an interesting little experiment to test.

  39. So I just tried this method on a bunch of batteries I found in a junk drawer and it saved me a trip to the store! It turns out I had a few that were still good, this actually works!

  40. This is a very simple test and yet their results are reliable. I like it when science peeks to everyday life, even in such minor details as we can read in this note.

    Gradually the rule of alkaline batteries are leaving in alternative forms of energy, but despite that, they are a constant in homes. Another major issue related to this note is the disposal of alkaline batteries. I do not know if it’s possible recycling of these components, but I bet for the existence of an ecological solution to end the of useful life of the batteries. Thanks for sharing the video.

    • Thank you for this helpful piece of info because I can’t afford a meter. Now I can test my batteries to see which ones are good.

  41. I am really enjoying reading these small tip articles. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t go try this immediately after reading it. Now I need some batteries to run out so I can really test it out.

  42. I’ve never known this! Very neat tip, thanks.
    Will make sorting through my collection of batteries a lot easier.

    (Of course you could always grab a voltmeter… but that’d be much more troublesome.)

  43. Hearing this at first sounds funny but I have tried it before and for some strange reason it actually works. Who would imagine? I was wondering if it is the acid or something that gives out more power when it gets hit. But one thing I know is this is not really a safe practice.

  44. Huh, who would’ve thought… This is quite the helpful life hack, I won’t have to waste so much time checking if my batteries are used or not!

    I love these ingenious little life hacks, it’s really nice to see how people can think outside the box!

  45. Woah! I never knew about this trick. Often when my batteries bounce they don’t last as long, but I never came to this conclusion. It’s just amazing how people find this stuff out, it helps our everyday lives so much!

  46. I had never heard of this. This is especially helpful because I usually test two at a time (or more) in a device such as a camera or flashlight. I end up throwing them all out when it may have been only one dead battery in there. It would be great if this worked on all size alkaline batteries.

  47. Very interesting. At the very least, you now have a quick and painless way of deciding whether the battery you got still has juice or needs replacement. When I was a kid, I seem to recall my cousins saying that you could test a battery just by tasting the tip of it with your tongue. Supposedly you’ll feel a mild ‘electric shock’ if the battery is still good. (Yes, my cousins were probably pranking me.)

  48. Now I really like this part of your blog, about all these handy tricks and you only post the coolest ones. I mean who could have thought that you can check the AA batteries whether they still have more life left or are just done.

  49. Thanks for posting this article! This can definitely be useful for the alkaline rechargeables I have as well. I usually make sure that one of their cycles are finished before charging it up for a good few hours, but always ended up wondering why they’re only at half power most of the time.

    Utilizing this drop test will definitely alleviate some doubts I’ve had in the past, and I can’t wait to inform about this to my relatives and peers! I know one that has to frantically scavenge for any batteries for their photography taking endeavors.

  50. Fantastic! I can’t believe how simple it is to test if alkaline batteries are good or not! Since I’ve read this, I’ve been playing with a couple of batteries I had lying around and it does really work!

    I really can’t believe anyone can do this without a meter! Thank you for sharing this neat, little trick with us all!

  51. Great life hack. I never heard of this method before, but as you said, “seeing is believing.” I will surely use this method from now on. Thanks David.

  52. Well, this must be the world’s cheapest tester. This information should be known generally because sometimes people may even throw batteries due to not having handy a way to test if they are still having charge. Very good bit of knowledge.

  53. Goodness!
    You wrote, “The batteries that thud are still good. The ones that bounce are bad.”
    Why isn’t this common knowledge. I have panicked during a thunder storm. My lights go out. Then I am trying to load my flashlight, and the first group of batteries I try do not work. Then I try another unopened package to access those batteries. By then something works,

  54. Never thought something like this was possible. I’m going to show it to all of my friends. This trick is simply amazing and really helpful too. I use so much of batteries for my wireless mouse and the bad ones always mix up with the good ones. Now, I’ve got a method to check if the batteries are good or not.
    Thank you for this amazing post.

    • Hahaha! Same here! My mom won’t even believe it when I tell her that checking the charge of battery is as simple as throwing it to the ground 😉 LOL. She will totally love it, she still uses AA batteries for many appliances around the house! Very cool. Before this I had no real method to test batteries, now I do.

  55. Wow, cool trick. I’ll just try this when I’m about to dispose a battery away. Could be of use in some of my wireless devices as I don’t like buying batteries almost every month. It is time to inform about this trick to others in my family! Thanks, David.

  56. This is actually useful for someone like me who has about 10 remotes that need batteries all the time. I threw the batteries on the floor and found that it really works! Although, my friend heard and thought I was dropping batteries for fun.

  57. This is a great trick, especially if you have kids around. Now there are no real reasons for buying these because nearly everything is rechargeable. I remember when Gameboys were still around and I would scavenge for any AA batteries. Had I known this nifty trick, I would have saved myself a lot of stressful moments as a kid.

  58. Nice insightful article here. Easy to try and do and I’ll be doing it after I finish with the typing of this post. If this test as you said is caused by hydrogen gas quantities and release in the batteries then theoretically this should work with all alkaline batteries that are shaped like an AA because they too have hydrogen gas. Haven’t tested it out but it seems logical enough to me.

  59. What a helpful article. I usually end up throwing both batteries out of the remote when one is failed, but I simply have no way to test which one has failed. I tried this out and it actually works wonders. Now I can recycle batteries and save money doing so.

  60. Oh geez, I’ve never heard of this. I’ll have to give it a shot to see how true it is. Thanks!

  61. Wow very helpful article. Thanks! I tend to just waste 15 minutes when trying to test out batteries bu just swapping them in and out and testing the device and the most frustrating part is I sometimes mix up the new ones and olds so it’s always a mess.

  62. Wow you can do that with batteries? I never knew that before thanks a lot! I have a bunch of batteries lying around the house and I have no idea how to check on them, this would save a lot of time trying to test each one of them

  63. Thanks for sharing this! I cool trick that I can use in future, I have never heard of this so I am sure it’s not well known, but it should be!

  64. This is truly some very useful information. People seem to figure out ever type of way to test products in order to determine if it is good or not. I have even seen some people put their batteries in some foil and then put them in the freezer to recharge them. I tried this and it actually worked.

  65. Very cool tip. It’s hard to believe it works–it’s so simple! I find myself just throwing them away when I don’t know if they’re completely dead or not but that is definitely a waste. Hopefully this tip will save me a little money. Thank you!

  66. UPDATE: Okay so I tried this little trick after my recent post. I was so surprised that it actually worked. My husband asked me what I was doing and when I told him he said “your wasting your time it is not going to work.” He got fooled because it did actually work.

  67. I’ve never heard of that before. That is an awesome little trick! I’ll have to try it out today after work. It seems to weird to work, but you and many of your commentators have verified that it in fact does. This will save me a lot of money I think, as well as keeping a teeny bit of unneeded waste out of the landfills. Thanks for the helpful tip!

  68. I had no idea that this worked! I would always use a snap circuit kit that I bought a while back to check my batteries, but this is much easier. It sounds so much like a myth, but it works with a 100% accuracy rate! Amazing.

  69. This is a pretty cool tip to find out the relative charge of batteries without a battery tester. Also, one thing I noticed is that with batteries that are out of charge, the bottom sticks out just a little bit, where as compared to a fully charged battery, the bottom doesn’t stick out at all. I don’t know if my method is completely reliable, but in my cases, it was reliable enough.

  70. Mind blowing! I have some AA batteries sitting in one of my desk drawers, been wondering if they’re still good to use, I’m glad there is a very easy method to find out for sure if they’re still good to use or totally drained. I can’t believe how useful your blog is! You always come up with the most useful information! Thanks a lot! I’ll try it right away!!! Can’t wait to see it for myself!

  71. Well that makes the battery tester I bought for 2 dollars a few days ago fairly redundant. I think this method might not work for all alkali batteries though, particularly the larger C/D sized ones. Maybe they are too heavy to bounce? Would love to see anyone try them out.

  72. That is great finding. I know now how to check and test my batteries one by one, although I don’t use a lot of the AA batteries. I remember feeling upset about not knowing which of the line of batteries on the table are the good ones and the bad ones. I used to to just put them inside the remote to check if they still work. The bad thing about this old method is if your combination consists of one bad and one good battery, you wouldn’t know, because the remote would probably still work. If you put two bad ones, then for sure it won’t work.

  73. Don’t worry, I would find this hard to believe too.

    I don’t know how many times I’ve run out of batteries at the worst possible moment. I take a lot of road trips. And before setting off, I’ve gotten into the habit of replacing my batteries with new ones because I hate running out. But unfortunately, it usually means I take out the old ones before they are done. And that’s such a waste. So, this will definitely help me save… Thanks.

  74. Thanks – that’s a very useful tip. I must confess that when I was growing up (and probably still to some extent even now) I always assumed that when you dropped an alkaline battery on the ground you would knock most of its energy out of it. And if you did it a handful of times it would lose all of its energy. Clearly Physics was never my strong point…

  75. Thanks for posting this. I saw a video about it online, but I did not understand which part – of the thud or the bouncing – meant that the batteries were still good. I didn’t follow through to find the info so I’m glad I found it here.

  76. Wow, this is very useful and I just tried it. I hope that this doesn’t damage the battery at all though. But I only tried it on old batteries. I use rechargeable ones now and it said not to try those. I’m glad it said that because I have some fully charged and dead rechargeable batteries.

  77. Hahaha now THAT is something very useful. I wonder how people discovered this method for checking the life of batteries. The discoverer must have been a very keen individual whose observational skills were at par with Sherlock Holmes haha.

  78. Cool! This is great info to have when trying to do the remote swap. Pretty sure everyone at one time or another has had that scenario where they only have one set of working batteries and like 4 devices that need them.

  79. I wish I had known this before in my life! As it is, I was a bit tired of having to buy so many batteries and then not being sure if they still worked, I switched to rechargeable lithium batteries. But they are a good investment, so 🙂 Will test it on the remote control batteries!

  80. I was taught this by my grade school shop class teacher. We’d be constantly dropping batteries that were primarily used on the testers. Why didn’t we just test the batteries with the testers? I don’t know, it’s one of the great mysteries in life, i guess. Joking aside, it’s a great tip if you don’t have a tester in your house.

  81. That is an absolutely fantastic tip that I will be passing on once I have tested it myself.
    thank you

  82. I saw this in a TV show about life hacks. It is a very interesting trick and I tested it and it was 100% accurate for me too!
    Thanks for the article, I’m reassured now.

  83. That’s convinient, strange how I’ve never heard of it before even though this article is way old and I’ve been active on the net for a loong while. While it is convinient, how often do you find yourself thinking if a battery is dead. Usually you can see it pretty well when the battery-operated device stops working as it’s supposed to.

    • You should visit lifehacks related YouTube channels/blogs more often then! This has been around for a while and I’m kind of grateful for it! I’m actually quite the economist and I’ve found this very helpful since I’m also an RC car enthusiast and batteries are essential!

  84. I’ve never heard of this method before. I’ve always got loads of AA batteries lying around that I’m not sure are still useful, so I’ll definitely be using this. It’ll save me a lot of time. Thank you for the super handy tip!

  85. Wow! I never knew this before. Prior to this, I would usually need to rely on the on screen Xbox battery indicator, which was not always reliable. I used to have a battery tester, but now I should be able to test with this method. I’m wondering how safe it is to drop batteries though. Is there a chance it will break?

  86. I can’t remember where I first heard about this, but it’s like magic isn’t it! Over the years I’ve found it unbelievably frustrating not knowing which batteries had just come out of the charger – I use re-chargeables a lot – and which were waiting to go in. This simple test solves the problem and also tells you if you have a ‘dud’ in a batch.

  87. I wish I knew about this method before automatically throwing my alkaline batteries out after a few months. I bought a toy puppy that’s powered by batteries for my cousin, and they leaked. So after that incident, I always throw my batteries out after a period of time. Thanks for this helpful article!

  88. This is a really good quick method, but I’m concerned about battery leakage. If you drop them like that, isn’t there a chance that the battery can break and then cause the alkaline liquid inside to seep out? I know it’s rare, but I’m sort of paranoid that it might happen. I heard the stuff inside is pretty toxic, so I don’t really want to take the risk. I really want to try it though, otherwise!

  89. Oh man, I wish that I could see this post two days ago, my TV control didn’t work and I was starving for some Netflix and chill, I got really desperate, but I wasn’t sure if the batteries were dead or it was a thing about my TV control, I tried everything to know what it was and I didn’t have any batteries in my house, so I ended up buying them and voilá. I think that I still have the old batteries, I’m going to do a comparison right now, thanks for sharing!

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