[Greenbuilding] Recharging disposable Alkaline batteries

[Jeff Martin]

Rob and Ben,

Thanks for detailing your experiences recharging regular alkalines. I've 
often wondered how different the 'rechargeable' alkalines (which I've 
used on and off, for years) are from the regular ones. I'm thinking that 
it's probably mostly just a difference in the way they are marketed and, 
maybe, a slightly more careful battery construction, to reduce the 
likelihood of leaking after numerous recharges.

BTW, Rob, you can get the Six Strings CD directly from Borealis Records 
(http://borealisrecords.com/products-page/six-strings-north-of-the-border/six-strings-north-of-the-border-vol-1/). 
The Borealis label hosts a lot of great Canadian folk/roots artists. If 
you want to just download the MP3s from the album, you can do that at 
Puretracks 
(http://www.puretracks.com/catalog/details.aspx?pid=indy_773958112827_MP3), 
if you're not an iTunes fan.

Enjoy!
Jeff (in Montreal - downwind of Kanata)

On 1/8/2013 7:40 PM, Benjamin Pratt wrote:
> I've also had success with the Rosewill. I haven't tried "precharging"
> yet, but I will now. The instructions, or maybe someone who reviewed
> it on Amazon, say to only recharge batteries that have not been
> depleted all the way, so that is what I've been doing.
>     I have another pointer, though. I've successfully recharged C and D
> cells with it. I just use pieces of wire--jamming the leads under the
> terminals on the charger and taping the leads to the battery. Since
> it's nearly impossible to get decent rechargeable C and D cells, my
> primary use for them is to keep them in flashlights, and those
> batteries are pretty expensive, this is a great use for the charger.
> They hold a charge longer than most rechargeables too. (Rechargable C
> and D cells, in terms of Milliamp Hours, are no better, if not worse,
> than AA cells. So until I got the Rosewill, I would just use
> rechargeable AA cells and an adapter.)
>     Finally, I have no idea if the Rosewill is better than conventional
> charger. My primary charger before the Rosewill was and older, slow to
> charge, one with a light for each battery (I believe batteries last
> longer when charged slowly). So the Rosewill has made that one
> redundant. I suppose I could do some tests between those two chargers,
> but it may take several batteries to find out anything conclusive.
>     BTW- I Iive in Minnesota and work in Wisconsin. I can buy and mail CD's too!
> Ben
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 6:18 PM, RT <archilogic at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>> Some time ago (more than a year I think) Reuben started a thread asking
>> about a battery charger that was "on sale" at Amazon.com  that was
>> purported to be capable of recharging disposable alkaline batteries.
>>