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Note, this is a work in progress. This page was drafted by John Ashcraft on 3-2-2012

Testing

Gloves should be worn. (disposable latex/vinly are recommended.)
Test only non-rechargable alkaline batteries.
Auto-recycle any dirty, damaged, ugly or corroded batteries.
A battery is considered good enough for reuse when the meter (provided by the warehouse) shows the indicator past the 2nd 'O' on good. Go/od
"good" batteries should be set aside for bundling and labeled as good. If these cannot be bundled immediately they should be delivered to the warehouse by the end of a shift.
non-rechargeable batteries that do not pass this test should be segregated, labeled and returned to the warehouse for recycling.

Bundling

Gloves should be worn. (disposable latex/vinly are recommended.)
Retesting batteries immediately before bundling is a good Quality control practice.
For ease of handling and sale batteries should be rubberbanded together in the following configurations.

Bundle Sizes

AAA in bundles of 7
AA in bundles of 7
C In bundles of 4
D in bundles of 3
9v single

Sales

Labling

Used Batteries
Sold As-is! These used batteries have been tested and have a “good” remaining charge. They are great for bike lights etc. 
Used/mismatched batteries are not recommended for expensive electronics. 
Use only at your own risk

Theory

About 15% of the alkaline batteries we pull from gizmos still have a high charge. Currently we pay about a dollar a pound to dispose of them at metro Hazardous Waste.

We have some cheap battery testers that indicate good/bad. Receiving was good at sorting batteries for reuse. The store was selling them well (bundled 5-10/$1) for a couple of weeks in 2011 until Tony put some "good" ones in a digital camera and it displayed a message that the batteries needed to be replaced.

Fancy electronics may be sensitive to batteries that are not fully charged, or mismatched pairs of batteries. Bike lights and many other electronics are not.

Concerns

Test under a Load

Our current tester may not test under a load.

Find out.
Testing under a load is important. a battery with high voltage may have little charge.
Santiago has offered to build a tester, research purchasing a ready made one.

Expiration date/safety

Santiago has expressed concern that expired batteries are more likely to leak.

Investigate the hazards of expired batteries.

Alkaline Battery Reuse

Contents