Talk to us about batteries - for a chance to win £500 and free Energizer batteries!

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

Energizer wants to talk batteries with you!

Do you simply buy the cheapest, or are you a battery connoisseur? Are you a power planner or a power player? Do you leave batteries in when appliances are out of use for a long time? Or do you take them out (and then lose them)?

Please do post and tell us on this thread.

And also feel free to share your best battery tips - or your worst battery disasters - particularly if they're Christmas-related.

Energizer's expert Clare Burke will be monitoring this thread and then coming on to answer your questions, and provide lots of info to help you save money and ensure you have the right power source for all the gadgets in your home this Christmas.

Everyone who adds a question, tip or comment to this thread (or who shares a battery disaster) will be entered into a prize draw to win £500.

The draw will be made on 10 December and the winner's cheque will be mailed out, via special delivery, on 11 December, so it'll definitely arrive in time for Christmas.

And that's not all! The first 100 Mumsnetters who post a question, comment, battery tip or battery disaster on this thread will receive free Energizer batteries worth up to £15.99.

In order to claim your batteries, you need to complete your details, including a UK address here

Please include an indication of what type of batteries you would like or the type of product you need batteries for.

Your details will only be used to send out the batteries and will be destroyed after the mailout. You will not receive any additional marketing.

Many thanks - and good luck!
MNHQ

our recycling centre is a pain- you have to park up...then trot round the site looking where they have the various skips...just as you get used to the layout- they move a skip!

I'd happily dump batteries, if they had something like a 'postbox' as you drive in or out- like a ticket machine at a carpark..themn I could just wind down the window...and chuck them in.

After realising that cheaper batteries are a false economy we now only buy Duracell/Energiser. Usually stock up in one big job lot (strangely around this time of year) when there are offers on.

We have been looking into rechargeable batteries.

Always leave batteries in stuff.

Have been known to pretend we have no batteries/they've run out on particularly annoying toys.

We take all used batteries to DS1's Primary school, they have some sort of appeal for them.

I tend to buy high-power rechargeable ones (Energizer I think, oddly enough!).

Battery disasters? When working at Boots I dropped a 4-pack of batteries into the counter cache thing where you put the excess notes. Completely buggered it up as we couldn't get the damn things out.

I usually use Duracell, because they seem to be on sepcial offer somewhere almost al the time. I've no idea what all the different types mean though - Ultra, or whatever.

Before children we only ever used rechargeable batteries, but quickly discovered that most kids toys demand to be fed new batteries - rechargeables simply dont' have the oomph required after a few recharges. I wish they did, I hate trying to recycle used batteries correctly - in fact I've given up now, cannot find anywhere local that'll take them

I'm in no way organised enough to remove batteries from appliances that will nto be used for a while. I have tried to teach DS that if he turns off a toy when he stops playing with it, it might work the next time he wants to play with it. Not totally successful that yet!

I always seem to have loads of AAA batterries in the drawer, but AA always run out. Possibly because when we do buy more, about 15 toys get produced needing replacements.

I check toys I buy for battery type, and will not buy them as a present if they require something unusual ( ie not AA or AAA!) as we have had very dissappointed child who can't paly with new toy immediately because we don't have the right size battery in stock. I always intend to give batteries with a toy, but usually forget ...

We normally buy named (as apposed to asdas cheap ones) when needed.

I would love to know why don't battery companies get in contact with toy suppliers to provide batteries in the toys to begin with (am thinking of being up the shop christmas eve trying to buy the batteries needed!).

It may cost slightly more, but would make things a lot easier for the customer.

I tend to buy whats on offer, though prefer duracell or energizer.

I always have a big supply because I'm an obsessive hoarder very organised!

I never, ever take the batteries out of things when I'm not using them, which is silly when I remember this.....

When I was younger I had a torch which had all the gunk come out of it because the batteries had been in there too long. I remember holding up the greeny-goo and saying "Mum, whats this stuff?" and watching her face drop......

Our council does accept used batteries in the recycling which is great though I don't know what happens to them?

i also wish that those 'button cell batteries' were commonly available in multi packs...theres a size that seems very commonly used in toys that make noise...and whereas in the cheapy shops i've seen cards of a variety of cell batteris...of which i will use 4 and the rest will rot.... it would be great to buy a card of "LR14" or whatever it is i always need!!! (sometimes i buy a cheap £1 toy...just to get the button cell batteries that it comes with!!!)

Oh, if buying battery operated toys for Christmas, put the batteries in before wrapping! Saves a whole lot of hassle on Christmas day. I also remove 95% of the plastic tags holding the toy in too.

Duracell seem to me to last longest but dh buys whatever is by the till or is on offer.

My pet hate is the way that you always have to find a tiny screwdriver to remove the cover to replace batteries, although it probably saves me a fortune as it means I leave changing the batteries until they have completely stopped working.

Don't have rechargeable as I have in my head that they don't really save money or work all that well so would be interested in what other MNers have found.

I get big packs of button cell batteries on ebay. Last time I got 50 LR14 ones for £2.50.

Battery related disaster - having well meaning relatives buy battery operated toys for the dcs with no batteries included and the battery types are those ones you never use - like bloody watch batteries or those thick camera type batteries.

Cue whinging children and a desperate search all over the house for anything that might have a similar battery.

I'd like to see a battery invented that can be used for everything. A transformer battery, how about it?

i hate those "thick camera type batteries"...you mention!!!!
They are like AA...but shorter and cost bloody £££££'s more!!!

Only ever buy Duracell and Energizers oh and the rechargeable ones, but they never hold enough charge - meh!

Spend every Christmas Eve carefully opening boxes and inserting batteries, carefully reclosing boxes and wrapping. Tell you what though, the whole thing would be much quicker if we could do without those cable tie thingies attaching toys to cardboard - bane of my life!

I tend to buy either Duracell or Energizer - which ever is on offer...

Obviously my toys get priority over ds's...

Ds (2.5) is that used to batteries being an everyday thing that he is always looking for where the batteries go on random objects like a ball or the cushion.... kids of today eh??

I tend to buy duracell if I can afford it, but I'm sure I'm a sucker for marketing, and just assume they are the best.

My battery tip is this: NEVER leave a dropped battery on the floor, or your dog may just see it as a tasty snack, and then vomit the carbon fromit all over a three hundred quid cream rug from John Lewis. Just don't.

Mrs Forgetful, what are they called? I hate them with a vengeance, why can't they take AAs instead? I'm sure they have all these different battery types just to get people to spend money.

I normally buy what's on offer but I sent dd and ds to get batteries and they came back with a pack of AA (4 of them) which cost £15! They were rechargeable ones and we didn't have a recharger . So then we had to buy a recharger which I ordered online and managed to buy the most massive one that takes every type of battery yadda yadda, anyway, has been a most interesting experiment and we now have lots of rechargeable batteries and then some that sit in their space ship (as the kids call the giant recharger) charging . Silly things.

We mainly use rechargeable battieries for anything that takes AA. Although I did buy some Sony non rechageable batteries as they were very cheap in Sainsbury's - something like £1 for 8 AA or AAA's! I alwys mean to take batteries out of toys when I shve them to the back of the cupboard becasue I can't tkae the noise anymore but generally forget!

I always use rechargeable batteries. There aren't enough recycling points for the one use ones.

I had no idea you were supposed to take batteries out of appliances you weren't using! What are you supposed to do with torches that you use for emergencies only?

I am terrible with batteries. I usually buy a big multipack of AA (either duracel or energizer because for osme reason my brain thinks that branded batteries are better ) but I never have any spares of other sizes and always forget to buy them. I currently have the same set of AAAs being swapped between remote controls as needed. You'd have thought I'd learn.

I have a charger and some rechargable batteries but I always forget, I think they are only really useful for things that you use regularly that use a lot of batteries as they don't seem to hold power for very long unused and take a long time to charge so they can't really be used when you realise something has died and you need a battery now.

I bought my rechargables a fair few years ago though, do better exist these days?

I never emember to take batteries out. Luckily the worst that happened was a battery leaked in my camera but only after I had bought a new digital one.

I don't recycle batteries I think you can take them to the household waste site for recycling so I suppose I could store them up to take once a year or so but it is a bit of a pain when we have collection for everything else.

I buy whichever branded ones are on offer/cheapest (Duracell do lots of BOGOFs). We do have some rechargeable ones, but they don't seem to fully charge up any more (did hear a theory that they "learn" how much power they are supposed to have, so if you don't run them down fully, they don't charge up fully, something like that anyway).

Had a battery related disaster a couple of years back when a cordless phone dribbled battery liquid over the kitchen worksurface and stripped the surface of the formica off, as well as partly dissolving the phone

Cheap batteries don't last as long as branded ones, but I've never worked out the hour to pound ratios to see if perhaps the cheaper ones are beter value.