Revenge of the battery hack - 32 AAs inside a 6v Lantern Battery. BUT IS IT PHONEY?!

I don't know much about today's battery industry, and this comment isn't specifically addressed to the pricing policies of batteries, but related enough, I think. My grandmother used to work in a battery factory in Wisconsin (back when stuff was still made in the US...). They made blank batteries like the ones that fill the 6V, which were then wrapped in a variety of labels: RayOVac, Duracell, etc. WHich is to say, there was no difference in the batteries sold by different brands -- they were exactly the same, even though some brands were cheap and others expensive.

Since then, some new technologies have been introduced, like batteries specifically for electronics, that I assume are proprietary, so maybe this doesn't go on as much anymore (though I doubt it: like everything else, I'm sure batteries are made in a handful of Chinese factories that contact out to all the major companies).

ever thought that 32 batteries don;t equal to 9volts?
and that they can;t fit in there?
and it's just kind of sarcasm?

First, 32 batteries could actually fit snuggly inside the 6v housing, They would need to be arranged in 2 layers of 4x4. Second, I asked a few physics wizards that I know and they said that it is very possible to create a 6v battery from 32 AAs. It's all how you wire them together.

And that made me stop in my tracks. I didn't see any wiring in the box. So I took apart my 6v and found 4 1.5v batteries, not 32 AAs. But, does that mean this is fake or true? I suspect it may actually be fake after all, as the place is called gagfilms (boy, how did I miss that one?) so egg is now all over my face. Until I hear a definitive BS called on this, I'm hopeful it may still work. And I do think battery companies have a lot to hide. But as this mythbusters often say, this one's busted.

Nice catch guest, I'm the first to admit when I'm wrong and have edited the article accordingly.

Why not use rechargeable batteries? They've improve a lot over the years. They're best for the environment and the pocketbook.

You're both spot on. I recently heard a story in which an optemetrist stood up at a contact lens convention and asked "so what's the difference between daily and monthly disposables?" to which the guest speaker replied "good question...do we have any other questions?" I'm paraphrasing of course, but the upshot is that there's really no difference at all. 

I bought a Rayovac Heavy Duty 6V and after cutting open the plastic casing I found four D cell diameter batteries that were about 1 1/2 times the length of a normal D cell.

Upon further investigation, I have discovered that the 32 AA batteries can be found in the 6V available from Walgreens.

The question is why use AA's or C's, or other batteries to make up 6 Volt batteries? The answer is production run costs and simple economics.

I will tackle the latter answer first. The reason why AA's cost so much in comparison is because the market will pay it. Why should companies charge less, if we pay this amount?

I know it's simplified, but it is the bottom line.

Now to the more technical issue, production costs. The cost equation for a battery can be broken down into raw material costs, assembly costs, packaging costs, transportation costs (to get product to market), marketing costs, and finally any product mark-up along the way. As can be seen, the raw material and assembly costs are just a small part in the overall process.

The assembly line (at least the one I am familiar with, again back in Wisconsin) had three parts. The first part mixed the chemicals that make up the inner parts and fed into the battery case (i.e., assembly of the battery inards). The chemicals, depending on whether alkaline or normal are all the same, the only cost difference would be in the housing and other parts of the base battery, plus the volume that could be produced per hour. Now here is one of the cost savers when it comes to the 6 Volt. Larger Batch runs are more efficient than smaller batch runs (i.e., setup time for line factors in). If a line can produce a product for both AA's and 6 Volts, let's say, it would be more cost effective. There is no difference at this point, other than the small incremental cost of additional raw materials per battery for the 6 Volt. The raw material cost would most likely, however, be negligible compared to production run costs.

The second part of the assembly line is the wrapping. This is where as another person pointed out the Ray-O-Vac, Kmart, or Wal-mart, etc. label gets put on the battery. My guess is here there would be a little additional cost for this portion of the line, but as long as you can sequence your day/shift runs properly so as not have assembly machine down-time, you could have a proper queue on this segment of the line.

The final line segment in the plant is the bubble-pack line. This is where the batteries get packed into their end-market packaging (e.g., 4-Paks, 8 packs, etc.) and the packaging get put into boxes for shipping. This is where the AA's and AAA's have higher costs since there is more handling of the individual units as compared to 6 Volts where are packed directly into boxes (most likely -- I only worked on a study during college regarding the bubble-pack line of AA's and AAA's). So, here you would add an additional cost factor into the assembly process due to the additional machine and handling time the smaller batteries require.

I hope this helps in understanding the plant costs. I have no idea what the marketing and transportation costs may be.

Cheers,
TC

One thing I noticed is that the original video compared 4 AA Alkaline batteries for $5 with one 6V Heavy-Duty for $5, and claimed that you could get substantial savings by using the 32 AA cells in the 6V battery as AA batteries.

The chemistry with Alkaline and Heavy-Duty cells is vastly different, and there's a reason why Energizer and DuraCel advertise on the long-life and high power of their batteries. The packaging always compares their performance to heavy-duty batteries.

Even if the 6V battery did have 32 AA Heavy Duty batteries, I wouldn't want to use them in my electronics, for they will surely lack the juice.

opened a Duracell + got 4 branded D batteries,
opened an Eveready an got double sized cells.

What has the AAs?

Since each AA is nominally 1.5V, it takes four in series to reach 6V, but lantern batteries need amps to go with those volts in order to power the big devices. This could be done by wiring in parallel eight such groups of four. Batteries connected positive-to-negative will add their voltage but provide the same amperage (current). Batteries connected positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative will add their amperage but provide the same voltage.

Now, just because the physics and math work out, it does not mean that all (or even any) 6V lantern batteries are made this way, just that you cannot use that argument to prove that it's fake. You must actually cut open different brands to see whether the second video is typical. The first video shows that the wiring must be cut, but it does not show all of it in detail, and there's an edit point between that point and the dramatic dump onto the table. It certainly leaves me suspicious.

Here's another example of consumers paying what the market will post: I buy a LOT of AA batteries to power the quartz-movement promotional clocks that I build. In bulk, I pay about 40c each for Energizer ProCells; these coming from the same company where I purchase the clock movements. (That would average $1.60 a blister 4-pack.) Occasionally, I will have the same batteries sent to me for free (usually 15-20) when I've bought a large order of clock parts.

I found the hard way that this hack is NOT TRUE! I too should have known better when I saw the "GAGFILMS.COM" production logo. I thought, maybe it is true, but sadly, it is NOT! Save your money and DO NOT TRY THIS HACK, unless you want to wast a perfectly good 6 volt battery and the money to buy it.

Where are the wires for the battery moron... To many batteries for just 2 wires.. FAKE

I just discovered if everyone that belives this hoax would cram a slotted screwdriver into the base of their cranium and pop off the top of their head they would find within 32 AA cell batteries.....minus the wiring.

If you examine the video closely, you can see the batteries arranged all plus side up and then dumped upside down so that they land all minus side up. Even if you could fit them, stacked 4W x 4D x 2H, as shown, would yield a long lasting 3 volt battery. The orientation would have to alternate in such a way as to create 4 parallel sets of 4 AAs connected in series. Wires aren't necessary. Does your flashlight have wires? Since the video clearly shows the batteries aren't arranged correctly, whether they fit or not becomes secondary. If you freeze frame on the segment where the "wires" are supposedly cut, you can see too many batteries facing up, where half of them would need to face down. The real question is, did the gag meister do this on purpose? Or was he just not smart enough to be more convincing?

It is the packaging that drives up the cost. The extras that go into each AA battery, such as the metal casings with all the fancy little graphics.
Each little 1.5 volt button cell on the shelf comes in its own package, and may cost around 2 bucks each. You can get one of the small 12 volt batteries, and find 8 1.5 volt buttons inside. This is because it is cheaper for the company to put eight 1.5 volt button batteries into one package, than it is 1 button per each package on the shelf. Less packing material = less expenses for the manufacturer (as well as the reseller, in terms of space).

Check out this website. You can see what is inside a lantern battery. Also, it's dangerous to disassemble batteries so be careful!

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/006.2/index.html

I have taken many 6 volt lantern batteries apart of many brands to get the carbon rods out of the zinc carbon types. I have never seen AA's inside, only D's or the F size batteries. It would be a manufacturing nightmare to get 32 AA's wired together properly. One time I took a Rayovac 6 volt apart and found four Duracell D batteries inside complete with their built in battery testers but no nub on the positive side. Most cheap 6 volts are made in China now and if you look on the bottom you can see slight indents in the plastic that show where the separators are inside the battery that keep the four cells inside from touching.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/humor/batteryhack.asp

This is a good 'description' ....

A local radio station is taking one apart on the morning show tomorrow. I will post what we find out. I will also be getting a Walgreens battery to test the theory out. I have a 1 yr old so batteries are the households livelyhood right now.

sure you get a ton of AA's out of a 6v battery but keep in mind whats the Mah of these individual batteries, because thats what i pay for when i buy a duracell coppertop or an energizer lithium. but if you really want aa's that badly head over to the 99 cent store where you can buy a bran new pack of crappy aa's that wont last 2 days.

Check what is inside a battery power drill. If it is an 18Volt drill the battery pack will have 12 rechargeable double A batteries inside...Open up a worn out one.

I see people are still killing innocent 6v batteries over this. Do the math people, if there were 32 1.5volt batteries wired up inside the battery total would be 48v, not 6v. No surprise there are 4 1.5v batteries in there (4 x 1.5 = 6).

Obviously, the 6v battery that contains 4 x 1.5 D cells is a commonly known configuration called "babushka batteries" or "matryoshka batteries" also known as Russian nesting/nested batteries, which refer to a set of dry cells of decreasing size placed one inside the other. Now, cut open each 1.5v and see what's inside!