cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21299422
My kitchen scale is powered by a cr2032 lithium button battery. Yes, it was sloppy of me to buy the scale without seeing how it was powered. I only use the scale once or twice per month, yet these shitty button batteries only last a few months. It seems like I only get about ~6—12 measurements before the battery is dead.
WTF? This seems to defy physics. The scale automatically powers off. Of course it must always have some power because there is no ON switch. The scale detects capacitive touch taps or weight before turning on the display.
Digital calipers use a button battery which also only gives a dozen or so measurements before the battery is dead. It seems the calipers power on when the case is snapped shut. Maybe the rattling causes it to power on since it’s very touchy. Turns on with the slightest movement.
My bicycle helmet takes a cr2032, which only lasts a few months. Perhaps because it’s hard to remember to turn off the light. But still, it’s a shitty design because it has no timer or motion sensor. Or would a motion sensor itself use more power than the LEDs?
Questions:
- are button batteries a significant e-waste burden?
- are the batteries themselves really short lived, or are the appliances that use them all just poorly designed?
Button batteries suck and are absolutely e-waste, I have a small recycled sealable container just to collect dead CR2032’s. Every time I go through another one, I add another mental tally to eventually just mod any device I have that takes CR2032’s to instead take rechargeable AA’s. I’ve always suspected that the batteries are just too small to store enough energy to make the size worth it, and that devices that take them drain them on idle when the batteries are left in. I’ve had many CR2032 powered devices where they worked fine, I put them in a drawer, pull them out some weeks or months later, and it’s already dead. Battery drains without using whatever it’s in. Bad design from all directions