Quick Tip - Battery Management

OK, so you just got back from a dive, dumped your gear in the bathtub, and head out to get a beer.

Your batteries are in various states of disarray - so which ones have a full charge,and which ones need charging? Doh! You don't want to put a drained set into your camera and have it die in the middle of your next dive...

It would be easy if you could put them all in your charger, but they don't all fit. Hmm... It's easy if you only have one set of batteries, but what if you and your dive buddy have 4 or five sets???

Well, here's a super easy and pretty "aggie" way to manage it. Use a big ziplock bag and a small ziplock bag. I just keep all my batteries in the big bag. Any batteries that are not fully charged go into the smaller bag inside the big bag. As they get charged, they move to the "pool" of charged batteries. That way I can just grab four (or 8) of them out of the pool and I know they are good. It also helps if you have the same mAh rating for all of your batteries. You shouldn't mix them!

HTH

James

Good idea James.......

Here's what I do with 20+ AA's

Go to The Container Store and buy a couple of AA battery plastic holders (will hold 12 batteries.....packs easy and very neat) or use the little 2 battery holders that usually come with the batteries

I keep all my charged batteries aligned like they come out of the charger, ie: all pointing in the same direction

I keep all my used batteries aligned like they come out of the camera, ie: pointing in both directions

Works for me.........

Karl

I number each battery with a set number.... eg: battery 1-4 with a "1", battery 5-8 with a "2", battery 9-12 with a "3" etc... that way each battery gets used and recharged the same qty of times. a problem I see with the "pool" of batteries is that there is a chance that some batteries will be used more than others. not a major issue but a simple solution.

James....I've always heard not to store batteries loose because the + and -ends will touch causing problems.

I use my batteries in sets of 4 and mark the sets A, B, C and D. For storage, I use old tape back-up cases (you use what you have!) and they fit almost perfectly. Fully charged batteries are postioned vertically and used ones are positioned horizontally. Standing up = live, laying down = dead....get it? I also draw that little diagram on one side of the box in case I forget!