digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

Why I Never Pay For AAA Batteries

pfadvice.com — If you use a lot of batteries for high powered electronic devices, then you likely want to purchase a good set of rechargeable batteries, but if you need a lot of batteries that don ’t require a long life, this may be just what you’ve been looking for.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • dreamlayers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14It's not hard to take the film out yourself and keep the camera. The film can be submitted for developing just like film from a non-disposable camera. There are other useful parts in the camera besides the battery. I used one of the lenses for extreme closeups with my webcam, and there are useful electronic components in the flash section.
    • kingfoot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7like the battery for the flashbulb? good *cough*taser buddy with a taserglove*cough* times.
    • savingadvice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32It's actually about AA batteries - the original post was made late at night and I initially wrote AAA - then went back a couple hours later and realized I had made a mistake and changed it to the correct AA - it seems the mirror has the original before I edited and the person the submitted it did so before I edited it. Not their fault in the least - totally mine. My apologies for that...

      edit - this was actually for the comment below...
    • colpridenyc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Why wouldnt you want batteries to last long?
    • kingfoot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2another late night savingadvice?
    • xrisnothing, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Mixing and matching batteries = asking for trouble.
    • TNHitokiri, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4wth? why would you ever be using disposable cameras on a regular basis? Isn't that idea kinda hypocritical to the entire concept of saving money by salvaging unused parts?
    • aerofan897, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"I used one of the lenses for extreme closeups with my webcam"

      .... uhhhhhhh.......
    • dreamlayers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2What's "uhhhhhhh" about the closeups? I found that if I put one of the lenses from a disposable camera in front of the lens of my webcam I could focus on very close objects. I wasn't streaming this online, I was just taking photos. Eventually I found that I could do even better if I instead disassembled the webcam and unscrewed the lens as far as it could go without falling off. I took photos where strings looked like thick fuzzy ropes.
    • cyclonesworld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Disposable cameras make a great home made stun gun just btw :)
    • mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@TNHitokiri:

      i don't believe he's using disposable cameras all the time, he's just going to film development places that frequently develop disposable cameras, then asking that they keep all the batteries from the cameras. then he goes and collects whatever batteries were accumulated. simple concept, really, just most people are too uncomfortable asking for such a service.
    • belfastbiker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"It's not hard to take the film out yourself and keep the camera."

      As someone who's well familiar with a darkroom bag for many years, and also well familiar with the electric shock it's all to easy for a nood to get off a naked disposable camera, are you seriously suggesting it's easy for a normal user to get at the film without accidental exposure or shock?


    • luxuning07, on 07/18/2008, -0/+0An AAA battery is a dry cell-type battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. It is also classified as LR03 , 24A (ANSI/NEDA), R03, MN2400, AM4, UM4, HP16, or micro. As an AAA battery is composed of a single chamber, it is more correctly referred to as a cell. Technically, a battery is a collection of cells working together, such as in a car battery

      However, with the increasing efficiency and miniaturization of modern electronics, many devices which previously were designed for AA batteries—remote controls, computer mice, and keyboards—are being replaced by models that accept AAA cells.

      Recent charge variants include AAA cells with embedded circuity — USBCell with built-in charger and folding USB connector within the AAA format, enabling the battery to be charged by plugging into a USB port without a charger.

      http://www.super-camcorder-battery.com/
  • garble7, on 10/12/2007, -10/+44the story is about AA batteries
    • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12enthralling.
    • Sblader5, on 10/12/2007, -1/+109maybe thats why he never pays for AAA
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4So, why is this guy dugg up? If you read the article, you'll see that he's wrong. It IS about AAA.
    • arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3He's right, it is AAA.
    • Terc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@elnerdo
      Nope, it's about AA batteries from disposable cameras
  • DDoSAttack, on 10/12/2007, -30/+3In the sue happy world we live in, I can see this being a litigation bomb waiting to explode.

    What they are doing:
    The author gets old used batteries from 3 different stores The stores obtained the old used batteries out of old used disposable cameras. The author's wife sells Hello Kitty merchandise that sometimes require AAA batteries. They supply the buyer the old used batteries with the Hello Kitty items that she sells.

    What I can see happening:
    Consumer purchases Hello Kitty thing from this couple. Couple supplies old used batteries with Hello Kitty thing that consumer purchased. Consumer is a Hello Kitty fan and at some point puts the Hello Kitty item in her lap. The old used batteries leak... lips get burned with old used battery acid... author and store which supplies old used batteries get sued for all they're worth.
    • Crossmenjeff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21or a giant meteor hits the earth and wipes us all out. if we're generating scenarios that play on every bad thing that can happen. Even new batteries could do that, and the consumer would never know.
    • Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26I thought you made a typo with "lips get burned with old used battery acid", but since you're talking about a woman with a leaky thing on her lap, i can't be too sure now.
    • mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4you must be one of those lawyers with the commercials that run on local tv late at night.
  • firefox15, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3This was a lot of fun years ago. You could charge the camera flash and hit the camera underneath the film to fire a flash without taking a picture. Of course, that was a few years ago. Who uses disposable cameras anymore?
    • nunquam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I do, whenever I know the night's gonna be messy (college events usually) I pick up a disposable in the chemist rather than risk loosing/breaking my digital. A nice plus is that an second set of prints is only about €1.50 extra so I get to give people copies of photos they were in.
    • teamgwho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well I don't let my 8 year old handle my $500 digital camera. actually I do, *when he's with me* but when he goes to parties or on field trips, they are perfect.
    • rimco, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2Wow, your 8-year-old goes to parties? Dang, teaching them young these days, aren't they?
    • steelmaverick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@rimco

      Yeah, dude. He's pimpin the other 8 year olds at them birthday parties.
    • MBison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2you know, you could probably get an old digital camera for less than a disposable one on ebay.
  • nerditup, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8merry christmas novaneil, ikak, and all of digg
    • novaneil, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Merry Christmas to you too, Nerditup.
      Merry Christmas, Ikak.
      And Merry Christmas Kevin Rose.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2This story is really about how quickly the DIGG EFFECT happens!
    • habitat2050, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5yeah, if Ive learned anything from visiting digg its how bandwidth works
  • Metatron197, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11http://duggmirror.com
    • xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The websites batteries must've run out...
    • DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2so basically save the AAA batteries from crappy disposable cameras, did I miss anything?
    • Ebeniz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yes you did... RTFA
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Digerati...yeah, it is even worse than that. The article says to make a fool of yourself by asking a developer to save the batteries for you.

      Don't know about you, but my pride is worth more that that. IF you need cheap ass batteries, you can get 4 packs at Walmart for under $1. And if you REALLY need a lot of them, you can get cheap 24 or even 48 packs for less than $10.
  • desiprodigy, on 08/01/2008, -12/+4Since the link isn't working.......
    MERRY CHRISTMAS diggers
  • xobecide, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Whenever I see a disposable camera, I think of Kevin Rose's dark tip a loooong time ago about rigging the battery and extraneous parts to a glove and giving people heavy shocks. My friends didn't hook it up to a glove, but they do make great booby-traps.
    • Dhalgren, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19so they hooked it up to their boobs?
    • colonelpanic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I actually tried that dark tip out. Works well. However it can be painful and ive even been able to make a very small crude weld with it.
    • Bullsnot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5See that will teach you to go touching other peoples boobs.
  • bijan814, on 10/12/2007, -41/+1But echargeable batteries are expenisive, and the device it self is expenive too. ITs like $40. ITs only wirth it, if you use a lot of batterise, which I doubt most people use. BTW the link does not work

    --------------------------------------------------------------
    http://www.bestcreditrates.net
    • BryanJK, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Umm, wtf? Stop freaking advertising ***** in your post... Rechargable batteries can be found in many places, very cheap... $15 or so for 16AA/AAA if you look in the right places...
    • bijan814, on 10/12/2007, -26/+1There is nothing wrong on having my website in my signture.
    • wizgha, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Absolutely. Nothing.
    • cjmovie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Digg has no signatures, cool?
    • topato, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18HALO I LIEK TO KEEP MY WEBSIGHT IN MY CIGNATURE.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      WWW.SPAMFAGS.ORG
    • invader, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"[...] in my signture."

      The thing is that digg comments don't have signatures. You typed or pasted that in your comment.

      Because what you put in the last part of your comment was completely irrelevant to the topic, your comment should be buried.
      Because you are advertising -- or more accurately in this case: spamming -- in your comment, you deserve to have the "Block/Report this User" button next to your user name clicked. Digg comments are not advertising space. Go find a forum that has 'signatures' and advertise there.
  • OdinsFury, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4Buried. How did this make it to the front page?
  • OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7This is a long personal story about a guy who found out that you can extract AAA batteries from a disposable camera. This doesn't apply to the majority of digg users because most of use are using digital cameras these days...
    • ggko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I still use AA batteries in all sorts of stuff:
      remote controls (though these get the "dead" batteries from other stuff.)
      wireless mouse & keyboard
      flashlights
      portable game systems
      old electronic games that I collect
      alarm clock
      "disposable" digital cameras I've hacked for re-use
      CD and MD players (and don't iPod haters fault its enclosed battery versus the AA that theirs use?)
  • KenYN, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Err, that smells like a pay-for-diggs article - look at the "Supporting Sites" at the bottom of the page.

    Anyway, what a cheap-skate! If you're needing to scrounge for AAA batteries you've got bigger problems than just the need for AAA batteries.
    • savingadvice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Believe me, it wasn't a paid-for digg article...if I thought it was digg worthy I would have submitted it myself. I also know my current server can't handle digg (something that I'm changing in the new year) so I had no desire to have an article hit the front page of digg. It was simply an article about how to get free batteries if you happen to need a lot of them...nothing more. nothing less.
  • TheOther1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I never pay for AA or AAA batteries either. I just tell my PHB my pager died and I need another box of [whichever type I need] batteries.
  • rushoffailure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5That's funny, maybe I should write a story called "why I never pay for disposable cameras".
  • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11He must be running the website with AAAs because I can't load it.
  • reiggin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2As someone who works as a manager at a pharmacy chain (with a 1 hour photo), I can tell you that we keep the AA batteries from the cameras ourselves before sending the rest of the disposable camera off for recycling. We're not going to hand out free batteries to folks when we would much rather them by the packs of batteries over on the nearby shelf. It's called protecting your profits.

    If you want the batteries from the cameras, pop them out yourself before dropping them off for developing and ask your friends and family to do the same.

    Oh, and by the way, that warning right near the battery compartment that says "Do Not Open!!! RISK OF SHOCK!"? It's B.S. That's just the camera manufacturers' way of dissuading you from jacking the battery.
  • AeroSquid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I work in a drugstore and the camera guy always has a bagful of AA batteries he keeps from the disposables. I doubt he would give any to the public but I grab them from time to time. Some are better than others charge wise.
  • DRTED, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Never use a disposable camera...it captures the models soul, then you throw it away, the birds eat it at the garbage dump, then ***** it out, and it lands in the ocean, the ocean then turns into rain, the rain then lands on large amounts of land, and your soul and essence is devoured by thousands of undeserving people.
  • ectocooler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5this is so stupid. what a cheap moron. this isn't news.
  • orbanj, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3i ***** HATE wordpress. now digg me up.
  • vhold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Favorite quote: "With these circumstances, it makes sense for us to get free batteries."

    I'm going to try that next time I go to a bar "With these circumstances, it makes sense for me to get free beer."
  • blowhole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My mom works at a hospital. She once explained to me that for liability reasons they swap in fresh batteries for each procedure. Don't want the equipment failing in the middle of a surgery, right? Dunno what is 'officially' supposed to happen to the old batteries, but every once in a while she comes home with hell of batteries is all I'm saying.
    • cr3ative, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Which procedure is that? Am I running off AA batteries?! OH GOD!
    • ggko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My cousin's wife is a dentist and now & then she gives us a bag of trial size floss samples. ok, it's not exactly batteries, but I suppose it could've been a bag of teeth... wait... what?...
  • Rooker156, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3this really isnt news. i work in a photo lab and frankly if someone asked me for batteries, i would say no, because its not worth the trouble or breaking apart a disposable camera for 10 cents worth of crappy batteries. also, the film is on one side, that breaks easily, and the battery is on the other,and its a lot harder to get out. thats why we just throw the whole thing in the camera recycling bin.
    • reiggin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We keep a decent stock of batteries out of the cameras but they are only for use in the store electronics (e.g. wall clocks, labelers). We're not going to give away items that we also sell (for profit).
  • witte, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1'this trick isn't for everyone..., but here's how it works. Go to your local drug store and ask the clerk to reach into his garbage and find any batteries he may have discarded and give them to you for free.'


    Thanks for the tip, but I think rechargeable batteries are the way to go.
    • cr3ative, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Not if you have to give them away constantly, as the article.
  • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Take strobe assembly from old disposable. Mount in rear window of automobile. Attach remote switch. Deter tailgaters.

    Add inexpensive SCR to strobe circuit to make it repeat.

    Insert modified SCR strobe repeater from disposable camera to a model rocket for night launches.

    Tie same to a batch of helium balloons. Can be seen in the night sky for miles.

    Look out for those capacitors. They charge to 300 to 600 volts, depending on camera.

    Use same to annoy both friend and foe.
  • XTheEliminator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This guy is aware that you can buy bulk lots of 5,000 dry cells from china for about 10c a cell, right? Digging them out of disposible cameras is quite simply ludicrous.
    • gelu88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's still $500 worth of batteries. if his wife isn't doing that high volume of business then its a waste of money for him. As long as its not costing him anything and the store managers are fine with it, there is no reason for him to buy any batteries.
  • ziffel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is one of the dumbest diggs I've seen make it to the front page. It boils down to "go around and beg for them".
    • DelSolMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree. I always resist going and adding "this is the lamest story" in the comment section but this one is pushing it.
  • vixenk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"As someone who's well familiar with a darkroom bag for many years, and also well familiar with the electric shock it's all to easy for a nood to get off a naked disposable camera, are you seriously suggesting it's easy for a normal user to get at the film without accidental exposure or shock?"
    In my experience, the camera automatically rolls up the film completely into its canister after the last picture is taken. And if you get shocked, it isn't that bad - in fact, the shock from a disposable camera is the mildest shock I've ever gotten from any electrical appliance.
  • person, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Excellent way to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.... Give those batteries a second life before retiring them. We've gone to film places to get film containers. It's really handy.
  • alceria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I used to work at a photo lab in college. The batteries are always removed and sent in for recycling. But usually the employees can grab big stacks of them. I always had a huge box full of them. The original post is a bit off though, 99% of the batteries in disposable camera are AA not AAA. The AAA ones are few and far between, but generally AA is more useful anyway.

    FYI, when you advance film on a disposable camera you are actually rewinding it back into the canister. So you can easily take a screwdriver to your camera when you are done with it and remove the film yourself, and pop out the battery. On occasion, you will give yourself a nice shock though, so watch out for the capacitor.

    The batteries are usually some weird foreign brand with funny names like "Golden Power", but they lasted pretty good in my portable cd player and other electronics.
  • rouslan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another way to get longer life out of batteries is to recharge non-rechargeable batteries (yes, you heard it correctly). This is possible if the battery is only partially depleted, but is risky since there is a risk of explosion. I have done it a few times when I ran out of batteries, nothing bad happened.
  • batterygirl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"If you use a lot of batteries for high powered electronic devices, then you likely want to purchase a good set of rechargeable batteries",purchase a good set of rechargeable batteries--http://www.lithium-batteries.net
  • dark_ryan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Inaccurate Title, it's supposed to be Why I never pay for AA batteries
  • beyond88888, on 05/27/2008, -0/+0That's funny, maybe I should write a story called "why I never pay for disposable camcorder". ^_^, If you need AA batteries, http://www.battery-store.org is good place.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.