When you throw out your disposable AAs because your remote stopped working, they actually still had about 80% of their power remaining.
A new $2.50 battery sleeve called the Batteriser, coming to Amazon this fall, promises to extend the life of your batteries up to eight times longer by drawing out their remaining power — which you were about to throw in the garbage. The tiny, 0.1 millimeter-thick stainless steel Batteriser sleeve features an incredibly small circuit board, built to tap into the battery’s remaining energy.
AA batteries start off with 1.5 volts of energy, but the voltage goes down as the batteries are used up. Once the batteries dip below 1.35 volts, they appear to be dead, even though they still have a lot of juice left.
It’s akin to a tube of toothpaste, according to Batteriser founder Bob Roohparvar, who is a computer science professor at California State University.
“If you just squeeze from the top, you’re only going to get so much out of the tube,” Roohparvar said.
For example, a typical AA battery will stop working after 240 minutes of use powering a remote control, 95 minutes powering portable speakers, or just 38 minutes powering an RC toy. Roohparvar claims that the Batteriser can get 1,185 minutes out of a remote (5 times more energy), 570 minutes out of portable speakers (6x) or 355 minutes out of an RC toy (9x).
Batteriser can continue to deliver a 1.5 volt charge from batteries that have actually discharged down to 0.6 volts.
Roohparvar says he hopes to shake up the $14 billion disposable battery market. There are 5.4 billion battery-operated devices in the wild, and 15 billion disposable batteries are bought every year around the world. A typical U.S. home has 28 battery-operated devices inside.
The Batteriser will come in AA, AAA, C and D-cell varieties and sell for less than $10 for a pack of four. At that price, Roohparvar, the technology “pays for itself” after just one purchase — a typical AA battery costs $2.50, and the Batteriser makes one battery last as long as eight.
He said it’s a cheaper solution than rechargeable batteries. And those rechargeable batteries are typically made of lithium, which isn’t compatible with many battery-powered products.
“The Batteriser is giving you lithium performance at alkaline price,” Roohparvar said.
After an Indiegogo campaign in July for early-adopters, Roohparvar says the Batteriser will begin selling on Amazon in the fall. He also said that he has been talking to executives at Wal-Mart about selling the battery sleeves in the future.
Though Roohparvar says that his patents would prevent the battery manufacturers from simply adding the Batteriser technology into their batteries, he said he would be open to licensing the technology down the road. He also said that Batteriser could one day partner with a Duracell or an Energizer and sell the batteries and Batterisers as a single package.