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Introduction and Backstory**:
Introduced in 1993, the Rayovac corporation marketed and sold a rechargeable battery system dubbed "Renewal". It was unique because it used a rechargeable alkaline battery which is very similar to a regular "disposable" battery and it promised to fill the gaps that the nature of "normal" rechargeable batteries left. They had a several year shelf life compared to at best a few months, fully charged they offered the same 1.5 volt power as normal alkaline compared to the 1.2 volts of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH batteries and of course were much environmentally friendly because they were basically alkaline batteries that could be recharged, no heavy metals or toxic materials requiring special disposal.
However, you had to buy a special "smart" charging unit AND fairly expensive special batteries that only lasted 20-50 charging cycles as the capacity dropped rapidly with each charge. Add in that those special batteries were notorious for leaking which often ruined both the chargers and the devices they were used in. Needless to say, the entire system was not well received met with discontinuation around 2000(?).
Still many thousands of chargers and batteries were sold in the USA. I happened to be one of those that bought both the chargers and the batteries and used them for a very long time.
Finally, however, I just retired my very last Renewal battery a few days ago. This left me with not one, but 4 Renewal branded chargers that were now utterly useless due to the lack of rechargeable Alkalines and the fact the early model chargers I owned could not be used to charge regular Ni-CD or NiMH batteries! (Yes, I do know they are still KINDA available under different names, but they suck, just like back then)
What to do? What to do...
**To get to the good stuff where the magic happens and avoid all this long winded nerdy cruft, skip ahead to step 2!
Introduced in 1993, the Rayovac corporation marketed and sold a rechargeable battery system dubbed "Renewal". It was unique because it used a rechargeable alkaline battery which is very similar to a regular "disposable" battery and it promised to fill the gaps that the nature of "normal" rechargeable batteries left. They had a several year shelf life compared to at best a few months, fully charged they offered the same 1.5 volt power as normal alkaline compared to the 1.2 volts of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH batteries and of course were much environmentally friendly because they were basically alkaline batteries that could be recharged, no heavy metals or toxic materials requiring special disposal.
However, you had to buy a special "smart" charging unit AND fairly expensive special batteries that only lasted 20-50 charging cycles as the capacity dropped rapidly with each charge. Add in that those special batteries were notorious for leaking which often ruined both the chargers and the devices they were used in. Needless to say, the entire system was not well received met with discontinuation around 2000(?).
Still many thousands of chargers and batteries were sold in the USA. I happened to be one of those that bought both the chargers and the batteries and used them for a very long time.
Finally, however, I just retired my very last Renewal battery a few days ago. This left me with not one, but 4 Renewal branded chargers that were now utterly useless due to the lack of rechargeable Alkalines and the fact the early model chargers I owned could not be used to charge regular Ni-CD or NiMH batteries! (Yes, I do know they are still KINDA available under different names, but they suck, just like back then)
What to do? What to do...
**To get to the good stuff where the magic happens and avoid all this long winded nerdy cruft, skip ahead to step 2!
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To think of a solution, first you need to find a problem!
Now, due to the limitations of regular rechargeables, I still use disposable alkaline batteries in a few places in my house in devices like flashlights, my wireless keyboard, remotes, clocks and a "emergency" back ups for when a rechargeable died and I didn't want to wait for them.
As you can see, most of those devices have a fairly low to extremely low battery "turn over" rate and hence my "stock" of alkaline batteries is very small and I often have none or run out when I need some fresh ones.
Problematic no? Yes! Not to mention expensive and hard on the environment!
Well I have long known about these special chargers for regular alkaline batteries that could "top off" a normal, non-rechargeable battery and give you some more use from an otherwise "dead" disposable battery. The problem was I didn't want to buy yet ANOTHER charger to go with the stack I already have for Renewals, just NiCad's, just NiMH's and of course NiCd AND NiMH's...
No joke, I have 11 battery chargers in my house. So, another one was NOT welcome.
Still, I was curious about the concept and spent some time poking through the internet for tidbits on the interesting idea of doing something that was not supposed to be possible, or even attempted according to the warnings on disposable batteries...
There is surprisingly little solid information about the whole concept, but I mostly found that it could be done and done fairly safely if you followed some basic rules, used a custom built charger and baby sat it... Oh goody! I won't need to buy another charger, I LOVE building electronics AND I can use one of these old useless renewal chargers for parts! Whee!
Wait... I'm going to build a charger to recharge alkalines... I HAVE a charger designed to charge rechargeable ALKALINES... What the heck is the difference?
Turns out, not that much.
About half an hour of research on Google, Rayovac.com and Wikipedia, left my lazy side grinning like an idiot. Between rechargeable alkalines and disposable alkalines, there were minor differences in chemistry so the rechargeable variation would take a charge better and repeatedly, along with better leak protection... In short WHAT difference?
I grabbed my tools and I found, to my delight, that the Renewal charger uses a low average current (~20-40ma) provided by 2 volt pulse at a 50% duty cycle... According to the information I've found that's practically PERFECT for charging a regular alkaline! It's even got a "full charge" cut off at 1.7 volts, a bit high, but I wouldn't even need to baby sit it when it was charging! Besides, if a battery blew up, no big deal, I had 3 more and the charger was useless anyhow!
I could Reduce, Reuse AND Recycle all at once! At this point I was happy enough to start crapping electrons.
Figuring I should be able to stuff a regular alkaline right into a Renewal charger and be good to go, I grabbed a near death battery from my remote control and popped it in to witness the astonishing act of... nothing.
Back to my tools and a closer examination. Turns out the battery wasn't making a connection because Rayovac designed a safety system so people couldn't do exactly what I was trying. (ref: http://www.rayovac.com/technical/wp_batoptions.htm -Near the bottom above Fig. 6 after lots of marketing propaganda and useless fluff)
Now, if there is one thing I have learned in life (often after regaining consciousness) the best part about safeties, is finding ways to get around them ;)
Lets get crackin'!
Now, due to the limitations of regular rechargeables, I still use disposable alkaline batteries in a few places in my house in devices like flashlights, my wireless keyboard, remotes, clocks and a "emergency" back ups for when a rechargeable died and I didn't want to wait for them.
As you can see, most of those devices have a fairly low to extremely low battery "turn over" rate and hence my "stock" of alkaline batteries is very small and I often have none or run out when I need some fresh ones.
Problematic no? Yes! Not to mention expensive and hard on the environment!
Well I have long known about these special chargers for regular alkaline batteries that could "top off" a normal, non-rechargeable battery and give you some more use from an otherwise "dead" disposable battery. The problem was I didn't want to buy yet ANOTHER charger to go with the stack I already have for Renewals, just NiCad's, just NiMH's and of course NiCd AND NiMH's...
No joke, I have 11 battery chargers in my house. So, another one was NOT welcome.
Still, I was curious about the concept and spent some time poking through the internet for tidbits on the interesting idea of doing something that was not supposed to be possible, or even attempted according to the warnings on disposable batteries...
There is surprisingly little solid information about the whole concept, but I mostly found that it could be done and done fairly safely if you followed some basic rules, used a custom built charger and baby sat it... Oh goody! I won't need to buy another charger, I LOVE building electronics AND I can use one of these old useless renewal chargers for parts! Whee!
Wait... I'm going to build a charger to recharge alkalines... I HAVE a charger designed to charge rechargeable ALKALINES... What the heck is the difference?
Turns out, not that much.
About half an hour of research on Google, Rayovac.com and Wikipedia, left my lazy side grinning like an idiot. Between rechargeable alkalines and disposable alkalines, there were minor differences in chemistry so the rechargeable variation would take a charge better and repeatedly, along with better leak protection... In short WHAT difference?
I grabbed my tools and I found, to my delight, that the Renewal charger uses a low average current (~20-40ma) provided by 2 volt pulse at a 50% duty cycle... According to the information I've found that's practically PERFECT for charging a regular alkaline! It's even got a "full charge" cut off at 1.7 volts, a bit high, but I wouldn't even need to baby sit it when it was charging! Besides, if a battery blew up, no big deal, I had 3 more and the charger was useless anyhow!
I could Reduce, Reuse AND Recycle all at once! At this point I was happy enough to start crapping electrons.
Figuring I should be able to stuff a regular alkaline right into a Renewal charger and be good to go, I grabbed a near death battery from my remote control and popped it in to witness the astonishing act of... nothing.
Back to my tools and a closer examination. Turns out the battery wasn't making a connection because Rayovac designed a safety system so people couldn't do exactly what I was trying. (ref: http://www.rayovac.com/technical/wp_batoptions.htm -Near the bottom above Fig. 6 after lots of marketing propaganda and useless fluff)
Now, if there is one thing I have learned in life (often after regaining consciousness) the best part about safeties, is finding ways to get around them ;)
Lets get crackin'!
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The only Renewal Power Station that will allow you to charge any battery (with no modifications at that!) is the PS3 model.
Flip them over, the model number is printed in a very large font on the back of all Renewal power stations. If it's a PS3, you're good to go with ANY battery, no modifications needed. If you have the PS1 or PS2, do NOT charge regular rechargeable batteries in them, it will burn them up.
*edit* deleted last comment and updated to correct a bad typo!
. Thanks for pointing out that it will work with other batteries. I now have another battery charger.
So, your warning is sound, but you really don't need to worry about the battery "bursting" the seal days later. If the cell leaks when not charging it's usually not due to any internal pressure, it's because the seal had degraded and failed from either age, poor manufacturing or the stress of being re-charged from a very dead state.
I will be updating my guide in very short order in order to reflect new information I have now that I have been recharging and using recharged alkalines for more than a month.
Thanks for you comment!