Zinc Carbon (heavy duty) batteries, have very little capacity and can not handle high discharge rates. Which means they can only be used in equipment that uses very little power.

It's basically an outdated and not practical.

I just stocked up for the storm season. My personal preference is Duracell, but this year I bought the Duracell Procell batteries in bulk. Check out batterystore.com
I bought 250 batteries of various sizes for $125 including shipping. That is a fraction of what I paid at Sams club last year.

I buy name brand "AA" in bulk because that's the size I have in my primary gear. I keep enough "AAA" batteries to keep my small lights ready, but they don't get much actual use so I don't stock a lot. Same with "D" cells -- I keep enough to change the batteries in my 2 and 3 cell maglites (all w/ LED replacement bulbs) and that's about it. "AA" is the only size I need to stockpile for emergencies. Additionally, I bought a bunch of "AA" NiMH batteries and a solar charger -- that's a great option when you have reliable sun.

Kewl, Then I will just get a larger rubbermaid container and put the batteries in there.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Because the shelf and service lives on them suck compared to a lithium or alkaline, zincs are pure 1960s tech. Once upon a time, they were the only ones that could manage devices that had a high initial load relative to the basic load IIRC, but that was 20, 30 years ago. Modern alkalines can and will take zincs to the woodshed every day, in any role.

For brands, I find duracell, rayovac (AVOID the red/blue ones, those suck, get the silver/black ones) and energizer work best for alkalines, duracell or surefire if it is lithiums.

Name brands may last a little longer, but they cost a LOT more.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BNZG6E/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BNSIA0/

80% of the capacity, 30% of the cost.

Lithium Energizer AA and AAA cells are the best. They are lightweight, work down to -40 degrees Celsius (Alkaline Cells begin to fail around 0 degrees Celsius) and have a higher energy capacity than the best Alkaline Cells together with a longer shelf life. In high drain devices the differences between Lithium and Alkaline cells are even greater. An example would be for a flashlight (Fenix L2T) shown below



At a lower current drain the differences are less marked,



The downside is than Lithium Cells are considerably more expensive. Typically a good Alkaline (Duracell) would be around $0.40 compared to the Energizer Lithium at $2.00 each.

I would recommend the current high performance NiMH Eneloop cells from Sanyo with a good quality charger (own brand Sanyo would be decent enough). The Sanyo Eneloop cells keep their charge much longer than ordinary NiMh cells. A portable solar panel and battery charger would be useful also as a backup.

So if the application for your batteries is absolutely crucial and has to work in a wide variety of temperatures and the requirement for a very long shelf life then the Energizer Lithium AA and AAA cells cannot be bettered. For all other requirements then the Sanyo Eneloops will be better than standard Alkaline Cells as they can be recharged up to 1000 times and will be much more economic over the long term and much more environmentally friendly also.

This thread... http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=64660 over at CandlePowerForums shows the results of testing done by a member over there called SilverFox. Good information and he performed his tests at several amperages to distinguish batteries that perform well at high draw from those that do well at low draw.

Happy hunting.

ok I didn't mean to start such a long discussion

I just go to Target and get the 24 pack of the name brands. Its plenty cheap. ( and also use piles of rechargeables.)

Teacher