Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Yes. A good idea to have adapters.

My recent experience with rechargeables AA and 18650.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up a couple of no-name AAs. Three days later and they are struggling to take a first charge.
Reluctantly, I started charging up some top-of-the-line Japanese made AAs. Reputable source. 2 were dead were dead and would not take a charge.

This serves as a reminder NOT to assume that unused batteries are going to be good to go all the time.

Further discussion on batteries and backup manuals.

I found my Steripen box of filters and materials.
1. The items dated back to 2013 and everything was packed away new and labeled, even the batteries.
2. Observations
a. some of the standard AA batteries were corroded, replaced with fresh batteries with the current date and each plastic container into a separate zip lock bag.
b. the standard AA batteries would be dying in 3 years, so they were pulled, put into the "circulation drawer" and replaced.
c. the lithium batteries were good for another 8 years and left with the Steripen box.
3. The company that acquired Steripen did not have manuals on line for the products that I own.
This meant an unsatisfactory copying of instructions in multiples and having to rebox the then new Steripen units in zip log bags.
4. I printed out instructions for the pre-filters and bagged.


There seems to be an attitude among a number of people (not on this forum) that when shtf, they will reload, bake bread, will be able to read instructions and not lose them or get them so soiled that the instructions are unusable. My approach is different - and it applies to a lot of things that I have set aside. I want to grab a protected Steripen unit, a couple of bags of protected batteries, a couple sets of instructions.

Unfortunately, this takes time.

Having made the decision to switch to rechargeable AA and AAA, a shipment came in. I will relate what I did and why. If I made a mistake, please correct and people can learn from my mistake.

1. I know the literature that if one buys, say enloops, some charge is retained for 10 years. My previous experience was that some few would not take a charge even though I had had them less than 10 years.
2. I can only count on staying where I am for ten years.
3. Given the small failure rate and the time I intend to stay where I live and that the marketing that enloops can be recharged hundreds of times, I charged them all.
4. Then, I put the batteries into clean plastic cases and then into zip lock baggies. Now they will be further containerized and put in a cool garage.
5. I have never had a rechargeable battery leak. I have had multiple leaks of regular AA and AAA batteries in undisturbed storage.