Batteries been thrown away when they are OK

A question about : Batteries been thrown away when they are OK

Over the last 6 months I have been checking batteries recovered from various items, remotes, kids toys, torches etc. I have found that approximately 60% were still fully charged, most items had only 1 flat battery which was obviously responsible for the failure or poor performance of the item, the other 2 or 3 in the item were perfectly OK. In a bag of disposed batteries (67), I was given, I found that only one third were found to be flat, some others marginally lower than being full charged and all the rest tested as fully charged. I have numerous items where I have only changed 1 out of the set.

Best answers:

• You used to get a battery charge checker with packs of duracell at one time.
• With a Multi meter
• Just for reference, even if a cell shows full voltage with a multimeter doesn't necessarily mean a cell is in peak condition - you need to see its performance under load.