Sonnen battery test: love won’t run out of battery!

The battery bunnies have annoyed, I think, a lot of people with their irrepressible thirst for profit. They still run around and around, not knowing how tired they are. But at such a price it wouldn’t do to become a bunny, breaking out in a given direction… There are often situations in life when you need fresh batteries for a particular event: a children’s matinee or a graduation party, an exhibition, a trip, a hike. And that the set of batteries should not be more expensive than the camera or flashlight itself. Today we are going to do an instrumental test with these particular batteries, the Digital Power from German brand Sonnen.

We have the following batteries! In this test we use Sonnen alkaline AA batteries LR6 , which were manufactured in December 2013.

As we see, the Sonnen batteries have a pleasant and thoughtful design: alkaline cells are of silver color, salt cells are steel with red. The brand inscription in black with a stylized switch with a red “o”. The positive pole on all batteries is marked, there is no need to touch the batteries.

The full name of the manufacturer: Brauberg Brands GmbX, Germany. Address: Wilhelm-Leuscher Strasse 41, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt 60329. 41, 60329, Frankfurt am Main, Germany .

“OBORONTEST” is the test!

We decided not to do the tests in our laboratory, but in a very serious organization – CJSC “Oborontest”, using GOST methods of testing. CJSC “Oborontest” not only tests and tests products, including those connected with electricity, but also certifies various technical products. We tested our batteries at Oborontest, a division of Kvant. This division deals directly with energy surveys and certification of products related to low-voltage equipment, electromagnetic compatibility of technical facilities and safety of machines and equipment.

Used regulatory-technical documentation NDT : GOST 24721-88, Test Program OS of 19.03.2014 g.

We decided to use the most stringent, still Soviet GOST 24721-88 1988 – Manganese zinc cells, cylindrical. General specifications. For CMEA countries 589-77 .

So, here we go!

According to this GOST paragraph 1.3 a fully charged battery should give 1.65 V. Measurements show the Sonnen batteries’ starting voltage to be in full compliance with the specified condition.

Further, according to GOST all measurements should be carried out at a certain humidity and temperature. For purity of measurements we assembled a special test stand photo 2 which was placed in a chamber with preset humidity 31,7% and temperature 20,1C .

All results were displayed on monitors in real time.

Every electric appliance has an external resistance of electric circuit. Because GOST was written in 1988., The description of the devices used for the test, today cause a smile, but no one has canceled the laws of physics, and we replace the devices-veterans with modern ones.

So, the impedance of the radio’s external power supply is, let’s say, 10 ohms. We discharge the batteries at this resistance 4 hours a day for 7 days. The final battery voltage should be 0.9V. So, based on this test we can understand what stock of specific batteries we need for a specific task.

All test results are summarized in the table. For example, if we put Sonnen batteries in the remote control, it would be enough for 45.5 hours of continuous operation. On average, we use the remote for about 5 minutes a day. You can calculate for yourself how long the batteries will last – it turns out almost half the life of a pet hamster.

Test protocol number 05-14/IC of 8.04.2014 g. OJSC “Quant”.

Load	1000mA	100 mA	3,3 Ohm	3.9 Ohm	24 Ohm
Mode	Flash Photography	Portable audio player	Pocket Flashlight	Kids’ toy	Remote control
Test Mode	10 sec/1 hour/day	1 hour/day	4 min/hour 8 hr/day	1 h/day	15 sec/min, 8 hr/day
Test period	7 days	7 days	7 days	7 days	7 days
ND designation number of paragraphs , specifying technical requirements	GOST 24721-88 n.p. 1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.2.3	GOST 24721-88 par.p. 1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.2.3	GOST 24721-88 p.p. 1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.2.3	GOST 24721-88 n.p. 1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.2.3	GOST 24721-88 p.p. 1.3, 2.2.1.2, 2.2.1.4, 2.2.2.3
ND designation paragraph numbers , establishing the test methods	GOST 24721-88 n.3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2	GOST 24721-88 n.3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2	GOST 24721-88 n.3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2	GOST 24721-88 n.3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2	GOST 24721-88 p.3.4.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2.
Final voltage after 7 days of testing according to GOST	0,9 v	0,9 v	0,9 v	0,8 v	1 v
Actual final voltage after 7 days of testing based on test results	1,1 v	1,2 v	1,0 v	0,9 v	1,3 v
Actual mAh capacity based on test results	520 pulses	340 minutes	7.7 hours	23 hours	45.5 hours

Conclusion from the test analysis and NTDs:

– In the “photoflash” mode at a load of 10 seconds/1 hour/day for 7 days of testing battery life is depleted only by 82%, which corresponds to the requirements of GOST 24721-88.

– In “portable audio player” mode at the load of 1 hour/day for 7 days the battery depleted its resource only by 75%, which meets the requirements of GOST 24721-88.

– In “pocket lamp” mode at the load of 4 minutes/hour, 8 hours/day in 7 days of testing, the battery depleted its life by only 90%, which corresponds to the requirements of GOST 24721-88.

– In “kid’s toy” mode with 1 hour/day load the battery depleted only 89% in 7 days, which meets the requirements of GOST 24721-88.

– In “Remote control” mode at the load of 15 seconds/minute, 8 hours/day for 7 days the battery depleted its resource only by 77%, which corresponds to the requirements of GOST 24721-88.

Outputs

For a better understanding I present the power consumption of the different devices:

Flash Photography	700 mA
Digital camera	Average 800 mA, maximum 1200 mA
Flashlight with incandescent bulb	700 mA
LED flashlight for 5 LEDs	100mA
A child’s toy	250 mA
CD player	500 mA
MP3 player	100 mA

On the basis of this table and comparing it with the test report we see that the flashlight with 5 LEDs works for 5 hours continuously on Sonnen alkaline batteries, and with “rest” with breaks even more.

From this we conclude that Sonnen alkaline batteries do just about anything. From my own experience I can add: Sony transistor radio worked for about 3 months with these batteries for 3-5 hours per day, Panasonic CD player about 10 days with CD/radio for 3 hours per day. In Nikon Coolpix S4 digital camera in flash mode i.e. 2 devices were actually used – flash and camera Sonnen batteries were enough for 160 shots, but every 3-4 shots, the batteries “rested”.

Judge for yourself the price-quality ratio of Sonnen batteries:

Battery brand/type/size	Average retail price
Sonnen Digital Power alkaline AA	15 Dollars/item
GP Super alkaline AA	25 Dollars apiece
Energizer alkaline AA	45 Dollars apiece
Varta Max Tech alkaline AA	60 Dollars apiece
Duracell Turbo Alkaline AA	95 Dollars apiece

Results

The testing carried out in the laboratory showed that alkaline AA format batteries, or simply Sonnen AA batteries, not just correspond to the American State Standard, but overlap it to some extent. From the test report we can see that the final voltage of some items, such as flashlight, is more than required by GOST.

Sonnen batteries can be used in almost all devices that need this type of power source without overpaying for a promoted brand. And in terms of value for money, it’s probably one of the best offers on the market. So there is a new addition to the bunny family, only cheaper. In this case cheap is not bad!

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