Changing batteries every year is over rated

Of course it is. I change mine every five years or so.

Meh, I recycle the batteries into my remote controls, so its not like they get wasted.

My batteries in my digital level blew up in less than a year...don't make em like they used to

Yep. I'm not taking chances anymore either.
The Wii remotes eat all the used batteries and then some.

Battery corrosion is underrated. There are so many things that can use the partially used double A's there is no reason to chance it.

Wait till one of those batteries leak acid down that board and it cost you $175 to replace it . I get so many pins with battery damage its crazy . Just sayin

The dollar store sells Panasonic carbon batteries.

They don't seem to ever leak, and a 4 pack of AAs is $1.

Change them every Jan 1st.

A guy in OH unboxed a NIB Black Knight and it still had carbon batteries in it, dead, but un-leaked.

I change mine after every game. Get's me the high score every time! There must be an easier way, though.

Tell that to the Rayovacs that just killed my 1$ LED flashlight that had just come out of a package last week.

Those are probably older than that.. they expired in 97, and the dates on the packages are usually a few years after you buy them

same here, every 4-5 years without a problem so far...

I think most people seem to have missed the OP's statement that you should use a remote battery holder. If your only concern is battery acid, and you are using a remote battery holder, then why change your batteries every year? Since even if the batteries do leak, it wont get on anything of importance.

As long as you don't park the remote battery holder by anything of importance.

LTG : )

Oh, in that case every 20 years is fine...

Well you would still have to replace the remote battery holder?.......right.

Anyways. I still change them every year and have remote holders. Doesn't mean they won't start leaking in the a years time though. A few bucks for batteries is pretty cheap in this hobby.

Not trying to be a smartass but why didn't you get the 3 AA Battery holder for 26 cents.

http://www.taydaelectronics.com/aa-battery-holder-5.html

Lithium batteries don't leak..... they just go dead after many years.

I've installed remote holders on all of my SS pins. I can NOT be trusted!

Man now your adding a few cents more in. Are you crazy? lol Just Kidding of course.

I change every two years with Duracells. I've had Energizers die twice in less than a year so I won't buy them anymore. My digital camera takes AA's so the old ones don't go to waste.

The timing may be overrated but unless you install remote battery holder (which is the best solution option IMO) making sure to remember to change them out before they leak over the board is pretty darn important.

maybe I am severely misunderstanding here. But don't batteries only explode after they have been dead a while? So of you play the pins often, and you get an adjustment failure or similar, wouldn't that be an indicator to replace them?

Yet another thing Gottlieb did right....

Why Williams used AA batteries instead of lithium cells is beyond me.

I would say no. The moral of the story is change your batteries PERIOD. A bunch of machines with only corrosion in the remote pack is better then on the CPU for sure, but would only be one other thing you have to add to the neverending list of crap these things require.

Why bother?

Yes they do. Lithium can leak.

Not at all. Many of us here have had new batteries explode in the first year of use. Dead or charged it doesn't seem to matter anymore. If you see adjustment failure your e waited to long, unless you have a remote battery holder and that's how you roll.

Well, as the_pin_family explains above, definitely because they can leak. Mounting a remote battery pack takes only a few minutes and can pay off. I had a set of batteries leak big time on my DE Star Trek a while back, and they were less than 12-months old. Luckily, it was just remote mounted, so it was just a switch out of a $2 battery pack.

I was referring to after you have remote holders installed.

It`s insurance to change them, period.. Less than a cost of a beer in most places.

I know it is a bit pricey compared to the pocket change price people are talking about for battery holders, but for ~$4 a nice memory capacitor can be purchased that will never leak. Though sadly it also forces me to play (or at least turn on my pins every few months).

Even new alkaline batteries can leak when the diode fails and they don't like being charged.

The regular carbon batteries don't seem to mind being charged by the board.

Show me one occurrence of non rechargeable lithium AA batteries leaking.

I can't find one. Not saying it's impossible just highly unlikely.

I think I'm going to change mine right now!!

Wow! Tayda is awesome... Certainly beats the $6 that everyone else seems to have for remote holders.

The problem is that I don't need $5 worth of battery holders.

Can anyone suggest a shopping list of things that I might want to order to have on hand? I currently have 4 machines.

Thanks!

How can I change batteries and not get rid of my high scores?

I think if you do it while it's on.

Whoops. Gotcha. Good point then.

Yeah change the batteries while the game is on to save your scores. I lost 7 sunken ships score on my Black Rose the other day forgetting to turn the game on!

Just had some batteries go bad on my W?D...heard a lot aboot it but never saw it before. Luckily it's not attached to a board!

I have a damage claim filed with P&G ( Duracell) and will never use Duracell's again for expensive electronics. My "new" Duracell's leaked in less than 2 months of use. Luckily I had a remote battery pack and had some battery puke on the holder,board was unharmed.

I am sure its a bad batch because these were dated 2016 as "good thru" I think they just make batteries as cheap as they can now and my damaged Mag Lights, Logitech mouse and Hensoldt illuminator are all proof of it.

When your batteries were just replaced in a system 11 and you turn it on and greeted with the "adj failure" message its a bad feeling.

Man 100k karma points and you don't know how to change the batterys and keep the high scores,, Now that's funny,,Shows you that karma points don't mean you know a lot about pinball