Battery Facts

A major site compared 40 batteries using fast drain and slow drain technology. Its findings mimicked other findings from a number of other tests. 

The resulting data yielded some interesting results. First, highest price is not highest value, and second, zinc batteries, although usually the cheapest are poor value as they drain faster than alkaline and lithium batteries. Brand name has no relation to quality, but are usually higher priced.

Bottom line is that buying the cheapest non-brand-name alkaline battery is almost always the best value. Lithium batteries last the longest, but are almost always not the cheapest. In the tests, Ikea alkaline batteries blew away the competition for best value.

Think about how often you change batteries for every day use items, such as TV remote, computer mouse, clock, smoke detectors, flashlights, etc., it is usually once every year or two, or even longer.

My advice - if you need long stable battery life (such as for a good camera), pay more and buy lithium. If you want the best value and do not mind changing batteries a bit more often, buy the cheapest alkaline you can find.

7 Up

Like most soft drinks, 7 Up started with other ingredients than we have now. It originally contained lithium, which was widely marketed as one of a number of patent medicine products popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Charles Leiper Grigg invented a formula for a lemon-lime soft drink in 1929. The product was originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", and was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

It contained the mood stabilizer lithium citrate and was marketed as a hangover cure. Its name was soon changed to 7 Up. The name is derived from the atomic mass of lithium (approximately seven daltons). Lithium citrate was removed from 7 Up's formula in 1950. It was also used in early formulations of Coke.

Lithium citrate is a chemical compound of lithium and citrate that is used as a mood stabilizer in psychiatric treatment of manic states and bipolar disorder. Now lithium citrate is sold as Litarex and Demalit.