Quick Tip: Use Pill Cases To Store 9V Batteries
Jul 20, 2015
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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9 Volt batteries are good for a lot of things, but they are also somewhat dangerous as both terminals are on the same side and if they are not stored right can create a spark or heat up to the point where they could start a fire. Actually we share a tutorial on how to use a 9 volt battery to start a fire when shooting steel wool sparkles.
The folks at hdslrnow sent us this quick tip about using a pill case to store a 9V battery so the terminals are protected.
And here is a reminder on why you really (really) want to protect the terminals. It can burn your house.
[via HDSLRnow]
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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6 responses to “Quick Tip: Use Pill Cases To Store 9V Batteries”
The pharmacy sells pill ziplock cases for a few bucks for 50 or something like that. Pretty cheap. They are of a hardier stock than the plastic used in sandwich bags. I find these work well for storing used memory cards, you can write on the surface, and they fit 9 volts, my Fuji x system batteries and AA or AAA cells. Very waterproof. They store well, taking up less space than a hard sided pill bottle. They can also store meds (their intended use) or vitamins when traveling. I use them over and over. After a shoot in go my memory cards. Recycle over and over.
The only reason I store extras of these is for smoke alarms. Oh the irony!
store you rechargeable in containers too, as a photographer I’m in the habit of sticking things in my pocket when I’m working; lens caps, dead batteries, things like that. I was at a Blue and Gold Scouting Event with my sons and had stuck some almost dead batteries in my pocket, which also contained keys and some loose change, the batteries heated up the keys and change and burned my leg pretty good. Had I been at home the pants would have flown off. LOL but since I wasn’t I had to try to remove the burning items from my pocket. Resulting in the burn. Just a heads up. Hope it helps someone else out there.
Similar situation with me. I was doing sound and video for a college graduation and had tossed a couple AA batteries in my pocket in case I needed to replace a set in a wireless mic. I had enough pocket change to create a circuit and felt a painful burning on my thigh. I burned my fingers getting the batteries out of my pocket and tossing them away. Now I’m paranoid about carrying batteries and go to great lengths to make sure they don’t make contact with each other or anything else.
35mm film canisters can also hold two AA batteries or 1 9V battery.
For storing AA batteries I’ve made container from cotton swabs box. Just reduced the height to fit 2 AA, taped one side of the cover and add velcro strip on the other side. DONE!
It even fits “battery tester” (1,5 USD on eBay), really handy tool to find out which battery is dead and ruining recycle time