Cheap batteries, whats the point?

[Conshine]

I was at a wedding at the weekend I was stuck for some camera batteries.

There was one of these cheap electronics shops across the road from the church that sells allsorts, including a pack of 12 AA batteries for €2.

Although these cheap batteries are not something I would usually buy, as they do have poor reputation, but I was stuck, so took a chance.

My camera takes four at a time and would you believe that I had got through all 12 batteries by the end of the church service, never mind the rest of the day - I had less than 20 photos.

I stopped somewhere else from the church to the hotel and bought a quality brand, which lasted the rest of the day.

Why are these cheap alternatives allowed to be sold?

Its not even as though they are just cheap, they are sub standard.
Ireland does not allow sub-standard food products into the country.
There are quality levels that are required for most goods.

Ok, there is no health or safety risk associated with the batteries, but why is such a thing allowed to be sold?

No point in returning to the shop, as it would cost more in petrol than the price I paid.

 

[Deas]

Battery power is measured using mAh. mAh stands for milli Ampere hour or milli Amp hour. It is a measure of a battery's energy storage capacity. If you think of a battery as a small fuel storage tank, which in a sense it is, mAh a measure of how much "fuel" the battery holds. (This is roughly comparable to using gallons to measure how much fuel a gas tank can hold. The more litres of capacity, the more fuel the tank can hold.)

With a battery the higher the mAh rating the more electrical energy it can store. Generally, cheaper batteries have a much lower mAh – 900 in some cases as compared to the 2000 required to run a digital camera. In the same way, cheap batteries such as you have purchased are ideal for wall clocks or remote controls, which don’t draw much energy from the battery.