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I love the dollar store as much as the next person, but there are some things that you should simply never buy there — like batteries. Batteries from the dollar store are much lower-quality, according to experts.
Walk into any dollar store, and you’ll likely find a rack of batteries sold in bulk packages for just $1 per package. At such a low price, those batteries are definitely tempting (just like everything else at the dollar store).
But before you throw these $1 packages into your cart, you should know that they may not be worth the savings.
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Dollar stores typically sell carbon-zinc batteries, whereas most name brand batteries (like Duracell or Energizer) are alkaline batteries. Carbon-zinc batteries carry way less energy and therefore last for less time than alkaline batteries.
For example, a AA battery from Energizer carries 10,798 joules, while a battery from Duracell from 9398 joules. A battery from Dollar General? Only 2983 joules. That’s a huge downgrade.
Dollar store batteries are also more likely to leak. Reader’s Digest reports that battery packages from brands like Sunbeam and Panasonic were stamped with warnings that they should be used only in “low-drain” devices, like clock radios.
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Frankly, it’s a huge pain when batteries run out over and over. It’s also impractical for emergency scenarios, when you need your battery-operated devices to work.
For those reasons, it’s best to just pay the full price for batteries that will provide more power and last longer.
