UnCharged!
Many ‘improvements’ are anything but. Consider the number of devices that are now rechargeable, often from a USB port.
A while ago my LED lamp died. It was an EverReady unit, well built, self-standing and portable. Great for camping, working in corners and emergencies. It took four AA batteries. I tried to replace it but all could find were units that were rechargeable, using a USB cable and power supply. OK. Seemed fine as I’d save a bit on batteries and it was just as bright.
BUT – a while ago we had a power failure after a major storm. I live in a forested area and it’s not uncommon. But this one lasted several days. And after a while the lantern went dim and then flat. It did not last the first night, even on low power. And, guess what - I had nowhere to recharge it. Yes, I should have kept it charged up but, who the hell remembers to do that? In the old days I’d have grabbed some more AA batteries out of the drawer and then bought some more at the local supermarket and I’d have light. But now I can’t do that. We had to resort to an even older technology – candles. Yes, they still work although they are not rechargeable. What if I’d been camping out there somewhere? I used to go on treks that took days and involved several nights. Spare batteries I can carry but, there are no power points in the forest so by the third night, darkness reigns.
It got me to thinking about the number of devices that have gone rechargeable in recent times. Obviously it makes sense for a car or my disability scooter. The scooter batteries weigh a ton. But most power tools are also now rechargeable. Of course, unlike the lamp I can buy a second battery but it is astonishingly overpriced and it will cost me almost as much as the tool itself. So I have several tools which use common batteries and of course, although the batteries are exactly the same inside, they have unique body shapes and connectors so I’m locked into one brand of tool. Clever that but it suits the maker, not me. So much for customer service. Often you can buy a set of tools with a single battery. Useless. Years ago I bought a good quality cordless drill with two batteries as a special offer kit. That made sense. One goes flat while you’re working? Put it on charge and use the other. I did that many, many times on day long jobs like laying a floor or a deck. One in use, one on charge. A corded screwdriver drill would have been lighter and easier.
A phone used to be able to go for 3-4 days without a recharge but not now. Charge up the smartphone every night or else. In the far distant past if my phone went flat, I had a simple solution. Once I used to carry a spare battery, fully charged. Battery flat? Swap it over. Can you do that with ANY smartphone now. I suspect not. It gets worse. I’ve used an Apple computer for a long time. I can remember when the laptops had removeable batteries so that you could carry a spare. Long gone. This is a company that played nasty tricks with new software so that the batteries in older devices did not charge up properly. My old desktop iMac had a wireless mouse which took a AA battery. But the new one is…rechargeable. So now I get a short warning and then – I can’t work. Not only will the mouse not work while recharging but some genius has placed the charging port in the middle of the base so if it’s charging, it is unusable anyway. I may as well take an early lunch, whatever because work has just come to a grinding halt. So I cheat. I keep an old and well worn battery powered mouse in the drawer that I can use in an emergency. If I had an even older USB wired mouse, I’d use that as a backup. Fortunately the keyboard still runs on two AA’s…but for how much longer?
Again you might say, why don’t you put it on charge overnight, like your phone. Fair point. But imagine a charger bar in your home. Mine would have the mouse, two lamps, my phone, two vacuum cleaners, a clock, two or more sets of camera batteries….. But of course, rechargeables are lighter and more convenient? You don’t have to stock up on or carry a bag full of batteries. I was a travelling photographer and I once went overseas with many spare batteries and four chargers – two camera, one flash unit and one phone. And plug adapters. And they were not small. How convenient was that? And on the subject of vacuum cleaners – I own a Dyson dust-buster type unit. Very powerful and efficient. I can even replace the battery. But one day the charger died. A cheap thing with an odd voltage. I was informed by Dyson that they no longer had that little charger available. Really? A unit that costs hundreds of dollars disabled by the failure of some that probably cost less than $10 from China. My solution was to buy exactly the same unit second hand on eBay for well less than $100. So now I have two units and one charger. Quite handy and a lot cheaper that having to buy a new unit for $4-500.
You start to wonder if the people who design such devices live and work in the same world as the rest of us. Perhaps not. Is it playtime at Apple when your mouse goes flat? Does the modern tradesman go for an early egg and bacon sandwich when the drill runs out of puff? Yes, rechargeable can be convenient. But there are ohsomany circumstances when it is a poor substitute for a corded or standard battery powered device.
It occurs tyo me after the rant that it’s an environmental benefit. No more piles of alkaline or otherwise batteries going into the waste stream. Of course the rechargeables end up there anyway but far less often by a fator of up to a thousand. But there must be a better answer. A powerbank for my camera and phone – O.K. Lithium batteries for cameras and power tools that are sold at reasonable prices so we could afford a couple of spares. I’d appreciate that.But I’m not holding my breath as their profit motive is holding me to ransom.
Anyone who keeps saying ‘Oh My God’ when encountering an unexpected or unpleasant circumstance is, by definition, a blithering idiot who suffers from an undeveloped vocabulary.