News

How to re-use single-charge alkaline batteries - despite baffling explanations!

You would be forgiven for thinking that the Renu Alkaline Battery Recharger was purest snake-oil, if you read the marketing blurb. Much to the surprise of NewsWireless investigators, our attempts to expose it as a fraud produced the astonishing discovery that it works well!

The product works to revitalise not only single-use alkaline batteries, but appears to renovate NiMH cells that have been ruined by accidentally sticking them into NiCad chargers.

The blurb on the sales site was so totally unconvincing that a reader contacted us to say that it had to be a con.

It explained:

Renu IT Alkaline Battery Recharger - Single-use alkaline batteries use only a fraction of their potential, the rest left unusable. Recharging these batteries can be dangerous and is never to be recommended. However, Renu IT Alkaline Battery Recharger has technology that can reliably and safely regenerate 'dead' batteries. Renu IT Alkaline Battery Recharger does not add anything to the battery, it simply releases the potential that is already there, by perfecting the internal structure of the cell.

Testers purchased the re-charger device and - to cut a long story short - found it worked well.

The explanation, however, remains baffling. Best suggestion is to ignore it, said our testers.