# Batteries Low vs High drain?



## bmwfreak

Can someone explain the difference between low drain vs. high drain silver oxide batteries?

For example 380 vs 394. I've read specifications with the capacity being 84mAh for the 394 and 82mAh for the 380, but the 380 is advertised as high drain. Seems opposite.

Energizer actually packages the 394/380 as the same battery, while Renata sells them as two separate batteries. So is there any difference?


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## Eeeb

bmwfreak said:


> Can someone explain the difference between low drain vs. high drain silver oxide batteries?
> 
> For example 380 vs 394. I've read specifications with the capacity being 84mAh for the 394 and 82mAh for the 380, but the 380 is advertised as high drain. Seems opposite.
> 
> Energizer actually packages the 394/380 as the same battery, while Renata sells them as two separate batteries. So is there any difference?


From what I can tell, modern technology eliminates the need to differentiate based on the drain rate for watch batteries. Maybe Renata hasn't figured it out yet.

I never buy anything but Energizers. They spend the most on R&D and it shows. And my watchmaker swears he has never found one that leaked.


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## lysanderxiii

Watch Batteries are manufactured in one of two chemical systems, High Drain or Low Drain. As a general rule, most applications should use the Low Drain version of a battery unless the high drain battery is specifically requested in the watches manual.


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## dbl_

lysanderxiii said:


> Watch Batteries are manufactured in one of two chemical systems, High Drain or Low Drain. As a general rule, most applications should use the Low Drain version of a battery unless the high drain battery is specifically requested in the watches manual.


Yep, and the excerpt comes from:
http://www.sr626.com/highlowdrain.html

However in my opinion Low drain batteries and Hi drain batteries are of the same chemical system ie. silver oxide chemistry. They may have different internal resistance.

your "local" chemist


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## Samantha

It used to be, years ago, that the LEDs as well as LCD's with alarm functions and lights used high drain cells, whereas plain LCDs and quartzes used low drain.
Samantha


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## Roland Ranfft

Hi there,

the difference is marginal, as both use the same chemical system. But some 
parameters can be optimized either for low internal resistance (high drain) or 
low self discarge and longer shelf life (low drain).

As Samantha mentioned, some applications like LED, LCD illumination, or alarm 
simply ask for low resistance. In all other cases low drain lasts a bit longer, 
but not substantially.

Regards, Roland Ranfft


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