How to turn AAA batteries into AAs

The lazy Sunday afternoon, the most crazy thing is that the TV remote control is out of power and you happen to run out of AA battery again. Don’t worry, here is a tip: use AAA batteries instead!

Simply knead some aluminum foil into a ball and place it between the battery and the spring to make it fit tightly. If your gamepad is out of power, or you don't want to go to the store to buy an AA battery, this is the perfect solution.

This technique has been circulating for a while and has recently become popular again on TikTok. But you can't believe everything you see on the Recommended For You page, some viral life tricks are either useless or even dangerous. We wanted to know if this technique was one of them, so we turned to the experts.

Spoiler: It really works!

"This is definitely an effective trick," said Arthur Shi, head of the technical writing team at iFixIt, a company that sells repair kits and writes repair guides for various electronic products. He even further pointed out that AA and AAA batteries aren't actually that big of a difference.

[Related: AI called Dragonfly is helping design batteries that charge faster]

Shi explains that alkaline batteries from AAAA size to D-number battery have the same operating voltage. This means that these non-rechargeable batteries all provide 1.5 volts of power, so electrically there is no reason you can't use them interchangeably - they just don't fit completely correctly into the device's battery tank. This is where aluminum foil comes in handy: it keeps the battery tightly secured in place while still conducting electricity.

Shi said: "Aluminum foil is not the best conductor, but it works well for low-power devices like AA batteries."

If you don't mind spending a little money, you can also choose to buy special products. You can buy a battery adapter, convert AAA batteries into AA batteries, or even a number D battery. Shi said these are better than aluminum foil because they provide more stable physical contact.

Maybe buying one of these adapters means you never need to buy a larger battery than an AAA battery in your life. Technically you can do that, but this is far from the perfect solution.

Disadvantages

Aluminum foil or battery adapter cannot completely solve the AA battery problem, so of course there are also disadvantages - battery life. Devices powered by smaller batteries do not run as long as they use a suitable size power supply, simply because smaller devices store less energy.

[Related: Best Rechargeable Batteries of 2023]

But it's not just a matter of size. Shi said that according to the rule of thumb, for example, cheap D-batteries are less powerful than high-quality AA batteries, the heavier the battery, the more energy it stores.

So, consider using aluminum foil as the perfect way to avoid going to the store on a lazy day. But don't be surprised if you find out that you run out of all the AAA batteries in your home a week later. It can buy you some time, but that's not the ultimate solution.

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