Batteries??

[StubbyDog]

OK, MDH and I are about to have our first child. And of course, one of things we've noticed is that we may have to consider buying stock in a battery company, LOL! I wouldn't even say that right now we have all *that* many items that require them, as compared to what we might accumulate in the future.

Does anyone purchase rechargeable batteries? I know some of these swings or other toys can really suck batteries dry, and I just see myself constantly at Wal-Mart buying batteries. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Jeri
EDD 10/6/04

[dillybar]

We just got a Sam's Club membership. We buy the batteries in bulk so we always have them ready whenn something needs them. I thought about rechargables but then you still have to have at least one extra set lying around that's fully charged. What if more than one thing runs out of the same type of battery at the same time? And then you have the chargers lying around. We just store our batteries in a drawer, out of the way.

It cost us $35 for the membership and we priced out the batteries...they work out to about half the price that they are in any other store when you don't buy them in bulk. I'm sure that the other stores like Sam's (BJ's or Costco) have similar prices.

[emschwar]

DS is 5.5 months old, and we really haven't gone through too many batteries. The swing is on it's original set, we've had to change the ones in the mobile twice. The bouncer is just now needing new batteries for the toy bar. We did get rechargables, because we'll use them for other things, but I'm surprised at how good the battery life on our baby stuff has been.

[JacksMommy]

We buy in bulk at Costco - rechargeables didn't make all that much sense because we really don't have to change batteries all that often on most things. I only use rechargeables for things that suck the batteries dry fast, like our digital camera. Otherwise, the extra cost of the rechargeables isn't worth it, IMO. I think I changed the bouncy chair batteries maybe once, the swing once if that, etc.

Laurel
Working Mama to Jack, 6/4/02
EDD #2 12/24/02

[eb1]

Yes, we bought rechargeable batteries and I never regretted it! At first, I balked when I saw how much they cost, but now I think it was worth it by far. We do have two sets of the sizes we need, so we have a charged set on-hand. We have only one charger and that's been fine. For the first several months, DS loved the swing and would only nap there, so we were changing the swing batteries about twice per week. That would have been 8 size D batteries we would have had to purchase each week--expensive and completely wasteful and bad for the environment. Now that DS doesn't go in the swing much, the D batteries are used in other items.

We also bought two sets of batteries specifically for our baby monitor parent unit (which goes through a set of AAA batteries every two days), and for my electric breast pump, so I have the freedom to pump away from an outlet.

The point is, I have found many of our heavily used items run on batteries and go through them rapidly. I also figured that with babies and children, we're going to have a need for batteries for a long time to come, and the rechargeable ones can transfer from one outgrown toy/product to another.

We only put regular batteries in items that either are used infrequently or that don't drain the battery quickly (such as the remote control).

[ekbecker1]

My solution was to buy batteries at the dollar store (Panasonic brand). I buy several packages at a time and always have them on hand. I haven't found that they burn out any faster than the ones bought at the grocery store. Actually, I usually only need them when a toy is new and has no batteries. I don't find myself "refilling" all that often. . .except for the bouncy chair. Back when DS used the bouncy, I had to replace those batteries once a month!! Now he's a year old and it's mostly toys that use the batteries.

[amp]

As others have said, we buy our batteries at Sams Club and we haven't found ourselves having to change the batteries in stuff very often...much less than we thought we would.