I needed a little extra light, and the closest Flashlight was my Bumb in night Surefire in the Bedroom and it was dead. I just used it a few days ago. So i checked all the flashlights and the one on my AR was dim Also.

good idea !

Yep.

I change the batteries in important things around the house (primary defensive firearm lights and optics, smoke alarms, CO alarms, etc.) on January 1st each year.

The only important things I don't change yearly are my security cameras, as I can log into the system at any time and see the battery status for each one, so I know when they're nearing replacement time. And my primary carry flashlights are USB rechargeable, so get plugged in each week.

Changing these yearly costs a few bucks more than simply waiting until they're dead to change them, but that's a small price to pay to never have to worry about a battery dying at an inopportune time, or being woken up in the middle of the night by a smoke alarm chirping, or having to wondering when the last time you changed the batteries in something important.

Plus the old batteries I take out aren't totally wasted. I test them with a battery tester, and if they're still good (which pretty much all are after only a year of standby use), they go into the secondary battery case for use in less important things.

Though some of them are still wasted, since I don't have anything besides smoke/CO alarms that use 9V batteries these days, and I don't have anything else that uses the funky 1/3N batteries that some of my red dot optics use. But CR123, AA, CR2032, etc. batteries get a second life in less important stuff.

Plus, doing this yearly helps ensure that some of my new battery stockpile gets rotated and replaced, rather than simply buying a bunch that sit around for years unused and eventually go bad.

We Change out Smoke Detectors on the Fall-Back time change. Never thought to start a routine on other things.

And if you have a digital lock on your safe don’t forget it as well. I change mine out twice a year at each time change.

I have slowly but surely gone to rechargeable flashlights and weaponlights, no more worries.

I've had the worst luck with leaking batteries.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
I've had the worst luck with leaking batteries.

Lithium batteries are you friend.

They don't leak.

In trying to save cents by buying cheaper alkaline batteries, you cost yourself dollars in ruined electronics from leaking alkaline batteries.

Thx for the reminder. I had to swap batteries in 1 pistol and 1 rifle.

Any routine I need to keep is on New years, April fools, 4th of July, or last day of baseball season. That gives me roughly quarterly checks if needed.