If you often have to carry extra batteries to power electronic equipment such as radio transmitters or receivers, scanners, cameras, camera flash units, etc., you always worry about getting the contacts on the batteries dirty or the batteries shorting out or leaking. I have a couple of Family Radio Service (FRS) transceivers, a camera motor drive and a couple of flash units as well as a digital camera that all like batteries enough that I often need to carry extra batteries with me. Fortunately they all use AA batteries so that simplifies things a bit.

I made some simple holders out of PVC pipe that work very well. I got a section (8 or 10 feet, I forget) of 1/2 inch ID (inside diameter) white plastic pipe and some 1/2 inch end caps. I cut the pipe into 7 3/4-inch lengths (for 4 AA batteries - change the length as appropriate) with a hack saw and used a round file to smooth the edges. There are cutters for pipe that do a neater job than a saw. I glued an end cap to one end of the pipe. When the glue was dry I sprayed some paint on that end cap.

The paint serves two purposes. First of all it lets me know which end is glued on so I know to try to remove the opposite end (sometimes the caps fit tightly even without glue). Second, I used two different colors of paint. One (black in my case) lets me know that the tube contains normal disposable batteries. The other (brown because that's what I had - yellow, blue or red would work as well or better) lets me know that the tube contains rechargeable batteries. Colored tape would work as well as paint if you prefer.

I put a piece of black electrical tape on each tube when I put new or fully recharged batteries in it to let me know that it contains fresh batteries. When the batteries are discharged or spent (in the case of disposables) I place the batteries back in the tube and remove the piece of tape. When I return home I either recharge the batteries or throw away and replace the alkalines and put a new piece of tape on the tube.

Three or four of these tubes thrown into my camera bag or back pack always provide fresh batteries when I need them.

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1/07/99