Post Your Battery Life With Quickie Here

[Grainger49]

The different results users have had with battery life has spawned a couple of threads.  Rechargeable batteries and an AC to DC supply have been suggested.

Because different make and different model batteries have different amp-hour ratings, often not published, please post your results here.

Post the manufacturer, model and your best estimate at the number of hours you have received before noticing the sound has lost its luster.

Thanks (I can't participate, this is just for you guys with Quickies)!

 

[bundee1]

Im getting about 100 hours on Energizer batteries. Ive been breaking in caps and tubes and running them for days straight so it runs about 4 and a half days on Energizer batteries.

Im running cheap dollar store batteries with the PJCCS installed now, so Ill report back when these guys run down.

 

[machinehead]

I have not tracked hour usage, but I have gotten over 2 months of nightly usage with Energizers. 
The sound never lost any luster, just lost all volume at some point thanks to the PJCCS I am sure.

Grainger, I gotta ask, why do you post in the Quickie forum if you don't have one?

 

[paulw]

Well as per the other thread  (non-PJCCS Quickie) 81 hours for the 4 x 9v cells to drop below 20v, but still using the pre - this was with Panasonic alkaline, bought from a surplus stock trader - but still well in date.  The 'D' cells are still going strong and those are GP Ultra branded, but are over 4 years old!

Paul

 

[Paul Joppa]

For what it's worth - i.e. this is theoretical - the design life is 200 hours for both D cells and 9-v batteries, based on the Duracell specifications. Naturally those specs assume the battery has been stored correctly ever since it left the factory, and is not too old. I'm just sayin' ...

I think most everyone knows about the reversed D cell polarity in the manual by now. That will reduce the bias voltage on the 3S4, causing greater current consumption from the 9-v batteries and a shorter life. The only measured voltages posted so far show this effect to be much smaller than I would have thought, but there's a lot of variation between tubes and batteries.

NiMH batteries have around half the capacity of alkaline cells so they might give around 100 hours in ideal circumstances.

 

[paulw]

For what it's worth - i.e. this is theoretical - the design life is 200 hours for both D cells and 9-v batteries, based on the Duracell specifications. Naturally those specs assume the battery has been stored correctly ever since it left the factory, and is not too old. I'm just sayin' ...

I think most everyone knows about the reversed D cell polarity in the manual by now. That will reduce the bias voltage on the 3S4, causing greater current consumption from the 9-v batteries and a shorter life. The only measured voltages posted so far show this effect to be much smaller than I would have thought, but there's a lot of variation between tubes and batteries.

NiMH batteries have around half the capacity of alkaline cells so they might give around 100 hours in ideal circumstances.

Well given my short battery life on the 9v pack and the fact that the 'D' cells are still full of life, I'd better reverse their polarity to eak out a bit more from the 9v's.  I've just ordered the four pack charger and some NiMH PP3 - went with 8.4v 200mAH in the end.  I'll use up another pack of the cheap alkalines first - though I must admit to being surprised that the Quickie still sounds OK reading just over 50% of the 9v pack.
Just another point - I get different measurements with the unit switched on and off -couple of volts less on the 9v pack using the 2 'centre' terminals.

Paul

 

[machinehead]

I am not aware of a mistake in the manual.  Are you going to send out a
revision to customers?

 

[Doc B]

Revision 0.1, April 15, 2010.

Flip the D cells the other way around.

 

[Grainger49]

Doc,

How about a sticky under each product with assembly manual corrections?  IIRC the SEX voltages or resistances have some misleading numbers.

 

[bundee1]

With the reversed batteries which way should the + end on the d cells point? Should they point in towards each other or out away from the center? A pic would help too.

 

[JONO]

Don't know if I started the polarity question, but I think what's  important is to understand how it works.
(http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,594.0.html)
If you follow the manual layout you will see that the black wire (-) from the D cell holder is connected to the pins 1-7  and the red (+) to pin 5. What you got to do is make sure the pins 1-7 are connected to the positive (+) of the D cell   and pin 5 to the negative (-)  of the D cell , like in the schematic diagram : either you flip the battery holder or the D cell. The D cell positive should point to the centre in the manual layout if you just flip the cell. (Nipple end of the cell to the spring of cell holder)
I've got the Quickie running for about 80 hours +B =32,2 V and filament 1,4 V. I use Duracell Procell.
..... and it keeps getting better.

Jorge

 

[Paul Joppa]

JONO, thanks for that clear and concise post.

The battery holder was originally designed for the spring to go to the negative (flat) end - that's why it gets the black wire. Fortunately, most alkaline D cells today have all metal at the positive end, so you can flip them and still get a reliable connection. That battery holder design goes back to the days of carbon-zinc cells, which had a central carbon rod with a metal cap for the positive connection with some kind of goop (tar perhaps?) surrounding it. The entire outer casing was the negative terminal, pure zinc. It would rot through as the cell died, and leak the corrosive insides all over your electronics if you did not monitor them. Even nastier than the electrolytic caps of those days, though not quite so explosive. Components have come a long way since I was a kid. :^)

 

[Paul Birkeland]

With the reversed batteries which way should the + end on the d cells point? Should they point in towards each other or out away from the center? A pic would help too.

Look at the photo in the manual, flip your D-cells around the other way...