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Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

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elceedee

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Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

Post16 Jun 2013, 03:02

Right...
I thought I did some good research online considering the high drain/low drain batteries a long time ago and have been fitting batteries ever so.
Since I bought a battery selector im confused; high drain seems to be low drain all in a sudden
Looking up 'SW high drain' in google brings up different results..
Right now im thinking (opposite to what I used to):
SW = low drain
W = high drain (light, alarm etc etc)
Am I Correct?

Placing this item not in the tech part as its having relevance with all watches discussed here

Thanks
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peachykeen

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Re: Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

Post16 Jun 2013, 20:24

seicitizitch wrote:SW = low drain
W = high drain (light, alarm etc etc)
Am I Correct?


Unfortunately you're not. The "S" suffix indicated a Sodium Hydroxide electrolyte whereas the button cells without an "S" use an organic electrolyte.
The less common "P" suffix indicates Potassium Hydroxide, and "W" is just an indicator for the battery being IEC 60086-3 compliant, i.e. it can be safely used in watches.
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elceedee

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Re: Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

Post16 Jun 2013, 20:31

Actually that's fortunately, as I fitted all my watches with alarm and light etc with the SW versions, thus hight drain (as I used to think, and which is confirmed now)
I bought this battery selector which gives the basic numbers (395, 390 etc) and downloaded a conversion table for all battery brands recently which I trusted and which gave opposite results.. Now I know the conversion table is faulty as far as W and SW.
Thanks a lot for your help
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Re: Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

Post01 Aug 2013, 16:19

Okay, still confused here
In the picture below you see a recent Renata battery selector.
The left row are the low drain batteries (see icons on the selector), the right row are the high drain batteries.
I put two Seiko cells on each representative row for each battery (301 and 389)
Here we see that the SR43SW is low drain and that the SR1130W is high drain
Right now I tend to stick to this information as It's impossible Renate has it wrong, or -even worse ;) - Seiko has it wrong
Nevertheless I still read opposite info inline (and in this thread)
Maybe you guys can shed a new light on this.

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peachykeen

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Re: Batteries SW vs W, high drain, low drain

Post03 Aug 2013, 10:05

seicitizitch wrote:Okay, still confused here
In the picture below you see a recent Renata battery selector.
The left row are the low drain batteries (see icons on the selector), the right row are the high drain batteries.
I put two Seiko cells on each representative row for each battery (301 and 389)
Here we see that the SR43SW is low drain and that the SR1130W is high drain
Right now I tend to stick to this information as It's impossible Renate has it wrong, or -even worse ;) - Seiko has it wrong
Nevertheless I still read opposite info inline (and in this thread)
Maybe you guys can shed a new light on this.

I think you misunderstood my post.
"S" does _only_ stand for sodium hydroxide, it _does not_ tell whether the battery is high or low drain
"P" does _only_ stand for potassium hydroxide, it _does not_ tell whether the battery is high or low drain
"W" does _only_ stand for IEC60086-3 compliance. Again, it _does not_ tell whether the battery is high or low drain

high vs. low drain is *only* marked either by the battery number (i.e. a cell with a size of 11.6×3.1mm would be either a 390 = low drain, or a 389 = high drain), or by HD/(LD) in case there's only one number available for a given size.

For your two batteries it means:
SR43SW (301): 301 = low drain. If it was a high drain, it would be marked (386). In addition it has a sodium hydroxide electrolyte (*S*W) and it's IEC60086-3 compliant (S*W*)
SR1130W (389): 389 = high drain. If it was a low drain, it would be marked (390). In addition it has an organic electrolyte (no S or P before the *W*, which again means it's IEC60086-3 compliant)

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