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Assault and Batteries
The Travel Technologist · March 7, 2002

Call it assault and battery, 21st century style. You're on a trip. Your camera, cell phone, or personal digital assistant runs out of juice. Wham! There goes your productivity.

It happened to Lawana Holland on a recent visit to Senegal. "We had gone cross-country from Dakar to Niokolo-Koba Park in the southeastern part of the country. I was looking forward to taking photos of antelope, baboons-and the looks on my very urban friends' faces when they saw their huts for camp," recalls the Washington illustrator. "I was using a digital camera, and my rechargeable batteries died on me. Of course I had left my recharger back in Dakar, and it wouldn't have been useful anyway since there were no outlets."

It happened to Annette Grohman on a photo safari to Manhattan. "We were headed to the Statue of Liberty when all of a sudden my friend's camera made a strange sound. It turns out that his battery had died," says the supervisor for a membership organization. "The funny part is that we were in Battery Park and we couldn't find anywhere to buy a new battery until we went searching in the neighborhood."

And it happened to Jens Reichel, the owner of a travel agency in Cologne, Germany. Last February he tried to escape the city's carnival event by taking an overnight trip to Berlin. Then his clients started to call, many of them hoping to book last-minute trips, themselves. "The computer runs on two batteries, so I was sure that would be enough for a day. Stupid me! The batteries ran out of power long before I was done. I had to ask a number of customers to wait until the next day because I was simply unable to do anything for them," he remembers.

Don't let it happen to you.

I've written about the problems of running out of juice on the road in a recent column and have also previewed some of the possible solutions. One of those new products is Electric Fuel's line of disposable batteries, which is now available.

Electric Fuel just sent me a box of its new product, and I'm impressed. I like the fact that its batteries are extremely simple to use (just open and plug in), last long (up to 12 hours), and are ideal for travelers who don't want to mess with rechargers, adapters, or other such peripherals. Also noteworthy are the number of batteries that are available. Chances are, if you need a power source for your next trip, you can find it on the Electric Fuel website.

Two things I could have done without are the high prices (ranging from about $14 to $19, depending on the model) and the concept of disposability. Every battery ends up in a landfill sooner or later, but with disposables, it's sooner rather than later. While these products certainly have their place, I'm reluctant to recommend a disposable for everyday use. These are backup batteries for times when your rechargeables unexpectedly fizzle.

Coincidentally, my colleague Anita Dunham-Potter runs a business called Star Batteries that specializes in Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries and battery chargers. Although I haven't personally tested a Star battery yet, I find the cost-benefit analysis done on her site to be remarkable. Using a rechargeable battery, it seems, can save you thousands of dollars.

I think preventing dead batteries from killing your next trip means effectively balancing a disposable backup battery with rechargeable or primary battery. Experienced travelers carry both kinds and they also know when to use them. (In other words, use the disposable only in emergencies.) If you're out of balance, then you'll either end up paying too much for your batteries or you'll run out of power.

Neither of these is acceptable.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site. This story was also published on SmarterLiving.com.