Quickie battery life and rechargeables

[frank bare]

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but for someone new to this:

If the Quickie/Quicksand is on, but no signal applied, do we know what the battery life is for both? I will often turn off my system when not in use, but on days I'm in the office, be nice to leave on.

And, do rechargeable batteries work equally well in both? Do they hold energy like a standard Alkaline or not? Currently I get about 4-5 weeks on a set of alkalines, leaving on 3-4 hrs/night.

Just curious,
Thanks for your input as always!
Frank
Bare

[Bonzo]

It has been wrote that quicksand can last 300h when left on accidentally, Quickie would drain a pair of D cells in 100h and the 4 9v batteries in 50h.
Hope it helps.
PS: I use rechargeable batteries in my Quickie and they last a little less than 35 h (for the D cells I use two AA in parallel, so the comparison wouldn't be apples to apples).
Hope it helps.
Ciao

[Zimmer64]

I'm quite happy with my rechargeable in the Quickie. Bought some high capacity D-Cells for longer life. But be careful to turn it off. I forgot once and most of them did not recover, which is an expensive replacement.....

Michael

[4krow]

From one time or another, I see this subject come up. I cannot think of a viable way to remind someone of turning off the Q without maybe an indicator light, which itself can lead to new battery life issues. Then, there seems to be the observation that the batteries can run dry even when not in use. The response to this is that the 36v pack will not run current if the 1.5v cells are not in use, making the heaters active. I have been leery of even this assurance, and have put all voltages on a switch. My thinking on rechargable batteries is to get big beefy battery packs to begin with, and then have a reserve that lasts for quite awhile before needing to be recharged again.

[mcandmar]

I used to run mine with three 12v sealed lead acid batterys for the HV supply, it lasted for months between charges.  The D cells were always a bigger problem, but it would still make music with a battery down to 1v which is well below what is considered a discharged and dead battery.  I suppose you could parallel a bunch of A, C or D cells to create a larger reservoir.