game battery life affected by temperature?

[The Manimal]

i ask this as i am questioning whether to put game carts in my basement again.


i remember having new batteries for my discman many years ago in the trunk of my parents' car during the winter for a few hours, and the batteries died. made me mad. so this gave me this impression, as well as hearing the idea from many over the years.


however, i kept NES carts w/ batteries in our basement for a good ten years and they didn't die (i eventually moved them upstairs 'just in case'). i am running out of room, i could leave just the battery games upstairs and put the rest downstairs in our basement, but as preference i like to have all my games in the same place even though it's not that important...it's just a convenience. would be nice freeing up some space.

so is the whole battery-cold thing a wives tale? or is it for only EXTREME cold? i don't think it gets to 32F/0C in our basement during the winter as our cat water never freezes, but on the coldest days you wouldn't want to go down there in shorts. :) sometimes i would use a square space-heater that i would plug into the wall to keep me warm while playing games. during the summer, it stays comfortably cool (lower room temperature or slightly below), to where you can wear shorts, it is nice, and personally i'd rather be down there all the time during the summer than upstairs. :) as far as moisture goes, we have one dehumidifier and our basement is huge, and on summer days, the basin thing will fill up once a day completely with water. but we have kept magazines, books, etc down there and nothing has really ever wrinkled or gone bad unless water actually got on it (like things laying on the floor). i've had some nintendo power mags in the basement for 13 years and they aren't wrinkled yet. but either way...


batteries in carts affected by cold (as in a basement)?

thanks.

[Bratwurst]

The alkalines in your CD player are a different type of battery than the lithium cells in your Nintendo cartridge. Lithiums are batteries meant to last a long while giving off a very low current, as opposed to alkalines which give up more power in a single shot.

As for the cold issue, what the lower temperatures are doing is slowing down the chemical reactions inside the cell, prolonging a battery's shelf life, or 'stand-by' mode. There's no rejuvenating going on. This is also responsible for some cars refusing to start on a very cold winter morning.

PS to the geniuses out there: Don't stick your carts in the freezer because condensation will collect on the circuit board.

[The Manimal]

so putting carts in a basement might be preferable given that it isn't extremely moist?

[Bratwurst]

Better than putting them in the attic in front of direct sunlight.

[The Manimal]

hehe


let me rephrase that, preferable to a room temperature bedroom that in the summer feels scorching hot until we stick the AC's in ... :)

[bargora]

PS to the geniuses out there: Don't stick your carts in the freezer because condensation will collect on the circuit board.
Excellent advice. Plus, you won't end up posting here later about how you got drunk and jammed a chicken pot pie into your NES.