WP34s Drain battery power

[inaqui76]

Hi all, I'm a structural engineer from Buenos Aires (sorry for my english it's a bit rusty)

I left my WP34s in my office desk drawer when the pandemic started.
It was stored there for almost a year and a half. During this time at home office I was force tu use excel and the phone calculator (shame on me)..
When I finally got back to the office and was able to retrieve it, the batteries were dead. It did not seem strange to me since I did not remembered when I had changed them...
The point is that after 3 weeks it ran out of battery again and I assumed that the ones that they sold me were bad, I replaced them and again with very little use around 3 weeks it ran out of battery again...
Has anyone heard something similar? What could be the problem?

[John Galt]

The most likely cause is bad or poor quality batteries.

Beware that counterfeit batteries are very common and are generally of very poor quality. They may outwardly resemble quality Duracell or Energizer batteries, so conclusively identifying a legitimate battery is nearly impossible.

The converse - conclusively identifying a fake - is easier, but it is very difficult to impossible to identify fakes by their external appearance. The best assurance you are buying legitimate batteries from retail vendors is to purchase them from a reliable vendor. Amazon is not a reliable vendor.

References: I emailed both companies regarding this topic. The response I received from Duracell was by far the more comprehensive and addressed my concerns in extensive detail. They suggested inspecting the packaging, because packaging is relatively expensive and more difficult to reproduce. Counterfeit battery manufacturers tend to use cheap packaging.

The response I received from Energizer was poorly written and dismissive of my concerns. They essentially denied the existence of fakes. For that reason I no longer purchase Energizer products and no longer include them in any products I sell.

The Panasonic batteries that HP included with their 30b calculators were almost certainly genuine, but they do not last as long as genuine Energizer or Duracell batteries. Still, they should last for years in storage. I recently had several unopened HP 30b calculators, five years old or more, whose Panasonic batteries still worked upon first use.

Bottom line: Your WP 34s batteries should last at least a year, unused in the calculator. Given intense, daily use in your position as a structural engineer, they may last as little as three weeks. Under more casual semi-daily use, mine last about nine months.

[inaqui76]

thank you John for your response..