The Batteroo Boost (formerly known as the Batteriser ( )) is a line of products designed by Batteroo, Inc. that is claimed to significantly extend

battery life An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering Electricity, electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode a ...

by using a miniature boost voltage regulator. It was

crowd-funded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...

on Indiegogo. The company is based in Sunnyvale, California and founded by Bob Roohparvar and Frankie Roohparvar.

Product details

A patent was filed by Fariborz Frankie Roohparvar with the priority date of September 20, 2010. The Batteroo Boost is claimed to extend the life of both new and used batteries. Batteroo has said that Batterisers are non-toxic, reusable, and coated with a non-conductive coating to prevent any risk of shorts. They also claim that a built-in reverse polarity protection mechanism eliminates dangers of inserting a battery into the Batteriser the wrong way. Crowdfunding completed between July 2015 produced $394,459, while the initial goal was $30,000. During the crowdfunding Batteroo announced they would be producing Batteroo Boost for AA,

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

, C, and D

batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

. In August 2017, Batteroo launched a second crowd-funding campaign for a line of products for rechargeable batteries called Batteroo Reboost. In this crowd-funding campaign, they raised an additional $42,311. The shipping date for the product has been delayed for various reasons, but photos from the manufacturing process have been made available. As of early May 2016, the company was months overdue to ship to its Indiegogo backers, with some backers accusing Batteroo of running a scam.

Product tests

In a test by UL, a Garmin Golf GPS using Batteroo Boost was shown to have a lifespan of 10 hours and 12 minutes, in contrast to the 1 hour and 43 minutes of operating time without a Batteroo Boost. However, TechnologyCatalyst repeated the test and found that the Garmin displayed a notification that the backlight could not be turned on due to low voltage after an hour or so on ordinary AA batteries, but then the GPS operated normally for over 17 hours. TechnologyCatalyst suggested that the device could be useful "if Batteriser was honest about its product", not to prolong battery life but to stabilise voltage over its lifetime. PC World's Jon Phillips demoed the Batteroo Boost operating on batteries in an

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

keyboard that he claimed were dead. The 'power meter' on the computer's screen showed the batteries as being dead without the Batteroo Boost, and as having 100% power remaining with the Batteriser. Brian Dipert at EDN called into question the strain on the keyboard being caused by the 'power meter,' and suggested that this test might not be representative of the Batteroo Boost's effectiveness in other applications.

Controversies

Effectiveness

AA Alkaline battery energy usage - discharge current 100mA

The Batteriser's efficacy in consumer applications has been challenged by a number of sources. A source of contention surrounds the brownout voltages for battery-operated devices. David L. Jones in his EEVBlog used a

programmable power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a r ...

to determine that nearly all devices function in some respect until around 1.1V, or roughly 80% of a battery's life due to the non-linear discharge curve of batteries. This stands in contrast to Batteroo's claim that using a Batteroo Boost will unlock the remaining 80% of power (from 1.3V downwards). Batteroo has claimed that the bench power supply test is flawed, because of the definitions used by Jones to define device functionality, the inherent differences between power supplies and batteries on the basis of Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR), and different measures of voltage (confusion between open circuit voltage and closed circuit voltage). A further source of controversy is that the Batteroo Boost will shorten battery life in devices that undergo only intermittent use, because the Batteriser is always drawing power to boost the voltage, even when the device is idle. The first devices were delivered at the end of 2016. Frank Buss, and later on, Dave Jones, concluded in a first test that the device is not efficient when used in an electronically-unregulated toy train.

Potential dangers

David Jones on EEV Blog raised the concern that because the Batteroo Boost acts as a ground for the boost converter circuit, any nick in the insulation might result in a direct short, and potentially a fire.

Internet controversy

In the wake of Dave Jones' video about Batteriser, his video was disliked by an abnormally large number of Youtube accounts with IP addresses located in Vietnam. Other bloggers with Batteroo Boost-related videos experienced similar activity from addresses in Vietnam. The bloggers involved suspect that either a click farm in Vietnam was engaged to disrepute those attacking Batteroo Boost, or a single computer with many fake or stolen YouTube accounts utilized proxied

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

es to cover its tracks.

Lawsuit regarding name

On July 25, 2016, Energizer Brands LLC filed a federal lawsuit, saying that the name Batteriser violates a variety of its trademarks on the word "energizer". The lawsuit said that "... despite advertisements, solicitation, and pre-orders, Batteroo has not delivered a single Batteriser product to a consumer in the ordinary course of business." According to the lawsuit, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled June 27 in favor of Energizer and refused registration of the Batteriser and Batterise marks. According to Energizer, Batteroo also tried to falsely implicate Energizer in the product delays of Batteriser.

References

{{Reflist, 2, refs= {{Cite web , title = Negative Feedback - Attack on a YouTube Channel , first = Joe , last = Stewart , work = Dell SecureWorks Security and Compliance Blog , date = September 3, 2015 , accessdate = October 22, 2015 , url = http://www.secureworks.com/resources/blog/negative-feedback-attack-on-a-youtube-channel/ , quote = Dave Jones’ EEVblog, came under attack after having published a series of videos debunking a product claiming to vastly extend the life of alkaline batteries. {{cite web , url = https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/batteriser-extend-battery-life-by-up-to-8x#/ , title = Batteriser: Extend Battery Life By Up to 8x. , publisher =Indiegogo , accessdate =April 26, 2016 {{Cite web , title = Hackers spamming YouTube videos with dislikes using hijacked Vietnamese IP addresses , last = Russon , first = Mary-Ann , work = International Business Times UK , date = September 7, 2015 , accessdate = October 22, 2015 , url = http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/we-dislike-you-vietnam-hackers-give-youtube-videos-thumbs-down-1518821 , language = , quote = ...received hundreds of dislikes on his 30 August video debunking a product called Batteriser, which claims to greatly extend the life of alkaline batteries. {{Cite web , title = Batteriser battery life extender: scam or saviour? , first = Hannah , last = Francis , work = The Sydney Morning Herald , date = September 17, 2015 , accessdate = October 22, 2015 , url = https://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/batteriser-battery-life-extender-scam-or-saviour-20150915-gjmrql.html , quote = In some cases using Batteriser could even shorten a battery's life, Jones said, because the product is effectively drawing power to boost voltage all the time, even when a device is idle. , url-status = dead , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150917233050/http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/batteriser-battery-life-extender-scam-or-saviour-20150915-gjmrql.html , archivedate = September 17, 2015 , df = mdy-all {{Cite web , title = The Batteriser: scam or savior? , last = Dipert , first = Brian , work = EDN , date = August 13, 2015 , accessdate = October 23, 2015 , url = http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4440136/The-Batteriser--scam-or-savior- , quote = ...Batteriser ... represents an impressive ... case study ... of today's DC voltage boost and regulation capabilities. {{Cite web , title = Batteriser is a $2.50 gadget that extends disposable battery life by 800 percent , first = Jon , last = Phillips , work = PCWorld , date = June 1, 2015 , accessdate = October 23, 2015 , url = http://www.pcworld.com/article/2928997/batteriser-is-a-250-gadget-that-extends-disposable-battery-life-by-800-percent.html , quote = Roohparvar gave me a demonstration of Batteriser’s effectiveness. {{Cite web , title = Don't Buy The Bullshit This Indiegogo Campaign Is Selling , last = Mills , first = Chris , work = Gizmodo , date = September 22, 2015 , accessdate = October 23, 2015 , url = https://gizmodo.com/dont-buy-the-bullshit-this-indiegogo-campaign-is-sellin-1732402971 , quote = For some particular high-power devices (really, the only example are old-skool cameras that run on AAs)... {{Cite web , title = Crowdfunding Follies: Debunking The Batteriser , first = Brian , last = Benchoff , work = Hackaday , date = June 6, 2015 , accessdate = October 23, 2015 , url = http://hackaday.com/2015/06/06/crowdfunding-follies-debunking-the-batteriser/ , quote = {{Cite web , title = Patent US 20120121943 - Structure and Method for Extending Battery Life , first = Fariborz Frankie , last = Roohparvar , date = September 20, 2010 , access-date = October 23, 2015 , url = https://patents.google.com/patent/US20120121943 , language = , quote = Claim 3 ...comprising a voltage regulator circuit... {{Cite web , title = Batteriser.com , first = Bob , last = Roohparvar , date = 2015 , accessdate = April 26, 2016 , url = https://www.batteriser.com , quote = Tap into 80% more energy with Batteriser. , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160418021704/http://batteriser.com/ , archive-date = April 18, 2016 , url-status = dead {{Cite web , title = Batteriser Indiegogo Updates , first = Bob , last = Roohparvar , publisher = Indiegogo , date = April 7, 2016 , accessdate = April 26, 2016 , url = https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/batteriser-extend-battery-life-by-up-to-8x#/updates , quote = We’re happy to also provide you with some photos from our manufacturing line of Batterisers in China... {{Cite web , title = Batteriser FAQ , first = Bob , last = Roohparvar , publisher = Batteriser , date = 2015 , accessdate = April 26, 2016 , url = http://batteriser.com/faq/ , quote = No, the sleeve is covered with a non-conductive coating, which prevents shorting. {{Cite web , title = The Batteriser: Defenders and Detractors , first = Brian , last = Dipert , publisher = EDN Network , date = September 16, 2015 , accessdate = April 26, 2016 , url = http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4440366/The-Batteriser--defenders-and-detractors , quote = In the same video, he mentions that “most electronic devices have boost circuitry” making Batteriser useless. One cannot have it both ways. {{Cite web , title = UL Garmin Report , publisher = UL , date = 2015 , accessdate = April 26, 2016 , url = http://batteriser.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Batteriser_ULReport_GPSDevice.pdf , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160122031930/http://batteriser.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Batteriser_ULReport_GPSDevice.pdf , archive-date = January 22, 2016 , url-status = dead Electric power conversion Consumer electronics Indiegogo projects