Taste-testing 9-volts

The battery in our smoke detector died. I pulled it out and set it on the kitchen counter while looking for a new one. Rob wandered in, picked up the battery and stuck it on his tongue. While he claims that this is a valid method for testing, I don’t know anyone else who taste tests batteries. I’m sure it would discharge if it were not dead, so yes, valid test, but still!

Does anyone else find this odd?

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8 thoughts on “Taste-testing 9-volts”

  1. Well, it was a common thing for a lot of the guys to do in elementary school, but they also ate glue, paper, pencils, and even attempted the plastic from their pencil boxes…

    I, however, am a wuss and have never tried it.

  2. I test them that way, too. Have since I was, oh, seven or eight. I tried a battery that I had pulled out of a smoke detector that was beeping (indicating low voltage), and it still created that wonderful buzz on my tongue. It was not a “full strength” buzz, but it was there, the point being that it’s not always easy to tell if a battery is good using this test…

  3. My father… an electrical engineer, no less, taught me this trick as a child. I agree with Brad, that it is really only good for telling when you accidently put a really dead battery back into the junk drawer.

    I’m surprised Rob would expose his sensitive palate to such an assault… oh well, as long as there wasn’t too much oak, I guess it’s all right…

  4. I can’t believe you’d never heard of this method of battery testing, Mary! I can’t bring myself to do it anymore (I don’t enjoy the tingly buzz on my tongue or the metallic aftertaste) but I certainly did as a kid.

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