# Max Discharge Rate of typical Alkaline Button Cell Batteries

I have simple circuit that has some led diodes, 3 LR41 batteries and no resistor.

By looking at this website, it seems their capacity is about 30mAh. But I couldn't find anywhere the max discharge rate of these kinda of batteries.

Can we say that their max discharge rate is 1C or 30mA, or they can deliver even more?

Batteries are complicated chemical reactions. The 30mAh will be when drawing some specific current. A larger or smaller draw will change that value. So will temperature.

What's the maximum current you can pull? Well, the battery has an internal resistance which will limit the current. The formula is I=V/R.

How long will it last at that level? No idea, but it's certainly going to give you less than 30mAh.

The short circuit current pulse tells you what the internal fresh ESR is so you should consider that when dishing out current and thermal rise from $I^2 \text{ESR}\cdot R_{th}= \text{temperature rise}$ for electrical discharge. The mAh is rated for 10h and might drop 50% for 1h load depending on quality and 1C might vary from 25~32 mAh with wide variation on Isc and thus ESR.

For possible understanding on the battery V/I curves read why

Silver Oxide cells (SRxxx) have about 150% of alkaline (LRxxx) short term capacity, and 133% of long term capacity Better cost/performance ratio may be obtained with CR32 or any Lithium 3.0V cell

• Unfortunately for me, This answer is abit technical for my level of electronic understanding. I don't know what are those variables and i don't know how to get them for these batteries. Isn't there a more general rule in case of alkaline batteries? For example what is the max discharge rate of them in terms of C? – Euphoria May 29 '18 at 16:58