Battery standardization is kind of an important thing. When I need batteries for my flashlight, radio, or other geegaw, the last thing I want is to discover I’m out of the battery I need but I have zillions of the batteries I don’t.

For my general needs, it’s just three battery sizes: CR123, AA, and D. End of story. Sometimes it requires a compromise when one product might use one of those batteries but another, better, product might use something like a 9-volt or C-battery. In cases like that I usually fall on the side of logistics because even if the product is a bit better, when the batteries fade and it’s non-functional it will be a lot less than ‘better’.

For stuff that I carry around in the Bag O’ Tricks there is no room for argument – one battery size. Period. Full stop.

For that task, I go with AA lithium batts. They are expensive, yes. The advantage is that they are far less vulnerable to temperature, and they tend to keep their charge over time. The problem is, how to carry spares. I used to just take an Altoids tin, line it with plastic, put tape over the ends of the batteries, and  store ’em that way. Cheap, but there are better ways. A fella handed me a Maxpedition catalog years ago and they had this little guy:

It has been my absolute first choice for storing spare batteries in my gear. It keeps them separate from each other, protects the important ends, and conveniently splits apart and is colored to help differentiate dead from live batteries. (Whys ave the dead ones? Might be rechargeables that you want to save for later recharging.)

I’ve used this thing to carry around my spare AA batts (and it’ll carry CR123 batts as well) for years and can’t think of a problem I’ve had with it. I keep it in the nylon pouch as an added measure of safety and security, but the plastic sleeve by itself would seem to work fine in a tucked away pocket on your gear.

The things I carry in my bag that need those batteries? A couple small LED lights, a small AM/FM/SW radio, and the very small and very useful ICOM R6 receiver. All of those run on AA’s and therefore I only need to keep the one type of battery in my bag. (Also means that, in a real crunch, I could swap batteries as needed between devices.)

While the pouch has MOLLE webbing to let you mount it to your gear, I find it more useful to carry it inside my gear. Why leave it outside your bag to get banged around?

As I said, I’ve used this sort of thing for carrying around spare batts for years and haven’t had a single problem with ’em. Recommended.