Why are car batteries rechargeable when household batteries aren't?

Question

What I meant was what is different between batteries that can recharge and batteries that can't. And I don't use enough batteries to buy a charger, so I wouldn't have thought of recharging household batteries in a million years.

Answer 1

they are lead-acid batteries house batteries are usually alkaline batteries

Answer 2

I would not use a rechargeable batteries for things that you will not use over a long time. Say a flash light(used for emergencies), TV remote, and smoke detector. Rechargeable batteries loose charge over time even if you don't use what there placed in to.
I use rechargeable batteries for my remote control cars, robots, and my kids toys.
Also a good AA battery will cost around 50 cents each in bulk. A good AA NI-MH rechargeable say 2500mA will cost around 5 dollars each. But you will get at least 200 charges out of each battery.

Answer 3

Re-charageable household batteries are pretty commonly available, but be careful here. The Nickle Metal Hydride ones that are common are a 1.2 volt battery. Alkalines and zinc carbon (both non-rechargeable) are 1.5 volts, so your flashlight will be much dimmer (bulbs are very sensitive to voltage levels) and your digital camera will take longer to cycle between pictures. But, you can get them in every size and the chargers are cheap. They are really good for people that use a lot of batteries, like cyclists and campers. Look for them on the web as NiMh batteries and chargers. The older Nickle Cadmium batteries are vanishing -- cadmium is a "bad" metal, so their production is zilch.

Answer 4

some of them are...i suppose it just takes more money to make the rechargeable ones, and the rechargeable ones are more expensive, anyhow. but you can buy rechargeable household batteries if you want to spend fifty bucks on a charger.

Answer 5

Ever heard of rechargeable batteries? :P

But car batteries are significantly different than most batteries, and if a car battery goes dead you have to eventually replace it because it won't recharge forever. If you ever see a car battery they are pretty big and often made of lead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_battery I don't know the exact technical aspects besides protons and electrons moving etc.. much easier and probably easier to understand if you look there rather than listen to me explain.

Answer 6

Get rechargeable batteries! they are a little bit more expensive but they work. Dont forget to get charger too!

Answer 7

Car batteries are accumulators, while usual household batteries are made different. It is a building principle based on a chemical reaction (reversible for accumulators)

Answer 8

Because car batteries have storage cells and a household battery is a cell. once you use the cell, it's done. No storage space inside a little battery like that.

Answer 9

You can buy rechargeable household batteries

if you want to

(only if u want to)

Answer 10

Made of different materials.