Ted Bertiger posted:Why tap over the contact in the base when you can just turn it over and turn the charging circuit off? As for the handheld eating batteries, I haven't noticed if mine does.
I have mine turned off but in that rare instance it gets turned back on, those regular alkalines won't like to be charged! I use my Legacy base at shows so it gets taken out and packed up quite a few times in a year's time.
As for regular alkalines, a 24 or 36 pack sold for $8 or $10 at Lowes some time ago so I just use the regular ones.
You can get 4 alkaline batteries for a dollar at Dollar Tree and they seem to by just as good as Duracells, but I turn off the charger on my Cab 2 and only turn it on when the batteries are about half charged.