Best battery for Stages power meter

Anyone find any particular brand of batteries to be better than others for your Stages power meter? It seems like every time I have to replace my battery I have to go through 2 or 3 brand new ones to find one that works well. My Stages seems very finicky and I get repeated dropouts until I find a battery that it likes. I always check the new ones with a volt meter to make sure they are fully charged too, so it’s not like the new ones are actually DOA…

I’ve had good luck with Energizer Lithium (Blue package), although I can’t say that I test with a volt meter.

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I just bought a 10 pack of Panasonic ones. I’ve drained two now, and never had a bad one out of the package.

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I bought some rechargeable batteries off Amazon. The initial cost was greater but I’ve saved quite a bit in the long run.

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My experience with my stages is that battery comsumtion is high if it’s gotten wet inside the unit. I’ll also get dropouts. I open the battery cover and dry it out before checking the seal and closing it again

Sometimes I get the battery running down really quickly, like 3 weeks. It seems to happen when I’ve been doing more indoor training so perhaps the unit stays paired somehow

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I have Gen 3 Stages PM, and the nice people at Stages are sending me a couple of new battery doors plus O-rings gratis. It’s worth keeping a few spare sets in your toolkit if and when you need to swap out the old ones.

I had the same problem. I had to do a lot of research on which batteries to buy–many of them coming from China are cheap knockoffs and more than half drained or DOA. These seem to work well for me so far and are mostly reliable: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071DFPLK7

My Stages got really wet and as you described, the battery started to drain fast, even when not riding. I contacted stages and they offered to upgrade the electronics for a fee, which seemed reasonable, if the situation persisted and the unit was no longer usable. Fortunately, the unit dried out and battery life returned to normal.

I find duracell to be the best. However during the winter months I remove the crank arm and bring it in the house after each ride.

I had what sounds like a similar issue with a 4iiii PM. My wife has the same one with no issues - same batteries out of same pack. I was swapping batteries all the time, would get a good run of a few weeks, swap again.

Precision agreed to rebuild the unit. I haven’t got it back yet. My point is it shouldn’t be normal and may be the not the batteries. I tried cheap, expensive, etc. Again, wife riding next to me in the group or basement had no issues. I had consistent issues.

Stages are notorious for issues with battery life. They were still warrantying mine after three years. I think I’ve been through 4 of them.

Rechargeable CR2032’s? I didn’t even know that existed.

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Interesting. I can’t imagine what would cause that. If it keeps up I might have to contact Stages about it.

That’s a really good point about it staying paired. Or constantly checking anyway. I try to remember to shut TR down after every ride but sometimes I forget and it could be constantly draining the batter for a day or 2 between rides…

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I guess I’ll just keep trying batteries and see if I can find a good one. And remember to shut TR down between rides so that the battery isn’t getting constantly drained.

Is your firmware up to date?

Good thought, but yes.

I just checked and I use Energizer batteries. Not sure if different countries source them from different factories but the ones I currently have are manufactured in Indonesia. Mine is a V2 Stages and I have put a little bit of cardboard under the battery to make the door fit a bit more snugly, I seem to recall I’ve ‘adjusted’ the metal clips in the past to hold the battery more securely.

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I was wondering about the battery thickness. I seem to recall that they can be different, which can cause them to flop around…

I have a Dura Ace and XTR Stages. The XTR draines batteries 3 to 1 over the Dura Ace.