List of Battery Sizes - Non-standard Brand-specific Names

Non-standard Brand-specific Names

Manufacturers may assign proprietary names and numbers to their batteries, disregarding common, colloquial, IEC, and ANSI naming conventions (see LR44 battery as an example). Often this is done to steer customers towards a specific brand, and away from competing or generic brands, by obfuscating the common name. For example, if a remote control needs a new battery and the battery compartment has the label, "Replace with CX472 type battery," many customers will buy that specific brand, not realizing that this is simply a brand name for a common type of battery. For example, British standard U series were often sold under manufacturer prefixes such as "C" "SP" "HP" etc.; Ever Ready sold "U2" (D) batteries as "SP2" (standard-duty zinc carbon) and "HP2" (heavy duty zinc chloride).

On the other hand, with obscure battery types, the name of a specific brand will sometimes become the most common name for that battery type, as other manufacturers copy or modify the name so that customers recognize it.