How long do batteries last in a Wiimote?

January 21, 2007 10:56 AM

Wii owners: How long did your original pack-in Panasonic batteries last in your Wiimote?

I've heard reports of the batteries petering out around the 15-hour mark or so. However, I turned off the speaker to the Wiimote after about 8 hours of Midna tinnily cackling at me every ten seconds, and turned off vibration a few hours after that. When the batteries ran out, I added up my total play time (awesome/depressing that I can do that) and came up with 28 hours. I don't expect anyone else was as obsessive about this to get an exact number, but an approximation would be good too.

Clearly the Wiimote drains juice faster than a WaveBird, since it's got to do all sorts of fascinating things the WaveBird does not. What I'm trying to find out is how drastically battery life can be improved by turning some of those things off, so any info in that vein would be helpful too.

And once more: Wiimote
Just so we can all feel comfortable saying it.

posted by Durhey to technology (11 comments total)

I think probably 15 hours of wii sports drained my batteries.

I didn't get zelda until a few weeks later though.
posted by Iananan at 10:58 AM on January 21, 2007

I put about 15 or so hours into Zelda, 5ish hours into Red Steel, and a lot of Wii Sports before my batteries died. My roommate also played Zelda as well. So I'd say my batteries died around the 25 hour mark but it might've been a bit longer than that.

I turned down the speaker to two bars and I turned off rumble. I also invested in some rechargeable batteries.

I think I read somewhere that the Wiimote uses up more battery life when it is used as a pointer. I got about 12 hours into Elebits (with some sporadic Wii Sports and Zelda) before I had to recharge.
posted by Diskeater at 11:00 AM on January 21, 2007

diskeater: the pointer drain makes sense, because it requires the IR camera as well as the other parts to be working simultaneously
posted by Iananan at 11:09 AM on January 21, 2007

I'd say 20-30 hours for mine (Sports + Zelda). Subsequent batteries haven't fared as well, it seems.
posted by biscotti at 11:19 AM on January 21, 2007

6 hours, tops, for mine. I thought time just flew by, but actually the batteries just didn't last very long.
posted by Xere at 11:26 AM on January 21, 2007

The pack-in batteries lasted maybe 20 hours in mine, but the Energizers I put in afterwards are still ticking along a month or so later. The pack-in batteries never last long at all when it comes to Nintendo products for some reason.
posted by Servo5678 at 11:47 AM on January 21, 2007

I think they made it around 20 hours of ZELDA-time for me as well. I'm not sure they were Panasonic, also; it's possible they're sourcing lots of different batteries. I'm just going into invest in rechargeables, obviously. And yeah, the Wavebirds get waaaaaay more time out of AAs than the Wiimotes do. I myself was considering turning off rumbling, but it's so enjoyably implemented in ZELDA that I can't bring myself to...
posted by logovisual at 12:22 PM on January 21, 2007

Maybe 20 hours of wii sports & super monkey ball. But, I turned off sound pretty much right away. When I started playing zelda, I went thru a couple batteries (50 hours a game play). Then I got rechargeables.
posted by R343L at 12:55 PM on January 21, 2007

Thanks for the answers, all. I was just using the pack-ins as a metric since I figured everyone's would be the same.

What a mysterious little device. I didn't think the IR camera would be that much of a drain, since I imagine the camera's still receiving even if it's not pointed at the TV, and the info it sends is updated just as often as any other input method.

However, it does seem like turning off speaker/vibration can be a big boost. I think I'll just leave the speaker off by default unless given a reason not to.

I've heard rechargeables are somehow bad for the Wiimote, but they're sure good for my wallet, and that's a question for another time.
posted by Durhey at 1:43 PM on January 21, 2007

Durhey - To answer your second question, Nintendo originally stated that you shouldn't use rechargeable batteries in the remotes but they revamped that statement and gave the thumbs up to using NiMH batteries.

Keep your eyes peeled for a number of third-party battery packs to hit the market in the next month or two.
posted by Diskeater at 2:10 PM on January 21, 2007

Use the rechargeable. They last a good long while, and at the first sign of weakness just swap them for fresh ones.
posted by shanevsevil at 3:21 PM on January 21, 2007