DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello, I thought this would be the logical place to ask this.

Currently we have a gas fireplace which is ignited by a 9v battery which slots into a female connector, and it absolutely eats batteries - sometimes even fresh batteries don't work if they're budget ones.

Is it possible to get a dc to 9v male (the same as the top of a 9v battery) connection to replace the 9v battery? There's a plug nearby the fireplace so I figured this could be a possible solution, but for the life of me I can't find this. I can find dc to female 9v connector, for charging batteries, but not to take the place of a battery. Does anyone have any ideas?

If it were myself (and it isn't) I would use a standard 9v battery connector (such as you describe) and connect it reverse polarity and also physically connect it in reverse.

9/12 22.56

They were sold, but not used one for years, there is a problem with both rechargeable batteries and battery eliminators as they were called, some equipment use a thyristor and a capacitor to generate the spark or flash, it works the same way with camera flash guns, it for a very short time shorts the battery to get the spark or flash, all very well with standard battery as such a short time but using either rechargeable or battery eliminators it can damage the eliminator or allow too much current with rechargeable and blow the thyristor.

You need to carefully read instructions first.

Mr White wrote:If it were myself (and it isn't) I would use a standard 9v battery connector (such as you describe) and connect it reverse polarity and also physically connect it in reverse.

9/12 22.56

Thanks for the reply, my first thought was "duh, why didn't I think of turning the connector on one of those dc connectors around to reverse polarity". However, please excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by reverse polartity AND physically in reverse?

ericmark wrote:They were sold, but not used one for years, there is a problem with both rechargeable batteries and battery eliminators as they were called, some equipment use a thyristor and a capacitor to generate the spark or flash, it works the same way with camera flash guns, it for a very short time shorts the battery to get the spark or flash, all very well with standard battery as such a short time but using either rechargeable or battery eliminators it can damage the eliminator or allow too much current with rechargeable and blow the thyristor.

You need to carefully read instructions first.

Well, the folks who owned the house before us used rechargeable 9v batteries, do you think it will have effected the fireplace negatively? We've been using standard 9v batteries, although with the cheap ones we've just bought it won't ignite at all, so it seems to demand Duracell.