Quarq Power Meter and Bitter Coated CR 2032

Triathlon Forum
1

I bought Duracell CR 2032 batteries off Amazon last week and they were the “Bitter Coated” version. I didn’t even notice.

What I did notice was suddenly my super reliable Quarq power meter was doing a lot of strange things that made it pretty much worthless on Golden Cheetah

Then I got this email from SRAM:

Battery compatibility notice
The newest Duracell CR2032 batteries are not compatible with SRAM and Quarq power meters.
Use of a Duracell battery with a bitter coating ring will result in symptoms similar to a drained or low battery.
These could include:
No wake or pairing possibleLoss of combined cadence and power for extended periodsNo LED function

2

Ha, I was looking up the coating expecting to see some cool technological innovation in battery tech.

And it’s literally just a bitter taste.

3

Ha, I was looking up the coating expecting to see some cool technological innovation in battery tech.

And it’s literally just a bitter taste.

Thats to keep little kids from trying to swallow them…hopefully they taste it and spit it out. I also heard that Nintendo Switch game cartridges also have a coating with a bad taste to deter kids also putting it in their mouths too.

This was brought up earlier in the week on the Trainerroad forums.

4

Great info. I just bought a 4 pack and installed 1 battery into my Quarq. It is working fine but good to know in case problems occur.

5

Hello Automaticjack and All,

Wonder if you can just wash off the bitter taste?

6

I’d assume since it’s a metal casing you could just take some sandpaper and rough up both sides of the battery then use a little battery terminal grease as a “dot” on the sanded part of the battery to keep it from corroding.

7

I’d assume since it’s a metal casing you could just take some sandpaper and rough up both sides of the battery then use a little battery terminal grease as a “dot” on the sanded part of the battery to keep it from corroding.

Dielectric (battery) grease is not conductive. You can get away with applying it to car battery terminals because those surfaces are not smooth, and there’s a high clamping force.

I wouldn’t recommend grease use in low voltage electronics.

8

I use Ford XG-12 electrical grease in the battery compartment of my Power2Max Type S. Sweat migrated in to the compartment causing corrosion, I caught it in time. After I cleaned up the corrosion, I coated it in that grease and it’s been working fine since.

9

I’d assume since it’s a metal casing you could just take some sandpaper and rough up both sides of the battery then use a little battery terminal grease as a “dot” on the sanded part of the battery to keep it from corroding.

Dielectric (battery) grease is not conductive. You can get away with applying it to car battery terminals because those surfaces are not smooth, and there’s a high clamping force.

I wouldn’t recommend grease use in low voltage electronics.

Garmin recommends applying a drop of mineral oil to batteries on the Vector pedals to avoid fretting issues. I would assume this is good general advice on any battery.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=DIq9EtNhPH0qDSoqFyZWg8

10

Hi – when you took the bitter battery out, did it resume normal function? If not, what did you do? I tried to use a bitter battery and now it seems my power meter is broken – I’ve wiped the prongs down with alcohol, reset the meter with coins and used several new, non-bitter batteries, but the light will not turn on.

I reached out to Quarq via email (it seems they are not answering phones through july 28th), but hoping someone here might know. Thanks!