Walkmen and battery life:

[manimal347]

What's the most battery-hungry Walkman you own, and how voracious an appetite does it have? Looking back, the worst was my childhood late 90's Audiophase. It ate two alkalines in 10-15 hours, and carbon zincs in five. The best was my early 2000's Sony Sports model, which ran twenty-five or more hours on a single AA cell. Strangely, early 80's units, like my WM-1, Sears by Sanyo, and Panasonic KT-S1, all have respectable battery life. I rarely even need spare cells. Any exceptions that left one running to a chemist for AAs?

Also, if you carry yours out, are you OCD about running out of life? If so, do you rely on the prevalence of AAs, or do you carry an emergency pack? I know I'm in the latter camp - a 4-pack of carbons follows me in my bag.

 

[boxzx86]

ha ha well mine can eat up batt.s but its not a Walkman it a Panasonic that takes 2 batts and only last a few hrs. playing a tape

 

[ViennaSound]

I think this was my first one.
This crappy STAR chewed 4 batteries away in very short time...

One of my best was a PHILIPS with DBB.
With 2 batteries (high quality) it played nearly the whole day on beach. :super:

 

[zyklon69]

My most prized Sony WM-EX190 cassette only unit gets 16 hours out of 2 cheap chinese IKEA alkaline bttrys.I dumped all my inferior vintage auto-reverse units years ago.