I bet you are using LR44 batteries rather than SR44s? Cost slightly more but last longer – the battery voltage is slightly higher and it sags less as it ages. That's what is supposed to be fitted in these things.

Murray

MW110-15DBL use a larger 2032 battery, which lasts me about a year.

Arceurotrade do a range of digital calipers I have used the most of the range from 4" to the biggest which went into a UKAS test lab after being calibrated and was used on a regular basis. I have no links to them other than as a satisfied customer. They don't eat batteries even with the cheap ones in them.

+1

Matt

I did a test on caliper current consumption for an MEW article:

Current Consumption

I have a sensitive ammeter capable of measuring down to 0.1uA, so partly insulating the batteries with a slip of paper I was able to take current readings for each caliper. I was initially surprised to see the M&W was by far the greediest taking 3.5uA, with the Mitutoyo not far behind with 3.0uA (actually, its reading consistently swapped between 2.8 and 3.3). The Machine -DRO caliper used a tiny 0.3uA, Proops 1.7uA and the Aldi 0.6uA. I should add that the plastic calipers use a whopping 5.7uA!

With this sort of device the active current consumption is very much related to the ‘clock rate’ or how fast the processor inside is working. I suspect that the two high-end calipers both work rather faster than the cheaper units.

But, the popular wisdom is that inexpensive calipers eat batteries compared to the better units, and what of Mitutoyo’s claim of a 3 ½ year battery life? There had to be more going on so I decided to take a second set of readings with the displays switched off. The difference was immediately apparent. Both the Mitutoyo and M&W calipers gave readings of 0.0uA – in other words their consumption when switched off was less than I could measure. The Machine DRO flickered between 0.0 and 0.1, so I estimate a consumption of a creditable 0.1uA. In contrast, the cheap Proops unit still used 0.4uA when switched off and the Workzone (Aldi) one 0.3uA.

These currents are very low, indeed it suggests the Aldi unit should have a battery life of about five years. In practice, however, most people’s experience is that cheap calipers will last up to a year on a new battery, usually failing rapidly in the cold winter.

The measured figures bear out the observation made elsewhere that high quality calipers do use much less current when switched off

Another observation is that the Moore and Wright and Workzone calipers both switch off automatically – in fact my only real criticism of the M&W calipers is that they switch off a bit quickly, although they remember their setting. The others don’t switch off, or at least don’t do so in less than about 20 minutes. Whether you have cheap calipers or high end ones, it IS worth switching off the display to extend battery life.