Which effect uses up batteries the fastest?

[Canucker]

I guess to add to the question in the heading...when you turn up all of the pots half way (cus if you turn the volume up to full the neighbors will complain.

[petey twofinger]

from the little that i know , ( uses adapters ) boosters , fuzz , distortions , eq , uses the least , time based stuff , chorus , flange , delay , the most . also the digital stuff , uses more , the modeling stuff forget about it ...

when it comes to the first catagory like distortion boxs , i would be prone to think that the higher the gain , or more fuzz the device adds , the more battery used , also if it had 2 transistors it would use less than a box with 3 ...

leds do come into play here as well . the simple one transistor boxs , those batterys can last a looong time .

there is the other matter of " sag " like some dirt boxs , some folks like the sound better with a battery that is not full , or almost dead . thats why a lot of he diy boxs have a voltage starve or sag control on em . i forget who it was , peter frampton or some geez , suposedly had a box of dead 9 volts they brought to the studio .

it sems to me its almost proportional to how awesome the thing is ... unless we are taliking about a fuzz , those are almost always awesome .

i have built a few battery amps , cause we like to go to the woods and jam . what i have done is get a bunch of 12 volt sla cells , like the 7 mah ones , the amps run off those  ,and then i use 7809 with some caps to power the stomps . i use 9.6 volt nihm batterys for my sustainer atm , and i love those . if you have to go with batterys , look into those , remote controll car batterys . be careful though , i am doing it wrong , and do not know what i am talking about .

[Kesh]

Volume makes very little difference to how much current a pedal eats.

For distortion, it's often the LED that uses the most current, particularly if you build one with a bright LED.

This link provides info on many many pedals' current use. http://stinkfoot.se/power-list

[Mark Hammer]

The current draw of the LED will depend on the LED's efficiency, and how bright you run it.  A traditional garden-variety red LED on a Boss pedal will have a current-limiting resistor in the vicinity of 2k2 - 3k9.  A superbright LED can have a 15k current-limiting resistor (i.e., cut current draw by a factor of 5x) and still be quite visible.

Things that use more current include:
- anything digital or hybrid (e.g., anything using a PT2399)
- anything using a hex invertor (4049, 4069) for high gain
- anything using NE5532 or NE5534 chips.

[~arph]

It depends on the design, not the type of effect..

I can design you the fastest effect:

Just connect the input and output and add a single 100 ohm, 1 watt resistor across the battery terminals. 

[oldschoolanalog]

Just connect the input and output and add a single 100 ohm, 1 watt resistor across the battery terminals. 

An active "Spice Box". Brilliant!
Just remember to use old (NOS ) wire and carbon comp resistor... 

Seriously; digital delays are amongst the biggest current hogs as Mr. Hammer pointed out. Using batteries in them is almost an exercise in futility (unless you like to spend loads of money).

[electrosonic]

Things that use more current include:
- anything digital or hybrid (e.g., anything using a PT2399)
- anything using a hex invertor (4049, 4069) for high gain
- anything using NE5532 or NE5534 chips.

maybe add to that max1044 LT1054 type voltage doulbler circuits

[~arph]

And (most)tubes

[nocentelli]

+1 to digital delays being battery slayers: As a teenager, I had an Ibanez Soundtank dead plastic beetle delay - It would drain a brand new Duracell in 2 hours or less.

[J0K3RX]

Agree with Mark... Another note: The worst non DIY pedals I have ever had the displeasure of using are the are the Line 6 ToneCore pedals!!! EchoPark, Verbzilla, Space Chorus, UberMetal etc.. The Uber Metal pedal completely killed a brand new 9v battery in 20 minutes, no kidding! Don't even know why they have a battery option? It sounded like sh!t anyway so 20 minutes was about all I could take...

[bluebunny]

It sounded like sh!t anyway so 20 minutes was about all I could take...

LOL!  So designed that way for a reason, perhaps... 

[Mark Hammer]

Agree with Mark... Another note: The worst non DIY pedals I have ever had the displeasure of using are the are the Line 6 ToneCore pedals!!! EchoPark, Verbzilla, Space Chorus, UberMetal etc.. The Uber Metal pedal completely killed a brand new 9v battery in 20 minutes, no kidding! Don't even know why they have a battery option? It sounded like sh!t anyway so 20 minutes was about all I could take...

I was a beta-tester (atleast in principle) for that series.  I was curious about the stereo implementation on the Echo Park, so jeorge Tripps (the project manager for them at the time) connected me with Angelo Mazucco (I think that's his name, well close anyways), the prghrammer.  he idicated that they were going to makeit pure stereo, but that would have required more clock cycles, and drastically shortened battery life.  They ended up making it quasi-stereo, which allowed a new alkaline 9v to last about 2hr.  He never explained why that was the goal, but I gather it was partly related to being able to hand someone an EP in a music store and let them try it out, without having to fish around for an adaptor and an outlet to plug it into.  Remember, if they don't try, they don't buy.