Index / 3-315IWC

3-315IWC

3-315IWC — alkaline, 1.5 V, 14.3 x 50.5 mm, known as an AA cell. Not listed by Energizer. The closest it still lists: LR6 drops straight in, and runs the same 1.5 V.

What fits the compartment, and what does not

Fit answers whether it enters the compartment. Voltage answers whether the circuit will notice. A cell that fits is not always a safe substitute.

5 cells drop in and they are not equivalent: of those, HR6 sits furthest at -20.0% of this cell’s 1.5 V, low enough that a calibrated instrument reads below true.

Unlisted, but something drops straight in

3-315IWC has left the Energizer catalog, but the swap is easy: LR6 is the same 14.3 x 50.5 mm and runs at 1.5 V against this cell's 1.5 V. 4 other current cells fit the same slot. It holds about 4275 milliwatt-hours, 2850 mAh at 1.5 V.

What the chemistry changes

Everything above answers size and voltage. What it cannot answer is chemistry, and 3 other kinds are in play here beside the alkaline this cell uses.

• Alkaline drops in voltage steadily as it empties, so a device calibrated for a flat discharge will drift as it goes.
• Carbon zinc carries a fraction of the capacity of an alkaline cell of the same size and leaks more readily when spent.
• Lithium runs at 1.5 V, the same nominal the alkaline and silver classes carry. Of the 26 lithium cells here whose envelope the maker publishes, 3 share that envelope with an alkaline or silver cell.
• Nickel-metal hydride is rechargeable and sits at 1.2 V, below the nominal of the primary cell whose slot it takes. It is never a drop-in for a primary cell no matter how well it fits, and a device that cuts off early will read it as flat.

The household slot this size sits in

3-315IWC is an AA, which is a shape rather than a specification: 12 designations share the same slot in the Energizer data this site reads under different chemistries. This one is alkaline at 2850 mAh. Across the AA the published capacity runs from 2850 mAh (3-315) to 1100 mAh (R6). The compartment does not change; the run time changes by 2.6x.

The other chemistries in this slot are carbon zinc, lithium, mercuric oxide and nickel-metal hydride, and only the label says which one is in your hand. An alkaline cell left in a device it is not powering is the commonest way this size ruins equipment: the leak happens on the shelf, not under load. The nearest is LR6: it drops straight in and runs 1.5 V, same volts.

• 5 cells measure close enough to compare against it in the Energizer data this site reads, and 5 of them are still listed.
• Energizer files it for North America, which is where the part is sold rather than where the cell will work.
• Energizer no longer lists 3-315IWC at all, so whatever goes into that compartment next will be a substitution rather than a replacement.

Drawn to scale

Every published figure

10 figures are published, and one is not: impedance. The row is absent rather than estimated. It reached shelves as 3-315IWC.

2 rows in the table are not the maker's but ours: stored energy and energy per cubic centimeter. Everything else is reproduced without change.

What the maker says about cold

The sheet for 3-315IWC carries an operating range as well as a capacity, and it reaches -18 C (-0 F) at the cold end. 3 more published figures follow it, and none of them reaches a cross-reference table.

The part occupies 8.1 cubic centimeters and weighs 23 g. Capacity and voltage together put 4275 milliwatt-hours in that space. Energizer files it for North America.

Operating range

-18 C (-0 F) to 55 C (131 F). Below the lower figure the maker makes no claim at all, which is not the same as the cell stopping.

Cutoff voltage

0.8 V. The published capacity is counted down to this voltage; a device that quits higher up sees less than the whole figure.

Mass against volume

23 g filling 8.1 cubic centimeters. When the printing has worn off, a kitchen scale separates two cells of one envelope faster than a caliper does.

Where the part is filed

North America. That is a statement about the maker's distribution and not about where the cell works.

Is that a lot of energy?

Nothing else measured shares this shell, so the comparison has to go site-wide: 4275 milliwatt-hours in 8.1 cubic centimeters is 528 mWh per cc, denser than 88% of every cell measured here. Density is ours: the maker publishes capacity and volume and never divides one by the other.

More energy per cubic centimeter than most

3-315IWC packs more into its volume than most of what is measured here: 528 milliwatt-hours per cubic centimeter, above 88 percent of the corpus.

5 of those ones are still listed. Its 528 milliwatt-hours per cubic centimeter sit above 88 percent of everything here that publishes both a capacity and a volume. 36 of the 69 cylinders share its 1.5 V exactly.

• FR14505 — the next step down by volume: 8 cubic centimeters against this cell's 8.1.
• 1.2H2 — the next step up: 8.3 cubic centimeters, 102% of this one.
• 1.2H2 — 14.5 x 50.5 mm, 1.2 V, nickel-metal hydride.
• FR14505 — 14.5 x 50.5 mm, 1.5 V, lithium.

Nothing else is stamped on this one

Nothing else is printed on 3-315IWC in the Energizer data this site reads: one designation, no trade marking, no maker's part number, and no long form in the standard's table. A cell measuring 14.3 x 50.5 mm carries its whole identity in 8 characters.

The cell that differs only in depth

The code says the size, so the cells that get confused with 3-315IWC are the ones that keep its diameter and change its depth. 3 cells share this diameter at depths from 47.6 to 48.4 mm, and every one of them enters the same opening.

It stands 1 of 1 in this envelope by stored energy. On a scale the difference shows before it shows on a caliper: this one weighs 23 g.

• 3-315INNC — same diameter, 47.6 mm tall against this cell's 50.5: 2.9 mm shallower, which neither designation carries.
• 3-315 — same diameter, 48 mm tall against this cell's 50.5: 2.5 mm shallower, which neither designation carries.
• 3-315I — same diameter, 48.4 mm tall against this cell's 50.5: 2.1 mm shallower, which neither designation carries.
• 4NR43 — 15.2 mm across at 6 V against 14.3 mm here, 0.9 mm apart: too wide to enter in this holder.
• 1.2H2 — sold as the same AA and rated 1.2 V against this cell's 1.5 V.

One figure the maker does not publish

One field is empty for 3-315IWC: impedance. A blank means the maker publishes no figure, which is not the same as zero, and it is the reason one comparison below is missing rather than wrong.

The blanks are the same in all 1 record behind this designation, so they are the catalog's silence and not a merge losing a value. What is not missing is the envelope: 14.3 x 50.5 mm, published and checked against the designation itself.

• No impedance — so this page cannot tell you whether the cell can drive a pulse, which is the whole question in a watch or a sensor.

Before you swap anything

Everything here is computed from published dimensions and nominal voltages. That answers whether a cell enters the compartment and whether the voltage matches on paper. It does not answer what your device does with the difference, and it cannot: a cell that fits can still be the wrong cell.

One more limit, and it is the biggest. This site reads a single manufacturer’s catalog. When a page says a designation is not listed, that means Energizer no longer offers a part under it — not that nobody makes the cell. Other makers may still sell it, and for common sizes they usually do.

A voltage difference is one relation between two cells, and this page prints it from the cell it is about — in every table on the page, including the one listing cells no longer made. A figure always belongs to the cell whose voltage is printed beside it: a cell that runs lower than this one carries a minus here, one that runs higher carries a plus, and two cells at the same nominal voltage carry zero. Meet the same pair on the other cell’s page and the sign is the other one, with the figure taken against that cell instead of this one; where the two run at the same voltage, both pages print zero. The class beside the figure is not read off that figure directly. It is decided on the gap itself, taken against the higher of the two nominal voltages, so one pair of cells gets one class whichever page you meet it on: counted from this side the boundary of the class that still runs falls at 20.0% below and 25.0% above, which is the same gap divided once by the larger nominal and once by the smaller. What genuinely differs between the two directions is the consequence, and the words carry it: a cell that runs low makes a calibrated instrument read below true, and a cell that runs high makes it read above.

3 things this site cannot see. Whether the contacts reach a shorter cell. Whether the device was calibrated for a chemistry that holds its voltage flat, which silver oxide does and alkaline does not. Whether the equipment tolerates the higher current a different chemistry can deliver. Rechargeable cells are never a drop-in for primary cells regardless of size.

Cells measured next to this one

Nothing in the Energizer data on this site shares this exact size. The 3 cells below have the same diameter and a different depth — 47.6 to 48.4 mm against this cell's 50.5 — which is a near miss rather than an alternative.

• 3-315INNC — 14.3 x 47.6 mm, 1.5 V
• 3-315 — 14 x 48 mm, 1.5 V
• 3-315I — 14.3 x 48.4 mm, 1.5 V

Where these numbers come from

Dimensions, voltages, chemistries and capacities are published by the manufacturer and reproduced without change. Everything else on the page is ours, computed from those figures: whether one cell fits where another sat, how far apart their voltages are, stored energy and energy per cubic centimeter, the rank within a shell, and the check of the designation against the measured size.

Fit is decided within 0.3 mm on every axis, which is the order of a contact spring's travel. Voltage classes are decided by consequence, not by roundness, and they are decided on the gap between two nominal voltages taken against the higher of the two: 2.0% or less of it is the same working voltage, 6.0% starts to matter to a calibrated instrument, and past 20.0% it is a different class altogether. Measuring the gap against the higher figure is what makes the verdict the same from either cell’s page, while the printed percentage stays counted from the cell you are reading about. Cells with identical stored energy share a rank instead of being ordered arbitrarily.

Ranking uses capacity times nominal voltage, because capacity alone is not comparable across chemistries: 150 mAh at 3 V is twice the energy of 150 mAh at 1.5 V. Neighbors are chosen by measurement and never alphabetically, because two cells filed next to each other by name usually have nothing in common. A blank in any table means the maker publishes no figure, which is not the same as zero.

Source: Energizer technical data, retrieved 1 September 2026.

The record behind this page

Every figure on this page comes from one catalog record, number 435, and it is linked below. The sheet is the document the dimensions, voltage and capacity were read out of.

1. [1] Energizer catalog record 435, obsolete in the snapshot. Technical data sheet: 3-315iwc.pdf.

Every figure above is reproduced from those records without change; the comparisons are ours and are described on the method page. Snapshot: Energizer technical data, retrieved 1 September 2026.

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