Electronics • Appliance Repair
Replace Lithium Battery in Panasonic Ricecooker SR-DE103
How I replaced the dead clock battery in our Panasonic SR-DE103 ricecooker, and upgraded it to a CR123A battery with more capacity.
Our Panasonic ricecooker clock battery died after about 5 years of service. As we use the timer all the time, having the clock out is a bit of a pain.
So the other day I took it apart to replace the battery. Opening up the ricecooker is surprisingly easy.
Step 1 – Opening the Ricecooker
Simply unscrew the 5 screws at the bottom of the ricecooker. With the bottom cover off, you can see the controller board.
Unscrew the 3 screws holding the controller board down and carefully lift it out so you can access the other side.
Step 2 – Finding the Original Battery
Once you have the controller board out and flip it to the other side, you can see the battery that runs the clock. Unfortunately, Panasonic hasn’t made this easy to replace as the battery is soldered to the board.
It is a CR2450. To replace this battery, you need to know how to solder.
You can buy a replacement on eBay (CR2450 with solder tags) . Bear in mind that the legs may need to be modified somewhat to fit, as it’s hard to find one with the exact same specification.
Step 3 – Upgrading to a CR123A Battery
I decided to replace the 3 V lithium coin cell with a CR123A battery and holder instead.
There is plenty of room inside the ricecooker to stick the battery holder, and a CR123A has roughly twice the capacity of the standard CR2450.
Result – Clock Working Again
After wiring in the new holder and putting everything back together, the clock works again – and with the CR123A having more capacity than the original CR2450, our ricecooker will probably be dead before the battery!
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