The increasing miniaturization of integrated circuits has enabled a wide variety of new applications for embedded sensors and smart devices. Miniaturization of their power sources, however, has lagged in comparison. There are many challenges to devising a space-conscious battery, including the power density, mechanical stability, and chemical safety. Batteries made in fiber formats are of interest for use in wearable electronics. Recent studies have shown the feasibility of Li-ion battery chemistries in drawn polymer fibers via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS)1,2 but key performance gaps in safety and reliability of these fiber batteries remain.In addition to Li-ion, zinc-manganese dioxide (Zn-MnO2) chemistries are particularly good candidates for fiber format batteries due to their relatively low raw material cost, low reactivity, and tolerance of environmental contaminants such as water. Our work has focused on two Zn-MnO2 gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) cell formats: one non-aqueous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based gel polymer electrolyte, the other an aqueous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based GPE. In this work, we synthesize, characterize, and compare these two electrolyte formats head-to-head in both Zn-Zn symmetric cells and Zn-MnO2 full cells.After the GPEs were synthesized, thermo-gravimetric analysis was used to characterize the gels and evaluate the feasibility of drawing the GPE of interest into fibers. We synthesized zinc salt containing PVDF-based GPEs and characterized them in ionic blocking cells via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), achieving conductivities of 1.8 mS/cm2. We also assembled Zn-Zn symmetric cells, investigated key performance characteristics such as the transport number and the electrochemical stability window, and stably cycled them for over 500 hours at 0.5 mA/cm2. Lastly, we assembled Zn-MnO2 full cells to confirm the battery performance.