AA rechargeble batteries....which ones?

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474 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1320556 9-Jun-2015 19:17

23 dollars each???
are you feckin kidding me??? theyd have to get up and open the feckin door for me for that price!!!

richms

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#1320580 9-Jun-2015 20:04

joker97: what about energizer rechargables?

Junk. Some of the worst there are excluding the random ebay/ali/trademe no branders with total BS numbers on them.

I have found camelion low self discharge ones to be an ok compromise on the eneloops. Not sure why the OP is complaining about the cost of eneloops, they are pretty cheap when you only need a couple of sets of 4.

Richard rich.ms

richms

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#1320582 9-Jun-2015 20:07

Niel: Rule #1 for non-rechargeable batteries is to use only Alkalines. Cheap source is the Varta bulk packs at Bunnings, and they are not bad.

There is an eveready branded alkaline, not sure how it compares to energizers because its still more expensive than the bulk packs that I normally get of whatever brand. Last lot were dick smith ones, this lot is varta. All seem about the same.

But the "heavy duty" and other carbon zinc ones will probably last a few days in a device, at best so I doubt it was the junk ones that for some reason cost more than dollar store alkalines yet last a fraction of the life.

Richard rich.ms

Niel

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#1320807 10-Jun-2015 07:08

floydie: 23 dollars each???
are you feckin kidding me??? theyd have to get up and open the feckin door for me for that price!!!

We pay about $8 + GST being a big customers of Element14. I did say about 1/3 the price. But my point was, we tested them and they are good compared to many others on the market.

You can never have enough Volvos!

1101

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#1320906 10-Jun-2015 09:37

robjg63:

No idea if this is for real, but if this does as claimed and comesx to market it will make many people (not the battery manufacturers) happy:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/batteriser-voltage-booster/

" a boost converter that fits around ordinary AA batteries which claims to increase the battery life by up to 800%"
dont think so somehow :-)

and heres the debunking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iEshd6izgk

timmmay

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#1856616 1-Sep-2017 14:06

Anyone tried "Urban Solar AAA Ni-MH 600mah from the warehouse"? $6 for four is around 1/3 the price of Eneloop, I thought they could be fine for things like a label maker or kids toys.

Incidentally, Philips AA and AAA 12 packs of Alkaline are $3 at Miter Ten Petone. That's cheaper than the no-name brands.

Batman

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#1856622 1-Sep-2017 14:22

My kids are amazing. They can manage to lose all rechargeable batteries faster than one charge cycle. DSE batteries for them.

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1101

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#1856690 1-Sep-2017 14:59

eneloop are now just..another..brand

or just buy some panasonic, because thats what eneloop are (were originally Sanyo)
Camelion are also a good choice
Also, plenty of fake eneloop out there , you wont really know what youre buying
And as a general rule, if the stated capacity seems way higher than average: avoid (cough cough BS)

I have heaps of rechargeables. I hardly ever use them now , I just buy cheap 20packs of AA Varta from Bunnings instead.

timmmay

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#1856739 1-Sep-2017 15:27

I think Amazon Basics rechargable are Eneloop with a different label. I'll get them next time. I just got 8xAAA for remotes and toys, but I'll probably need more. I got some of the cheap Philips ones too. I have dozens of AA Eneloop from my camera flashes.

surfisup1000

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#1856752 1-Sep-2017 15:33

timmmay:

I think Amazon Basics rechargable are Eneloop with a different label. I'll get them next time. I just got 8xAAA for remotes and toys, but I'll probably need more. I got some of the cheap Philips ones too. I have dozens of AA Eneloop from my camera flashes.

I've got quite a few eneloops but I've had issues of some of them just dying. I think they tend to drop below the minimum voltage where smart chargers think they have gone bad.

I've gone through heaps of rechargeables over the years, and the absolute best have been sony rechargeables. They have been the most reliable at least.

Varta rechargeables seemed to have a fairly high failure rate. Especially the ones advertised with quick charge.

timmmay

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#1856770 1-Sep-2017 15:42

surfisup1000:

I've got quite a few eneloops but I've had issues of some of them just dying. I think they tend to drop below the minimum voltage where smart chargers think they have gone bad.

I've gone through heaps of rechargeables over the years, and the absolute best have been sony rechargeables. They have been the most reliable at least.

Varta rechargeables seemed to have a fairly high failure rate. Especially the ones advertised with quick charge.

I had 60 or so PowerEx cells for 6-7 years, with good chargers they worked great. I've had the 50 or so Eneloop cells for a few years and they've all been fine.

My Maha chargers work well with them.

neb

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#1857734 3-Sep-2017 21:16

timmmay:
I had 60 or so PowerEx cells for 6-7 years, with good chargers they worked great. I've had the 50 or so Eneloop cells for a few years and they've all been fine.

My Maha chargers work well with them.

I've had Maha cells for > 10 years and they're still fine. Cheap Eneloops from PBTech are also fine. OTOH I had an entire batch of... argh, can't remember the name at the moment, another major manufacturer's brand, all go bad on me within a space of 6-12 months. It wasn't just one cell, it was an entire batch of four of them.

Wash

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Master Geek

#1858084 4-Sep-2017 12:59

We had that lock on our previous house and I remember changing the batteries at most once a year. I just used Energiser Alkalines in it. We tended to use pin code entry rather than the proximity cards which I imagine uses more power due to the need to light up the keypad etc.

How often are you cycling the door lock? We probably cycled it a few times a day every day.

If a quality set of alkaline batteries isn't lasting a year, then I suspect the lock needs to be replaced under warranty.

1cloud

164 posts

Master Geek

#1858087 4-Sep-2017 13:08

timmmay: Eneloops are the only ones I buy these days. I used to buy higher capacity batteries, but I sacrifice that to get the lack of self discharge of the Eneloop. I have around 80 AA batteries for my camera flashes - the charger you use is almost as important as the cells. Maha C9000 is the king of chargers, but they have other models that charge more cells (C801D) and LaCrosse are good too. The one that comes with Eneloops is meant to be pretty dumb and too fast - 2h is the ideal time to charge batteries, no faster, and not too much slower.

Eneloop +1

used yuasa , energizer and eneloop for the past 10-15 years . only eneloops survived

neb

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#1858104 4-Sep-2017 13:38

1cloud:
used yuasa , energizer and eneloop for the past 10-15 years . only eneloops survived

Ah, it was Yuasa Enitime's where an entire batch of them died over a period of a year or so. So +1 for Eneloops from me too.

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