51–60 of 195 posts
Does anyone know of a good rechargeable battery comparison test? I've noticed that some 18650's are just crap after a couple charges, and some dinky AA batteries last forever after many charges.
Check out 'Project Farm' on YouTube for a couple more in-depth tests of AA batteries TLDR: Made in Japan = GOOD Made in China = BAD
I love how he made it clear where it was assembled in. Every time he said "Made in USA with Global Components!", I was like yea more like made in China and rebranded in USA.
There's very little reason to continue using Alkalines in the majority of cases. Rechargeable batteries both last longer, and, perhaps even more importantly, do not leak.
Let me leap in here to ding Duracell. They used to be my goto battery, but over the past few years (there was a hedge fund takeover, which IME rarely results in improvements to long-standing quality products) they've turned into liabilities - specifically, they are extremely prone to leaking once even a little bit discharged. To this day I open old kit and there can be duracells in there with "use by 2010" or even ea…
I think the main issue with AA Alkaline is the proliferation of cheap low-self-discharge NiMH cells (aka: Eneloop, but also Energizer and other brands have good LSD NiMH available). A huge number of appliances seem to be designed for the 1.35V NiMH chemistry now. Perhaps a random TV-remote still prefers Alkaline but most seem to work fine with NiMH. ----- Buying a pack of 20 NiMH cells and rotating your collection be…
I design some electronics in my spare time. As a user, I strongly prefer to have a choice of using a rechargeable battery. It somehow does not feel right to throw out a toxic battery when I could have another type potentially hundreds of times over many years. It helps that there is a proliferation of quite powerful, low voltage, low power chips. Some of the devices I design have USB interface which gives another opt…
3*1.35 == 4.05V, which is pretty close to the 5V power that you take from the USB, seems like there's enough room to get a regulator to turn 5V into a simple charging circuit. There'd also be enough output to probably run 3.3V circuits with a simple regulator.
4*1.35 == 5.4V, which is beyond the capacity for 5V to charge (unless you got a boost-converter).
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2-cells == 2.7V, which means you probably need a boost-converter to convert the battery-pack into something useful?
Not that I'm the designer or anything, but I like discussing these issues :-) I haven't done any electronics since my college days.
What voltage does the device operate at? The main cutoffs these days seem to be 1.8V, 3.3V, and 5V right? 3-cells and targeting 3.3V + charging from a USB (at 5V) seems like the most obvious cutoff to me personally.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the article states, NiMH has gotten a lot better, and I now use that nearly everywhere instead of alkaline. It's nice not having to shop for batteries as often. I plugged in a charger behind the TV and batteries in a drawer under the TV. With the price point for Eneloop and Duracell batteries, you break even once you use a rechargeable for the fourth time. Part of the reason I have it in the first place is that th…
Rumor is the Ikea batteries are rebranded Eneloop I have good luck with them.
https://eneloop101.com/batteries/rewrapped-batteries/
(Scroll/search to "IKEA")
I think the main issue with AA Alkaline is the proliferation of cheap low-self-discharge NiMH cells (aka: Eneloop, but also Energizer and other brands have good LSD NiMH available). A huge number of appliances seem to be designed for the 1.35V NiMH chemistry now. Perhaps a random TV-remote still prefers Alkaline but most seem to work fine with NiMH. ----- Buying a pack of 20 NiMH cells and rotating your collection be…
I finally switched to Duracell’s rechargeable NiMH batteries last year and won’t be going back to alkaline. They work well even for things like flashlights that need low self-discharge, and I no longer feel like I’m creating waste every time I burn through a battery. I also came across some rechargeable lithium batteries packaged in 1.5V AAA, AA, C, D form factors, but they appeared to be newer and I was unsure about…
Does anyone know of a good rechargeable battery comparison test? I've noticed that some 18650's are just crap after a couple charges, and some dinky AA batteries last forever after many charges.
The Eneloops are 3 years old and still work fine while being used every day (recharge about once per week).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the article states, NiMH has gotten a lot better, and I now use that nearly everywhere instead of alkaline. It's nice not having to shop for batteries as often. I plugged in a charger behind the TV and batteries in a drawer under the TV. With the price point for Eneloop and Duracell batteries, you break even once you use a rechargeable for the fourth time. Part of the reason I have it in the first place is that th…
Rumor is the Ikea batteries are rebranded Eneloop I have good luck with them.