61–70 of 195 posts
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've not seen AA or AAA sized lithium rechargeable batteries but modern low-self-discharge NiMH AA and AAA cell batteries are quite good today. The Panasonic Eneloop brand are generally widely available and good value for money. The AA size Eneloops are generally around 2100mAh and the AAA size around 900mAh. The only downside to modern NiMH batteries today seems to be finding a good and easy to use charger which wil…
There are AA and AAA sized lithium ion rechargables, but they won't work in anything that uses alkalines, since they provide a very different voltage (3.7V). They are usually called 10440 (AAA-sized) and 14500 (AA-sized). There are AA and AAA lithium _primary_ batteries that provide 1.5V and are in stores, but they cannot be recharged. They are far superior than alkalines in most ways, especially in the cold, but the…
I am almost certain they are implemented as 3.7 V lithium rechargeable batteries combined with a buck converter to get the 1.5 V output.
I think they are relatively new. I don't recall noticing them a few years ago, which was the last time I was looking for rechargeable AA batteries.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Deleepow-Rechargeable-Lithium-Batteri...
Apologies for the slightly off topic question but can anyone point me to the best test/comparison of Alkaline batteries vs. the new Lithium rechargeable ones? Older rechargeable AA and AAA batteries were terribly short lived and so mostly useless but I assume Lithium ones are much better?
> the new Lithium rechargeable ones Lithium isn't rechargable. (Lithium AA cells are very long-life but very expensive. One-time use. Lithium-ion are rechargable, but are 3.7 volts and completely violate the AA spec) NiMH is the chemistry for rechargable AA / AAA cells, since its 1.35V and "close enough" to the old 1.5V standard alkaline. > Older rechargeable AA and AAA batteries were terribly short lived and so most…
Apologies for the slightly off topic question but can anyone point me to the best test/comparison of Alkaline batteries vs. the new Lithium rechargeable ones? Older rechargeable AA and AAA batteries were terribly short lived and so mostly useless but I assume Lithium ones are much better?
Note the small link near the top titled "Comparator" if you want to generate comparison graphs between different batteries.
1.5V Li-ion rechargeable AAs are 3.7V cells with DC-DC buck converters attached to reduce the voltage. The main reason to use them is poorly-designed[0] devices that don't play well with NiMH. There may be some standby power drain from the electronics, and these are less compatible with voltage-based battery status monitoring than NiMH (NiMH gives a false low reading; bucked Li-ion gives a constant false full reading).
Modern low-self-discharge NiMH has very good performance and shelf-life; the white Panasonic Eneloop is the gold standard in this category; the black ones have higher capacity, but wear out in fewer charge cycles.
[0] Even if designing for alkaline without NiMH support isn't a design flaw per se, a device that doesn't work at 1.2V leaves about half the energy stored in an alkaline unused.
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…
Recently I've leaned toward ACDelco batteries, which aren't on the test list.
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…
We've been buying them for years and I think I've only ever disposed of one that was unwilling to take a charge.
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I've been a bit puzzled by the 1.5 V lithium AA batteries I see on Amazon. They say they are a constant 1.5 V all the way from 100% charged to 0% charged. With the battery presenting a constant voltage, wouldn't that make battery level displays useless? They rely on the voltage declining as the battery discharges. With a constant 1.5 V battery your device is going to say the battery is full right up until it suddenly…
When in doubt, https://data.energizer.com/ For Lithium chemistry: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf That's Energizer's Lithium of course, but you can expect that competitors probably perform "similarly". ------ You can see that Energizer Lithium is 1.7V, slightly more than the 1.5V found in typical Alkaline cells. Today's electronics are pretty flexible however, and this may not be an issue. (In practice, AA-de…
The 1.5 V rechargeable lithium batteries couple a rechargeable lithium cell with a buck converter to drop the voltage to 1.5 V.
I haven't seen any that are sophisticated enough to use a variable output buck converter and drop the voltage as the underlying battery discharges.
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> A huge number of appliances seem to be designed for the 1.35V NiMH chemistry now. Yes, this is my experience too. One of the problems with NiMH is that appliances have helpful low-battery indicators which might light up as soon as you put NiMH cells in them, even though the appliance might continue working for a long time yet. A prime example is the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001. The thing i…
Totally agree! My Game Boy Advanced power light is green for about an hour then red for hours and hours on my eneloops. Also my Tascam field recorder has the option for alkaline or NiMH batteries. I still have some kitchen scales that won’t work with NiMH though :( I’ve had my energiser batteries for almost 10 years and I’ve been rotating them through devices and the charger. Only recently have I begun to lose some c…
Most GBA battery mod posts are about people upgrading units to have built-in lithium packs, USB-C charge ports, etc etc.
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…
Mmm, I recalled I had Duracell (bought in 2018, expire date 2025) leaked in the battery compartment and I don't use the device. I just assumed the device was on standby mode and been draining the battery for a while which caused the leaking. That mean I have to be wary of Kirkland AA and AAA Batteries because they are made by Duracell. This is new for me and I'm surprised about Duracell, and I am not surprised about…