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Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

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Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#41

Post by r00fus »

dragontamer wrote: post #9

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…

Not to mention a LOT of items now come with non-removable (mostly rechargeable) Li-Ion or NIMH batteries. Even small toys which used to require external batteries now come with it.

So I still have a small stack of alkaline batteries from 2017 I haven't replaced or depleted. Hopefully that stack remains untouched for another few years as well.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#42

Post by wmorein »

dragontamer wrote: post #21
wmorein wrote: post #6

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…

Ah, I totally misunderstood the current state of thing. But happy I asked -- thanks for all the info.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#43

Post by Maarten88 »

As a test I recently bought a pair of Li-ion AA batteries, that are recharged through a micro USB connector in the battery. They are rated 2880 mWh and are advertised to provide a flat 1.5v during the whole discharge cycle (they have internal circuitry to convert from the native 3.7v).

I wonder how those compare to my current rotating stock of Ni-MH ones that regularly stop working. Jury is still out, they were considerably more expensive though (something like €4.50 a piece).

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#44

Post by thescriptkiddie »

iancmceachern wrote: post #35
silisili wrote: post #33

On the subject of AA alkaline batteries - one thing I learned a long time ago somehow I'll share that people seem amazed by is that you can approximate their charge by bouncing them on a hard surface. Drop an AA battery negative/flat side down an inch or two onto a hard surface like a counter or table. A new battery will just land and thud. A dead battery will bounce repeatedly(you'll hear it more than see it).

I wonder what phenomenon is driving this. A spent battery weighs more?

IIRC alkaline batteries produce some kind of gas while being discharged. When the battery is dead it is probably inflated like an unopened soda can, assuming it hasn't leaked.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#45

Post by tkojames »

klodolph wrote: post #19
cjbgkagh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happened to me. Duracell was my goto and now they leak. I don’t know who to trust anymore. Thankfully I’m not a big battery consumer.

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.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#46

Post by tzs »

wmorein wrote: post #6

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?

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 stops.

I'd expect that to get very annoying.

Edit: I mean the 1.5 V lithium rechargeable AA batteries, like these: https://www.amazon.com/Deleepow-Rechargeable-Lithium-Batteri...

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#47

Post by dragontamer »

tzs wrote: post #46
wmorein wrote: post #6

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?

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-devices are usually designed for 1.35V NiMH, 1.5V Alkaline, and 1.7V... but there are some devices that have made 1.5V assumptions and _ONLY_ work with Alkaline)

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#48

Post by aidenn0 »

jvanderbot wrote: post #12

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.

Amazon Basics low-self-discharge batteries are fine.

Eneloop if you want to avoid giving Amazon money and don't mind paying more for the brand.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#49

Post by lmilcin »

dragontamer wrote: post #9

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 option of charging the battery while it is connected.

I am currently working on a fully programmable mechanical USB/Bluetooth keyboard. It will work off of two AA NiMh rechargeable batteries and I plan these to be recharged any time the keyboard is connected to the computer.

Re: Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)

#50

Post by tablespoon »

zh3 wrote: post #2

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…

> there was a hedge fund takeover, which IME rarely results in improvements to long-standing quality products

But think of the shareholder value that was created!

https://web.archive.org/web/20121120072539/https://www.newyo...

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