alkaline aa vs cr123?

Monocrom

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Alkalines are horrendously outdated and very poor at what they do.
The only reason they're even made, and will be for decades to come, is the sheer number of cheap, and inexpensive devices sold around the world that rely on them.

Lithiums all the way.
 

fulee9999

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also because they cost around half the price
( Energizer LR06 costs 0.65 EUR/USD while the Energizer L91 costs 1.34 EUR/USD )
 

Monocrom

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also because they cost around half the price
( Energizer LR06 costs 0.65 EUR/USD while the Energizer L91 costs 1.34 EUR/USD )
Honestly, in NYC, the price of alkalines is creeping up to almost what you'd normally pay for lithiums. I'm not joking. Due to the costs involved, I've started investing in Eneloops recently. I have a horrible track record with rechargeables of all kinds, but I can't justify to myself paying the current prices that both alkalines and lithiums are commanding in my neck of the woods lately.
 

fulee9999

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oh wow, that's real bad... but I get your point, I've recently acquired a Black Diamond SPOT350 headlamp because it has a red mode, and the first time I've burnt throught 3xAAA lithiums I realized it's time for some eneloop AAA pros
( while I was there I checked my older Eneloop pro AAs that I already had in storage and surprisingly they did not lose any significant charge in the past almost 1.5 years )
 

xxo

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a Panasonic CR123 has about 3X the energy as a typical alkaline AA (eveready gold) at .5 Amp.

A downside to CR123's, aside from cost and availability, is the possibility of explosion, though if you avoid Chinese made cells and are careful not to mix new and partially depleted cells, it is almost a non-issue. With alkalines you always have the possibility/eventual likelihood of leaks.

With AA's you do have the option of running NiMh's or L91 energizers and can still use alkalines in a pinch, for these reasons I think AA's are the way to go, though I would only use alkalines when nothing better is available.
 

bykfixer

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At 0.5amps the CR123 is the way to go for runtime but.... one would have to look at the cost to determine which is the better value after a while.

Example say a CR123 costs a buck 85 but lasts 4x as long as a 50 cent AA ($2 total) the CR123 would be the best value. If the CR123 lasts 3x as long as the 50 cent AA ($1.50) then the AA would offer the best value over time.
 

raggie33

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cool this is what i thought man it would be so cool if there wasn some kind of chart or calcater where all formats of batts could be compared to each other lygte site almost does but dont compare them all. me and my ocd i spend days thinking about this stuff lol i have issues
 
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Monocrom

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cool this is what i thought man it would be so cool if there wasn some kind of chart or calcater where all formats of batts could be compared to each other lygte site almost does but dont compare them all. me and my ocd i spend days thinking about this stuff lol i have issues
We all do. You and I and a few others are honest about it.
Everyone else desperately tries holding onto their e-reputation.
That's like trying to drown a duck by tossing it into a deep lake. ;)
 

xxo

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At 0.5amps the CR123 is the way to go for runtime but.... one would have to look at the cost to determine which is the better value after a while.

Example say a CR123 costs a buck 85 but lasts 4x as long as a 50 cent AA ($2 total) the CR123 would be the best value. If the CR123 lasts 3x as long as the 50 cent AA ($1.50) then the AA would offer the best value over time.
untill one of the alkalines spews and you have to buy a new item to replace the one destroyed by the leak.
 

xxo

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cool this is what i thought man it would be so cool if there wasn some kind of chart or calcater where all formats of batts could be compared to each other lygte site almost does but dont compare them all. me and my ocd i spend days thinking about this stuff lol i have issues
HKJ's site has the info if you dig into his data. you need to look at the Watt hours at the current draw your device uses.
 

fulee9999

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downside to CR123's, aside from cost and availability

to be honest I never understood the availability that many speak of, I could buy CR123 and AA batteries in the literal desert in africa, they were sold because it's considered as "photo battery" ( along with 35mm film rolls )
 

xxo

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to be honest I never understood the availability that many speak of, I could buy CR123 and AA batteries in the literal desert in africa, they were sold because it's considered as "photo battery" ( along with 35mm film rolls )
How much did they cost?

Local brick & mortar stores that have CR123's are usually fairly expensive, if you can find them at all. I heard in parts of Europe that they were very expensive as well. And they don't seem to be used in cameras all that much anymore as many newer cameras use rechargeables.

AA's can be found just about anywhere and are usually cheap. Even L91's usually cost less than CR123's in local stores here in the US, (though maybe not so much if you buy in bulk online).

Since AA's are, by far, the most widely used battery in the world it is usually easy to scronge one out of something like a clock, remote control, toy etc. And you can buy them at just about any gas station, convience store or out of the way mom and pop shop if you are on the road.
 

fulee9999

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How much did they cost?

Local brick & mortar stores that have CR123's are usually fairly expensive, if you can find them at all. I heard in parts of Europe that they were very expensive as well. And they don't seem to be used in cameras all that much anymore as many newer cameras use rechargeables.

AA's can be found just about anywhere and are usually cheap. Even L91's usually cost less than CR123's in local stores here in the US, (though maybe not so much if you buy in bulk online).

Since AA's are, by far, the most widely used battery in the world it is usually easy to scronge one out of something like a clock, remote control, toy etc. And you can buy them at just about any gas station, convience store or out of the way mom and pop shop if you are on the road.

well it's not particularly cheap when the seller knows that you have three options, a) to buy it from him for whatever price he comes up with or b) have a dead camera c) go 50-100 miles to the nearest town, but I'm not debating the price, it varies wildly from place to place, my point is that I can't recall a remote enough location that I've been to that hadn't had CR123s available

I understand tho that AA and AAA batteries are far more common in other devices, so in that sense I agree
 
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