Best alkaline batteries?

[aso]

just some info:

Wallyworld has a 24 pack of Everactive batteries(house brand) for $7.97. These are rebranded Rayovacs(compare the packaging and patent numbers)

 

[Spidey82]

U guys heard of IKEA battries??
Linfeng

 

[Lonewolf]

Anybody use the 1.5 volt Diehard batteries I saw them at Sears 24 for $10.

2d_edge I am amazed you got 10 hours out of a AAA I love this LE more every day.

 

[brightnorm]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
From all of my runtime tests with UK4AA, SL4AA, and TEC40 (using Rayovac, Energizer, and Duracell), Rayovac Maximum always come out first-place, Energizer second-place, and Duracell Coppertop far third-placer with the shortest runtime.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi 2d_edge,

I agree with your assessment of Ray-O-Vac Maximum AA's 100%

I have only tested them against Duracell AA Ultras with "M3 Technology" as clearly labeled. There is no question that they outburn the Duracells. My figures agree very closely with yours, although I haven't yet tested the AAA's in my Arc Le. I'd like to start buying the Maximums in C size, but I don't know where to get them with a reliable late date. Unfortunately, I live in a city that has no "Wallyworlds" or similar stores, and, as you pointed out, you never know what dates you get online.

I will continue using those remarkable Ray-O-Vacs, and I will continue feeling sorry for my fellow Flashaholics who don't use them and don't understand what they're missing, in terms of price and burn time.

Best regards,
Brightnorm

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Brightnorm.... this is the price of those AAA alkaline batteries from my nearest K-Mart;

$5.49 / 8-Pack - $0.68/ea - Rayovac Maximum 2007
$3.29 / 6-Pack - $0.55/ea - American Fare Long Lasting 2006
$3.59 / 4-Pack - $0.90/ea - Energizer Max 2008
$4.59 / 4-Pack - $1.15/ea - Duracell Ultra 2008
$3.69 / 4-Pack - $0.92/ea - Duracell Coppertop 2008

American Fare Long Lasting alkaline battery surprised me beating Energizer and Duracell Ultra. This goes to show that there are lesser known brands of batteries with longer burntime than the expensive known brands.

I still have to try the Walgreen brand and those 1.5 volts Die-Hard alkaline batteries. I'll post the result when I get them.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 5BY5:
2d_edge I am amazed you got 10 hours out of a AAA I love this LE more every day.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It was actually 9 hours 'Sun Mode' and 1 hour 'Moon Mode'.

- verge -

 

[Mr Ted Bear]

Circuit City had a deal last week: 20 maxell AA for 9.95 and a 9.00 rebate

 

[dat2zip]

In my experience, Duracell has been the top leader and advertiser (copper top ads) and possibly runner up the energizer bunny. The top two. But, Duracell must have a stronger marketing as far as deployment. I find more Duracells almost everywhere I go. (It's the major brand at Costco). One thing to note is that I have over the last 15 years been very wary about having duracells in products for more than 6mo's as they almost always leak and they leak corrisive eating your product as well.

Basically any flashlight I put Duracells in no longer exist.

So, I'm rather new to CDF and am seriously considering getting an Arc LE ?? and I surely don't want to find it's totally corroded a year later.

For me personally, I use almost NiMH for most stuff, I use Duracells as my other main staple being sure to pull the batteries out if I have to put the product away for some time. And battery backed up equipment needing a couple AA or 9V I use eveready batteries. And I've got totally fed up with the renewals. Almost all mine have now leaked and I've discarded them plus my two chargers have almost all there charge slots corroded and not usable. So much for saving money. Renewals are actually very good and, I think they are exceptional for super light duty like TV remote control and things like that. I've still got a few AAA in my TV remote and probably charge them once every year and have been doing that for 10 yrs now. I disagree with <250mA. Renewals have a funny internal resistance knee and it behaves rather oddly depending on the current. The only sure way to avoid this is to put very light loads and then the battery shines if you never deep discharge it. Always recharge them before they drop below 1 volt. Letting them drop below that is very cutting into the many charge/discharge cycles you can get out of it.

I've got other products where the battery has been left in for >10Yrs without leakage and they are always Eveready. Although nice to know battery life usage, a snapshot today is not very useful since competitition forces each manufacturer to change composites and mixes all the time. So, date code every 3-6mo time frames can be different.

My only comment is (IMHO) is I use everedy batteries for my storage and emergency flashlights and stuff. I'd rather pick up a battery that's been lying around and 1) either be dead and need new batteries or 2) work as expected. What I won't tolerate is to pick up a flashlight and find not only does it not work, but, corroded beyond usability. So, even if you had another set of batteries, the flashlight has died and gone to the flashlight pool in the sky.

 

[brightnorm]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
Brightnorm.... this is the price of those AAA alkaline batteries from my nearest K-Mart;
- verge -<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Verge,

Thanks very much.

Best regards,
Brightnorm

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

2 d edge: Thanks for your test times.

i just got my ARC LE last night and love
the thing. It feels like such a precision
piece of equipment. And AAA batteries to boot!
It don't get no better than that. I'm gonna get
another and just put it back.
I have a question for you, when you were
performing the battery time tests, how did
the ARC LE behave when the DC to DC inverter
sensed the lower voltage to step the brightness down a notch? Was it a quick switch or a gradual change to dimmer light?
Does it just keep fading to nothing?
Sorry, for more than one question.
Many thanks, Scott

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Scott S.:
Was it a quick switch or a gradual change to dimmer light?
Does it just keep fading to nothing?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I couldn't say that it was a sudden change from very bright to a very dim lightbeam because it was more like a gradual change from bright to dim until it fades to blackout.

I have 2 composite runtime photos of Arc-AAA with Rayovac Maximum alkaline battery on my Yahoo Photos - Arc-Flashlight Album. I'm just starting to move pics to a new free photo server to show other time-lapse photos of Arc-AAA performance with different brands of alkaline batteries.

http://photos.yahoo.com/verge1800

When I've saved enough to buy that Fluke DMM I'll include the current/voltage reading with every frame of photos in a 10-minute interval time-lapse photos so we can also see current and voltage readings with regards to certain brightness level.

- verge -

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Thanks Verge,

Your elapsed time photos are great!
After studying them this morning, it still
appears the neat little ARC LE will give its
owner at least 2 to 3 hours of very useable
dim(mer) light after the voltage drop. Have you tried turning the LE off while
in the moon mode (long enough) to see if it goes back to the sun mode?
If it works as stated, that is a nice little
feature.

 

[brightnorm]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
The Arc-AAA LE with 'Rayovac Maximum AAA Alkaline' is still running strong after 9 hrs
- verge -<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Verge,

Your tests have shown that the ARC AAA LE is even more useful than I (or most Flashaholics) thought.

My one and only frustration with the Le is not the fault of the light or Peter G, its brilliant designer. It's the fact that there are no AAA lithium batteries. If I'm out on a cold winter evening with my LE, after a while that poor, tiny little Alky is going to start pooping out.

Or am I wrong? Have you ever heard of lithium AAA's?

Your tests are great and you seem very knowledgeable. Do you have a "Testing Website"?

Best regards,
brightnorm

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Thanks for the complimets brightnorm!

I'm really wary of calling what I have been doing with flashlights as "tests" because I'm not technically trained and experienced to this kind of stuffs.

These, experiments as I call them, are all done for fun and in a small way make a contribution to CPF and flashaholics gain more information, informations not provided by manufacturers like comparison beam photos of different brands of flashlights.

Yes, I also wish there is a lithium AAA battery around. I haven't tried leaving my Arc-AAA or LE's outside to freeze.

I'm a flashaholic who believes that until flashlight manufacturers come up with a common or standard way of rating flashlight lightbeams... beam photo is still the better way of knowing how good one brand's lightbeam from the other.

Unlike 'time' where one can go to http://nist.time.gov/ or tune in to tv and radio stations to get the standard time for free, is there a place nearby where one can go to adjust his DMM to measure the standard "1 volt" or "10mA"?

Pictures may not be perfect but still it shows which beam is brighter and nicer. Btw, Photopoint is gone and I'm uploding my beam photos to a new photo host.

Craig's ProMetric equipment is really a very nice machine and shows beam quality from brightness to nice clean or rough beam. I hope Craig finds the time to use that machine to all of his flashlight. I'm even thinking of sending my flashlights to Craig so he could test them with ProMetric and have a common way of looking at lightbeams.

I think that ProMetric machine is better and more informative than the other expensive machines, "ball" as they are called, manufacturers are using.

I've been telling myself for sometime to create a website. It will contain only beam photos, runtime, close-up to show clean or rough beam, and photos to show beam throw. I leave the technical stuffs to our good reviewers Craig, Brock, Chris M., and Quickbeam.

- verge -

 

[brightnorm]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:

I'm a flashaholic who believes that until flashlight manufacturers come up with a common or standard way of rating flashlight lightbeams... beam photo is still the better way of knowing how good one brand's lightbeam from the other...
Pictures may not be perfect but still it shows which beam is brighter and nicer. Btw, Photopoint is gone and I'm uploding my beam photos to a new photo host.
- verge -<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Verge,

I much prefer your approach to these ultrasophisticated tests that often don't reveal the truth. Your way is simple, clear, and practical. It tells us what we need to know in an efficient and immediately understandable way.

Best regards,
Brightnorm

 

[Alaric Darconville]

The Ziff-Davis Anchorman David Coursey has an at least minimally interesting article on batteries here.

Energy levels low? Pick 'em up--with the right battery

 

[Darell]

Thanks for the "time-lapse" images Verge. Good stuff.

So, who wants to point at where "moon mode" begins? There is another mood mode thread, but I'm curious if anybody here wants to take a stab at it. I always thought there would be a drastic change in brightness at some point, but I haven't seen it.

 

[txwest]

Originally posted by darell:
So, who wants to point at where "moon mode" begins?
**************
I can't tell where "moon mode" kicks in, But I can pretty well say that the last shot is "NEW moon mode".

TX

 

[Darell]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by txwest:
the last shot is "NEW moon mode".

TX<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That there is "Dark Side of the Moon Mode."

 

[TripleDouble]

You can get Everactive batteries at Walmart, a 24 pack costed me 7.97. Here's one test that shows them in a favorable light:
http://www.professionalwireless.com/battery.html