ChrisGarrett
Flashlight Enthusiast
what's the latest rumor on the saga of eneloop "generations" and brandname variants that are thought to be the same only rebranded?
Gen. 4 and Gen. 5, both 2100 cycles have somewhat morphed and it's more a question of when they were produced vs. any bona fide improvement.
It seems that around June 2016, they went to 70% remaining after 10 years, on the packaging. Eneloops seem to be produced on production cycles, so you're getting batches of them, at least here in the states. June 2016 had a batch of 5ths and then I think August.
As some of us here have surmised, it's not really that the batteries are getting better, it's that they've had more time in existence, for the manufacturer to extrapolate testing out farther and farther.
It's similar to the LifeStraw water purification unit, or Mountain House freeze dried food. Those items are fairly new and the initial lifespans were based on estimates, but as time passes, they realize that those products actually can sit/work for greater periods of time.
That's how I see it, anyhow. No doubt, there's been some tweaking between the first Eneloop iteration and where we are at the end of 2016.
Chris