Where do you get your AA batteries?

etc

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I used to get them in Home Depot, they have these deals where for 9.99 you get a pack with something like 28 or 30 cells in it.... Energizer.

Now I've discovered that Ebay has an even better deal, where you can get a 100 Duracells for something like $45 and 100 Energizers for $35. With shipping - that's about 30-40 cents each.
 

Brighteyez

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Costco, Kirkland brand. 48 for $9.59 (20¢ each.)
And they're pretty long lasting, right up there with the respected name brands. And Costco is local for most people so you don't have to take chances with eBay sellers sending you "namebrands" that are actually their Chinese OEM batteries (used to stick into flashlight packages.)

Everytime I look on eBay, I find it hard to believe that they are asking prices that are above local store prices, and that there are people that are actually buying the stuff. Seems like a lot of people have moved their abode to an address under a rock.
 

etc

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Well, Costo requires $50 or so annual membership, so that is a consideration.

P.S. I meant Alkailine of course.
 

jsr

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Either from work (hehe) or Ikea (0.20 each all the time).
 

Led-Ed

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Costco Kirkland brand for Alkaline,
Energizer rechargeable and Lithium from Walmart.
 

paulr

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I have way more than I can ever use. I made the dumb error of buying a 40-pack of Redcell for $10 at CompUSA (ten shrink wrapped 4-packs inside) and I have about 7 of the inner packs left. I had bought these for use at a specific event and ended up not needing them. In addition, I have all these AA powered lights that come with packs of new AA alkaline cells, my audio recorder came with a pack of them, my digicam came with them, and so forth. In practice I put rechargeables in all these devices so I have tons of alkalines just sitting there in their packaging. I'd put them up on BST but I don't think the shipping charges would be worth it to the buyer.

I don't think it's good to use so many throwaway AA cells, for both economic and environmental reasons. It's one thing to sprinkle a few around low-powered or infrequently used devices (quartz clock, Gerber Ultra-type flashlight, glovebox PT40) because of their low cost and long shelf life, but if you're really running through boxes of AA's fast enough to care what they cost, you should think about using rechageables instead.
 

Biker Bear

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I'd never go to Costco *just* for AA batteries - but what I save on various other things I buy there regularly more than pays back my membership fee, and thus I get my alkaline AA's there too. (I'd love it if they'd start stocking lithium AAs, especially if they could manage to meet or beat the price of cheapbatteries.com on their generic lithium AAs of $1.25/ea.)

Heck - I think what I save on peanut butter [a day without JiF is like a day without sunshine...] and on generic Claritin for my allergies pays for my membership... ;)
 

Brighteyez

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I have an executive membership ($100) and the rebate check they send each year from that pays for the renewal every year (with a little left over.) Plus there's another rebate check from their AMEX card that yields another couple of hundred bucks.

etc said:
Well, Costo requires $50 or so annual membership, so that is a consideration.

P.S. I meant Alkailine of course.
 

AFAustin

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Walgreen's (not a Costco member---yet). I've had good luck with their house brand. You have to watch the Sunday ad flyer---they are a different "sale" price every week, but every so often they are $.25/ea.
 

dulridge

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etc said:
I used to get them in Home Depot, they have these deals where for 9.99 you get a pack with something like 28 or 30 cells in it.... Energizer.

Now I've discovered that Ebay has an even better deal, where you can get a 100 Duracells for something like $45 and 100 Energizers for $35. With shipping - that's about 30-40 cents each.

Don't own any. I don't own a TV so don't have many remotes (3, in fact and rarely-never do I use any of them), hence no reason to buy alkalines. I do own quite a lot of NiCd NiMH AA's and AAA's (and 6 D's bought in 1984 - 4 of them are still useful) though. The NiCd's are well over twenty years old and still have some useful life left in them. 20 year old alkalines are unlikely to be useful. Or 20 year old Li cells for that matter.

I own 3 AAA alkaline cells that came with a headlamp that lives in the car's glovebox. When they die they will be replaced with lithium AAAs, but this is likely to be due to shelf-life rather than usage.

The only device that uses AA alkalines that I use regularly is my pager issued by work - who also issue the batteries. There are exactly four AA alkalines in the house, the one in my pager, one in a radio controlled clock (the AA that came with it) and two in a remote for an Aiwa CD player I bought in 1993. These may be replacements, as Aiwa devices usually come with Sony alkalines and the two in it are Duracell Procells (Which probably means they are pager batteries from work... Procells are not available on the retail market here. Probably shouldn't have said that bit...)

If it won't use rechargeable cells, I don't buy it in general.
 

strat1080

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I simply go to Wal-Mart and buy Rayovac. They last as long or longer than Duracell or Energizer yet cost significantly less. The 8packs are $3.87 and their 12 packs are about a dollar more. All of the Rayovac AA batteries are less than 50 cents each at Wal-Mart. That pretty much covers my needs.
 

Eugene

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Costco must not be nationwide, there are none anywhere around here, but Sams club memberships are $35/year and just the cat litter pays for that, I can buy a 35lb bucket of cat litter for $7 where regular stores sell little 10lb bags for $7.
Sams has the Lithium AA's in a 12 pack for $20 so they are not much more $ than regular batteries in a regular store. I bought a 36 pack of AA's and a 36 pack of AAA's from Lowes or HD a couple years ago for $10 each and just used up all the AA's.
I need some Nicads, need 16 of them, any suggestions for good ones/good place to buy.
 

Bmccue1964

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My Father In-Law and I visit the local CVS drug store the day after Thanksgiving and have purchased (for the last few years) numerous packages of 16 AA Alkaline batteries for $1.99! Quality might not be as good as Duracell, but at 12.5 cents each, you can't beat them! They all had great "use by" dates too.
 

europium

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I have found that many stores discount Duracell & Energizer alkalines during the Thanksgiving to New Years holiday season, since that is when people are needing them for cameras and toys and gadgets and so on. Watch for flyers that come in the mail or in your local newspaper.
 
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paulr said:
I have way more than I can ever use. I made the dumb error of buying a 40-pack of Redcell for $10 at CompUSA (ten shrink wrapped 4-packs inside) and I have about 7 of the inner packs left. I had bought these for use at a specific event and ended up not needing them. In addition, I have all these AA powered lights that come with packs of new AA alkaline cells, my audio recorder came with a pack of them, my digicam came with them, and so forth. In practice I put rechargeables in all these devices so I have tons of alkalines just sitting there in their packaging. I'd put them up on BST but I don't think the shipping charges would be worth it to the buyer.

I don't think it's good to use so many throwaway AA cells, for both economic and environmental reasons. It's one thing to sprinkle a few around low-powered or infrequently used devices (quartz clock, Gerber Ultra-type flashlight, glovebox PT40) because of their low cost and long shelf life, but if you're really running through boxes of AA's fast enough to care what they cost, you should think about using rechageables instead.

Many of my freaking Redcells leaked in brand new state, before expiration date. I threw them ALL out.
 

paulr

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Hmm, interesting about the redcells. Mine are around 1.5 years old now and I just looked at a pack and it looks fine, but maybe I should examine the rest. I don't have a way to test them other than open circuit voltage measurement, and I'm not even up for that right now since the packs are unopened, but I'm curious. One of these days I'd like to get a CBA-like tester. Anyway, I've had every brand of cell leak at one time or another, so I'm not convinced any particular type is worse than others. The redcells did ok in Silverfox's alkaline shootout, at least with new cells. I'm supposed to send him some other cells to test so maybe I'll ask him if he's up for testing some of these old Redcells.
 

James S

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If I need some right now (which I never do anymore since the fridge in my garage is stocked ;) ) I buy rayovac's from home depot or Lowes (HD only carries AA and D sizes while Lowes also carries packs of the AAA's which I use a lot of) They are always $.30 a piece or less and work as good as any other brand as far as I can tell. Otherwise I just buy whenever something is on sale for less than that.

I will give another push for the walgreens brand battery, I used to work for them at their corporate offices in Chicago and at a share holders meeting once they admitted to us just who makes them, and so I know that they are the same as the 2 other name brand brands, or so close as to make no difference ;) But they aren't cheap normally, you have to watch for a sale and then can pick up a bunch really cheap.

Kroger has also had some really good sales lately on their brand of batteries. A pack of 4 AA's for $1 making them $.25 a piece. In my informal testing they are as good as the rest too.
 

SilverFox

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Hello Paul,

Sigman gave me the red cells that I tested. I don't remember how old they were, but it would be interesting to get a cross check from another batch. If you decide to send some, I will be happy to check them out.

Tom
 
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