Pathetic mAh lsd batteries

Yesterday at walmart I was looking at solar lights and I saw these westinghouse nimh batteries.


900mAh AA claims to hold charge for 12 months. I think it was 5 or 6 bucks for a 4 pack.

What is the deal with this?

Solar lights cannot fully charge higher capacity batteries, that's why they specifically sell low capacity replacement cells for solar lights.

The way solar lights work, they'd be very harsh on NiMh cells, that's why most solar light cells are NiCd.

jhellwig said:

Yesterday at walmart I was looking at solar lights and I saw these westinghouse nimh batteries.

900mAh AA claims to hold charge for 12 months. I think it was 5 or 6 bucks for a 4 pack.

What is the deal with this?

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I've seen those, too. I'm skeptical that they're LSD -- after all, how do the solar lights they're sold for leave a battery charged for 12 months? If the sun is shining, they're being charged, and if it's not, they're being discharged.

I suspect it just means they last for 12 months before they no longer can hold a charge (for 24 hours).

Why would you even waste that money on making those when a simple 1400mAh or something more would technically hold charge for a year to run the light. Unless it is an aaa put into an aa case.

jhellwig said:

Why would you even waste that money on making those when a simple 1400mAh or something more would technically hold charge for a year to run the light. Unless it is an aaa put into an aa case.

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those were specially designed for solar lights. To charge up 1400mah cells in only 3 hours [assuming no obstruction such as trees, you'll get at most 3-4 hours of actual usable sunlight] by solar alone your solar light may have the area the size of a birdbath
Plus, unless your running high fluxes at night with 50+ma your not going to be able to cycle the cells as much as it would like to have been cycled.

Being only 900mah, I believe they might be NiCd or a AAA like NiMH stuffed in the shell of an AA. but thats just a guess

Some people is at least truthful about their mah ratings:shrug:

Illum said:

Some people is at least truthful about their mah ratings:shrug:

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Really? I bet they're actually 600mAh, but they're exaggerating on the package to make them sound so much awesomer! :devil:

The solar lights I bought were the 4 dollar individual ones they sell. They have a 350mAh nicad. I broke them in and one came out at 360 and the other 290. NOt to bad for the first cycle. The funny thing is that they had 600 mAh nicads right next to the 900mAh nimh's for only a buck less.

sometimes filling an ice cream cone with one ball of ice cream is actually more expensive than...say...two balls worth:shrug:

What?

jhellwig said:

What?

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A situation where filling one container halfway is more expensive than filling the same container all the way up. :shrug:

It occurs when your creating a custom battery with a specified capacity on the same assembly line making batteries that are identical in dimension but with a standard capacity...in this case 900mah AAs being built on the same assembly line for regular 1400mah NiMH's

Material cost may be cheaper being that lesser chemistry is needed, but the cost of a battery in terms of passive components: wrapping, shell, cathode, anode, is the same or similar with all AA batteries...so something else called customization is compensating for it.

ever wonder why custom flashlights are always more expensive?