Quality of GP Brand Batteries?

How are the quality of these batteries, particularly the alkaline? Are they comparable in quality to Duracell, etc? Thanks.

I believe these are quite widely available in the UK, but rarely seen in the USA.

From what I have seen GP is a good quality brand. The Kodak PreCharged NiMH batteries seem to be manufactured by GP and they perform very well. I noticed passing through Heathrow recently that GP batteries and chargers were prominently displayed in the shopping area.

I have some GP brand Extra Heavy Duty zinc-carbon cells that have performed miraculously, maintaining charge and voltage for years without leaking.

At the place I work at, we buy GP alkalines in bulk boxes (e.g. 40 AAs in a box). They have never let us down and now I have started using GPs when I need alkalines as they are quite cheap to buy from some UK online stores like CPC.

Thanks for the reply. I saw some 1.5v N batteries for a good price on eBay and wanted to make sure they were a quality brand before I purchased them.

Thanks again!

GP regular nimh are nothing special, and nor do they claim to be, same as all the others really.

GP recyko LSD nimh however are right up there with the current king, the eneloop.

Here's some results of a couple of 500mAH discharge test on a Maha MH-C9000

GP Ultra Alkaline - Cell 1 - 987 mAH
GP Ultra Alkaline - Cell 2 - 978 mAH

Ikea Alkaline AA - Cell 1 - 1367 mAH
Ikea Alkalien AA - Cell 2 - 1408 mAH

Giant Ultra Alkaline - Cell 1 - 1343 mAH
Giant Ultra Alkaline - Cell 2 - 1331 mAH

I've had some pretty bad experiences with the GP2700 AA NiMH cells. Capacity figures where down to very much sub <2000 within a year, though admittedly I wasn't taking pains to treat them gently. I sent some cells to Silverfox to test a while back, the results should turn up on his testing thread sometime.

One practical concern was rather the fact that the covers were thin and prone to tearing through, thus exposing the negative terminal. Another, and more contentious issue was that I subsequently discovered that GP has had some pretty horrendous cadmium poisoning cases at it's manufacturing plants.

So to cut a long story short, I've gone with Eneloops.

I've found my GP2700 AA NiMH cells to also hold less than stated but the alkalines seem to be fine. I'll put my GP2700's through a cycle on my BC900 out of curiosity.

The GP Alkaline is ok. Suitable for low drain devices (toys). At least it doesn't leak like Energizer e2 Advanced (X91-Alkaline). Duracell is still a better performing battery compare to GP. My experience is that Duracell CopperTop is longer lasting than GP. While Duracell Ultra is suitable for high-drain devices (DigiCam, Flashlight).

Maybe you could consider Panasonic Alkaline (Digital Power). I've got a better runtime from it compare to Duracell (priced almost the same). The new Panasonic Evolta seems to gives stable performance from low to high drain devices. YMMV. I'm using Evolta in my EZ AA.

Same negative experience on the normal NiMH (AA and AAA) GP2700, GP2500, GP2100, GP1000 (AAA). Not only it loses its capacity after a few charging cycles, some cannot be charge at all. The GP1000 (AAA) is the worst, 8 out of 12 pcs that I have cannot be charge after 5-7 cycles. While I still hold a few of the GP2700, gave the rest of the GP2500, GP2100 to garbage collector for recycle.

The newer GP ReCyko+ seems to be better (for now), been using the AA and AAA with their Quick Charger (6 hours+). So far only 1 out of 10 pcs of the ReCyko+ AAA fail to charge after 5 cycles which just happen today. No problem so far for the ReCyko+ AA, 8 out of 8 still charging after 5 cycles.

Besides GP ReCyko+, I'm also using Sony CyberEnergy Blue (LSD, Japan and China made) and Sanyo Eneloop. All three LSD battery brands giving comparable results, but I'm leaning towards Sony (Japan made) and Sanyo.

I have had good results from GP NiCads, in AA and D sizes.

Niconical said:

GP regular nimh are nothing special, and nor do they claim to be, same as all the others really.

GP recyko LSD nimh however are right up there with the current king, the eneloop.

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How about GP 18650 protected Li-Ions?

GP used to be the name in Sub C cells for the RC scene. If you wanted a battery for your RC vehicle it was a Sub C pack of GP cells. Lately I think Sanyo has come out on top.

Here in Washington State, we have an unusual piece of equipment (anyone else heard of a Talkie Tooter?) that uses a 15 volt battery in about a 1.25" square tube. Before 2005, they used coin cell nicad and NiMH stacks with incredibly bad results. Since 2005, they have used GP 35AAAH3A (3/5AAA) NiMH cells in 3 cell stacks X 4 square packs. So far, NO batteries have failed, and the worst one was 90% capacity.

But nobody has heard of the GP 18650's?

I didn't know GP even made 18650s let alone protected ones. Linky please?

zipplet said:

I didn't know GP even made 18650s let alone protected ones. Linky please?

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No link. I think it is the type Batterystation.com sells but no name is given on the site.

Back in the day in which im still a part of GP's were the biggest thing when it came to rc's..........i still use them.

alfreddajero said:

Back in the day in which im still a part of GP's were the biggest thing when it came to rc's..........i still use them.

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The GP 3300s NiMH SC cells are awesome.

zipplet said:

I didn't know GP even made 18650s let alone protected ones. Linky please?

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http://www.gpbatteries.com/html/techinfo/li_ion.asp