D cell? What the ?!?

[John Bono]

I was in walmart today, buying some stuff, and I went to the battery section to see what they had for NiMH batteries and chargers, and maybe pick something out if it was any good. I have a few AA NiMH energizers, and the charger for them is pretty weak, taking 8+hrs to charge four batteries. I was hoping to find something there which would give me an idea of charging times, but no luck.

Anyway, right next to them were a bunch of AA, C, and D NiMH cells. The AAs are $10 for four, the Cs and Ds are $10 for two. Now, I've been looking at getting some c or d cells for a homebrew bike light, so I figured, since I was there already, I'd look at the battery for capacity, etc. I look at the packaging, and its 2400 MAH! So Energizer took a AA battery, put a big, fancy, heavy sleeve on it, doubled the price, and sold it as a D!

[TigerhawkT3]

Yes. This is a well-known fact, discussed several times.

[Pellidon]

Several of our vendors here sell the real mccoy. Got to read the fine print.

[John Bono]

I know, I was just shocked by the brazenness of it. The AAs and Ds were sitting literally side by side. No, I didn't buy the Ds, but I was shocked that they would charge twice the price and not even boost the capacity the least little bit. Most people don't bother to look at the Ah of the battery, and I guess Energizer relies on that. Still pretty sleazy.

[jeffosborne]

My thought has always been that they sell a TON of AA NiMH, and maybe next to none of the C and D cells, so they do not advance the technology in those products.

Sleazy, yes.

But in another CPF post I saw recently, someone had Radio Shack NiMH D cells that were 4000maH!! That seemed more like it, for sure.

Jeff O.

[electromage]

This is widely known. If you want some serious high-cap "D" cells, try amondotech.com or batteryjunction.com