AA Batteries

[frogman74]

I don't know a whole lot about batteries. What brand makes the best battery?
I'm using AA energizer batteries, but it seems when I'm at Walmart or FredMeyers looking at flashlights I see AA Duracell batteries. I do use Alkaline batteries. Is there a link out there that discusses batteries? frogman74

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Frogman,

Welcome to CPF.

You may find this thread useful.

Tom

 

[paulr]

Frogman,

1. There are differences between alkaline cells but the differences aren't that large. The best cells are 5x as expensive as the cheap ones but they're not 5x better (in terms of energy) or even 2x better. They're 1.5x at best, maybe more like 1.2x. So you should just get the cheap ones if you're after reasonable cost effectiveness, reasonable performance, and relatively low self-discharge.

2. If you want max performance regardless of cost, or ultra-low self-discharge, use lithiums, which cost a bundle.

3. If you don't mind some self-discharge (frequently used light) then use rechargeables if you can. They're the most cost effective and are environmentally the soundest. We throw away far too many batteries when we could be recharging.

4. There's a new Sanyo Eneloop battery with much less self-discharge than normal nimh rechargeables. After 1 year it's still mostly charged. That should get rid of most of the remaining reasons to use alkalines.

5. In none of the above cases does using expensive alkalines make sense, as far as I can tell.