AA: Is there a difference between name brands?

[TFin04]

I'm looking at buying a couple bulk packs of AA batteries off ebay ($17 shipped for 50 batteries).

Both Duracell and Energizer are the same price and I purchased the Duracell pack last time with good results.

I'm just wondering if it makes any difference between the two. I will be using them in Fenix lights, which I bought all AA versions because of the availability and price of AA batteries.

If there is a better price somewhere or something else I should know, please chime in!

Thanks!

 

[LuxLuthor]

AA: Is there a difference between name brands?

Yes. Check the Silverfox reviews and run plots linked in the top pinned threads of interest topic

 

[cave dave]

I know that there are fake Duracells out there so be leary if the deal seems to good.

 

[MorePower]

Yes. Check the Silverfox reviews and run plots linked in the top pinned threads of interest topic

Keep in mind that much of the data is several years out of date, and things can change quickly in the alkaline battery world. I would say that overall, there's no difference between current Duracell, Energizer, and Rayovac standard alkaline cells. For some very high or very low rates of discharge, there may be a difference (up to 8%), but on average across the 7 ANSI standard tests, they are all within a few percentage points of each other.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello MorePower,

A lot of the data that I have is from 2004 and it shows large variations between the various brands. Are you suggesting that the 2007 cells are testing closer to each other?

It may be time to do another Alkaline Battery Shoot Out...

Tom

 

[Burgess]

to SilverFox --


Great idea !


Energizer recently improved their AA Alkalines.


I posted a thread about it a month ago, but nobody cared. :mecry:


Here it is:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=169577


_

 

[Curious_character]

A few years ago I did some discharge tests on Costco's Kirkland cells at a moderate discharge rate (around 200 mA, as I recall, the consumption of the GPS receiver I had at the time). There was no significant difference between them and Duracells. But some difference might have shown at different discharge rates, and as MorePower said, it's a pretty dynamic situation. Today's results might not apply tomorrow.

You might also find that one cell is better at low discharge rates and another better at high rates, making it impossible to declare one cell to be "best" overall.

c_c

 

[VidPro]

Energizer recently improved their AA Alkalines.


I posted a thread about it a month ago, but nobody cared. :mecry:

_

they improved my laundry detergant about 15 times too, and it didnt matter either :shrug:

last time durasell improved thier capacity, they did something to the container, and after that i did not like them as much, they leaked more. i still use them. have a Clock that has run years and years off them, without a problem.
but i am always skeptical of an increase in capacity, because it can mean the container gets weaker and thinner.

 

[JRTJRT]

Duracell's 9 volt batteries have welded AAAA cells, Energizer's are simply pressed together. Not really a deal breaker, but if the next time I put a 9 volt battery in my smoke alarm I'm going with the Duracell. Seems more reliable.

In the 80's Energizers were always my preferred brand. Now I see more problems with leakage from Energizers and the Duracells seem better.

Like others said, it seems brands do change a bit over the years.

 

[MorePower]

Hello MorePower,

A lot of the data that I have is from 2004 and it shows large variations between the various brands. Are you suggesting that the 2007 cells are testing closer to each other?

It may be time to do another Alkaline Battery Shoot Out...

Tom

There will be measurable differences between the big 3 brands, especially at very high or very low rates, but under real life usage they probably wouldn't be noticeable. When Rayovac came out with their latest "Lasts as long as Duracell and Energizer" claim, their cell performance had to be within 2%, on average, of Duracell and Energizer. The difference in individual ANSI tests could be at most 4%, I believe. For the type of higher rate tests you run, the differences may possibly be greater.

When a battery company makes a performance claim (Lasts as long!) rather than a change claim (New and improved!), you can trust it, because the other 2 major players in the business will be checking on the performance claim and calling out their lawyers if it's spurious.

 

[REparsed]

I'm looking at buying a couple bulk packs of AA batteries off ebay ($17 shipped for 50 batteries).

After reading your post I went to ebay and found two similar sellers with both Energizers and Duracells at about the same price. I'm a bit suspicious but still tempted to try them out.

I'd like to see a detailed comparison of known genuine cells and the ebay batteries.

 

[TFin04]

After reading your post I went to ebay and found two similar sellers with both Energizers and Duracells at about the same price. I'm a bit suspicious but still tempted to try them out.

I'd like to see a detailed comparison of known genuine cells and the ebay batteries.

I have purchased the Duracell's from Ebay before which came in the handy 2 per pack shrinkwrap, 25 packages total for 50 cells.

I never did any run times with them but have used the batteries in everything from my Fenix lights to my cheapy mag lights to TV remotes and they seem to be just as good as the (much more expensive packs) from your local store.

Then again, I'm not battery genius so I could be mistaken.

 

[bfg9000]

I guess the bottom line is yes there can be a difference, but it is almost never worth the price premium among alkalines. It's just not worth paying ~2x the price for "Ultra" alkalines with just a 20% improvement over the same brand's standard line alkalines. Especially when seeing how those cheap Rite-Aid AAs kicked some serious butt in 2004.

OTOH it may be worth paying 5x as much for lithium AAs, even if they won't quite deliver up 5x the runtime (except under very heavy loads) since they provide a big improvement in convenience and a far flatter discharge curve.

And now that so many of us have MH-C9000s, we could post our capacity findings for a very large sample size.