Best Rechargeable 9V Battery? Best Battery for Cordless Mics?

[jag-engr]

I am hoping some of you electronic gurus can shed some light on a subject that I need some help with.

We use cordless mics at our church. Currently, we use 9V Duracell alkaline batteries. They work OK, but it's hard to tell when the batteries are going to go out and, since they are one time use only, you don't want to change them too often, as you would be throwing away money (not to mention generating semi-hazardous landfill). We have decided that rechargeables are the best route to go.

Since they will probably be left charging between meetings, I think that NiMH would be the safest, if they make such a thing.

Can anyone recommend a particular kind of rechargeable 9V battery that would work well for microphone applications?

Can anyone recommend a particular charger that will charge a battery or batteries and then turn itself off until activated again?

The only decent-quality portable mics that I have ever seen use 9V batteries, but my experience has been rather limited.

Does anyone know of other types of protable mics that use different kinds of batteries, preferably in a safe chemistry (NiMH, NiCad, LiFeSO4)?

Thank you in advance for taking a look at this and weighing in.

 

[dave w]

Can anyone recommend a particular kind of rechargeable 9V battery that would work well for microphone applications?

Can anyone recommend a particular charger that will charge a battery or batteries and then turn itself off until activated again?

We use MA-HA 9V (true 9V, not 7.8) rechargables and the MA-HA four pocket charger.

http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=12
http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=364

Use a fresh battery for each meeting/sermon.

 

[TorchBoy]

Hm, that package with three batteries looks very nice, and they have an NZ plug version. How long has fast charging of 9 V batteries been around?

 

[PhotoWiz]

I had some 9V rechargeable batteries a few years back and they lost capacity and leaked! I think they were MAHA and I know they were purchased from Thomas Distributing. I was using them on an irregular basis though — perhaps a regular weekly use would be kinder on them.

I have a couple of thoughts on this one: First, who will be maintaining these rechargeable batteries? In a church environment, not everyone will take the time and care to do it properly. I don't think you want to leave these batteries in the charger indefinitely and I could see that happening.

For the cost of a charger and a few sets of 9v rechargeables, you could have a pretty decent battery tester and continue to use alkalines. I have a ZTS meter and I believe that would help you get more uses per battery. The users could put a battery in each time from the "ready to use" box. When finished the battery goes in the "ready to test" box. After a few initial tests, you could determine whether an 80% or 60% charge was good for another Sunday. Test the whole box of "ready to test" batteries as your schedule permits.

I use a few 9V cells in photo equipment and I used to throw the 9v cells away after each photo shoot (e.g. a full day wedding.) After I got a tester, I would use them on several sessions. Of course, if the mike gives out after 1-1/2 sermons, finding another solution makes sense.

 

[TheWind777]

I like using the NiMH Tenergy 250 mAh 9V battery. You can get them on www.amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CON7PS/?tag=cpf0b6-20

$17.49 + $5.84 shipping

Here are four of them with a charger that charges 2 9v batteries.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ANXHQU/?tag=cpf0b6-20

$21.89 + $6.35 shipping


Here's 20 batteries:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ANFA6K/?tag=cpf0b6-20

$79.99 + $7.20 shipping

and here is a charger that charges ten at a time:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ALYPPY/?tag=cpf0b6-20

$55.99 + $8.05 shipping