Delkin Batteries -- False Advertising?

[dgrogers]

I bought a pack of Delkin Power "Ready to Use" 2300mAH batteries (along with a C-9000 charger) from Thomas-Distributing a little while back, and finally got to check the batteries out. They arrived in a nearly discharged state. After fully discharging and running the break in feature on the C-9000, the end result is these batteries are less than 2000mAH and 1.41 volts, or about 85% of rated capacity after conditioning.

This seems like false advertising to me and I am less than impressed. The Sanyo Eneloops I have may be rated lower, but they actually have better capacity and much better voltage. Had I known this, I would have just bought another pack of Eneloops.

A) I kind of expected Thomas-Distributing to carry higher quality products.

B) I kind of expected Delkin to at least be honest, but lesson learned and Delkin is a brand I will avoid from now on.

 

[65535]

Give them a few normal cycles, say 1C discharge and .5C charge. All batteries have a break in period. It's longer than most chargers will give you. Also stick to Eneloops if you like them so much.

 

[Illum]

I don't know why people think AAs will have a bigger capacity just by the numbers on their sides....I guess its just how marketing works.

After awhile on CPF you'll acquire sufficient exposure not to get tricked so easily next time:huh:


Stay with eneloops
low LSD, very tolerant of third party chargers
Guaranteed at least 1900mah

 

[travelinman]

I'm certainly not impressed with my Delkin RCR123A's. They are supposed to be rated at 600ma, but the most I can get from them after a couple of uses is <300 ma. Am using the Delkin charger specifically meant for them, and haven't abused them in any way.

 

[csshih]

I bought a pack of Delkin Power "Ready to Use" 2300mAH batteries (along with a C-9000 charger) from Thomas-Distributing a little while back, and finally got to check the batteries out. They arrived in a nearly discharged state. After fully discharging and running the break in feature on the C-9000, the end result is these batteries are less than 2000mAH and 1.41 volts, or about 85% of rated capacity after conditioning.

A LSD cell @ 2300 mah?

haven't seen one before.. It'll probably be more around 2ah, like the eneloops around here.

 

[dgrogers]

I guess the "buyer beware" saying is in full effect here, but the point is this is more than marketing -- it's plain dishonest. Had I known, I would have given Sanyo my money.

I can't believe people accept this kind of behavior.

 

[Turbo Guy]

Overrated capacity and poor QC as in cell to cell variations do indeed seem all to common. I recently purchased a couple of Tenery 18650 Li-ion 2600 cells after first checking here
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=117117
and seeing that their 2200 tested well. I did not really expect them to be 2600 but did exspect them to be more than 1850 mAh which is what I got during testing.

In general name brand cells with lower rated capacities come a lot closer to being accurate and also provide better service life. Over rated capacities are mostly a marketing tool it would seem.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Dgrogers,

One of the reasons I published all of the battery shoot out information was to look at advertised versus actual performance. What I have found is that when you can look up a manufacturing data sheet for the cell, you generally come very close to the published performance. When there is no data sheet available, you have to do your own testing and come up with your own performance data.

I did notice that Thomas Distributing has those batteries listed with a 2 year warranty. You may want to consider taking advantage of that...

Tom

 

[eyrich74]

I bought a pack of Delkin Power "Ready to Use" 2300mAH batteries (along with a C-9000 charger) from Thomas-Distributing a little while back, and finally got to check the batteries out. They arrived in a nearly discharged state. After fully discharging and running the break in feature on the C-9000, the end result is these batteries are less than 2000mAH and 1.41 volts, or about 85% of rated capacity after conditioning.

I had the same experience with the 4 I just finished break-in on. I also bought the 2900mAH AA Delkins, will be interesting to see what they finish the break-in rated at on the MH-C9000

 

[N162E]

I purchased 4 4 packs of the Delkin 2300 lsd cells about 10 days ago. I opened two of the four packs and have managed to keep them seperate. Out of the package all eight of them contained 375 to 700 mah of precharged capacity. After many break in, refresh and high and low rate charges and discharges I have the following. One set of four cells is operating at 1450-1525 mah of capacity and the other set of four are holding 1900-1950 mah of energy. Inconsistant ond overated. These are going back to Thomas next week. I wonder if Thomas would be interested in letting some of us test new cells they receive before they advertise the manufacturer claims? Thomas is an excellent company who care very much about customer satisfaction. I view us users as victums of overinflated manufacturer claims and Thomas having to pay the price.

 

[DHart]

My experience with 2 cells of Titanium 2700's (after break in with C9000) is:

1.42v 2497 mAh (92% of rated)
1.43v 2532 mAh (94% of rated)

My experience with 2 cells of Eneloops (after break in with C9000) is

1.45v 2018 mAh (101% of rated)
1.44v 2011 mAh (101% of rated)

There are definitely reasons (more than just the above) why Eneloops are so respected around here.

Given a little passage of time, I'm sure the Eneloops will only look better and better. :candle: