Eneloop and Rayovac voltage test in a ITP A6

Rikr

Newly Enlightened
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Jun 1, 2011
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154
Location
High Ridge, MO
Hi everyone I'm new here and have a question. I have been reading alot on here and it seems alot of people choose the Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable AA and AAA. I just got my ITP A6 yesterday with the sanyo batteries. I put them in and couldn't wait until dark. I bought the 500 lumen flashlight from lowes last week and I was very impressed. I also have the Led lenser P7 and streamlight strion c4 led so when compared to those the 500 lumen killed them but I dont want to buy the 123a all the time. Thats why I ordrered the A6 for the AA. I went out a little before it was completely dark and compared the A6 to the lowes 500. At that time I was kinda bummed it didnt look that much brighter than the lowes 500. So went back out at Dark tested again, A6 was brighter. Sorry for all that here's my question when I put the sanyos in the A6 battery holder and tested it was 8.74v. Now with the Rayovac in it was 9.41, I thought the eneloops put more out than the regular alkalines. Thanks in advance for your help. Sorry so long...
 

Wrend

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Oct 14, 2010
Messages
646
Location
United States, IL
Eneloops hold their voltage longer while being discharged and have more of an S-shaped discharge curve where the alkaline ones have more of a straight drop off, but standard alkaline cells do typically have a higher initial voltage.

If you do a side-by-side comparison, you should find that while the alkaline powered light starts out brighter, the Eneloop one should hold it's brightness longer and end up being brighter than the alkaline powered light.
 

Wrend

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Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Messages
646
Location
United States, IL
Welcome, and welcome to the forum. I haven't posted much here myself, but I've been trolling around a bit. I have more of a passion for batteries than "torches" (though some can be kind of cool), but this site is a pretty good resource of information about batteries too. I'm more into radio controlled model planes and "hang out" more over at RC Groups.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know that Eneloops also have a higher usable capacity (meaning they'll last longer) than most alkaline cells in applications that have a higher average drain rate of about 200mA. (Just a rough estimate from my discharge performance comparisons; I haven't done a close study on this specifically.) It's also somewhat dependent on the minimum operational voltage of the application. (Since Eneloops tend to hold their voltage longer, they also tend to perform better in this regard, as I had mentioned previously.) I think this would cover most bright lights.

Also, from my experience the Rayovac cells especially and other alkaline cells tend to leak often if left for too long. (I actually had to clean up some powdery white stains from old leaked Rayovac cells just yesterday.) I haven't had this problem with the Eneloops or other NiMH cells. A common complaint torch enthusiasts here seem to have with alkaline cells is that they don't want them mucking up their expensive collections.
 
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