Eneloop Charger

[firememc]

A few years ago I bought some AA and AAA eneloop batteries and a cheap charger. Much to my surprise, after all of the positive comments about these batteries, I had nothing but poor luck. A fully charge AAA would be lucky to last me a week in my flashlight with hardly any use. Obviously something is wrong. So after recently having my Nitecore MT06 light become corroded because of leaky alkalines, I thought I would revisit this thread- how do I make the most of eneloop batteries, and is my problem the cheap charger?

 

[SilverFox]

Hello Firememc,

Welcome to CPF.

Eneloop cells in general work very well. Your charger may do some damage to the cells if you leave the cells on the charger for extended periods of time. With Eneloop cells you charge them, then remove them from the charger.

Tom

 

[gurdygurds]

Maybe you got some bad Eneloops or some knock-offs? I'm not sure if fake Eneloops are an issue just throwing it out there. I personally am strictly Eneloops for flashlights and other around the house battery powered items and have been very happy. Hope you can get it sorted out because they're overall an excellent product.

 

[bcm00re]

If it isn't the cheap charger that is the problem, then it sounds like your flashlight could have some parasitic drain.

 

[HKJ]

One think that kills eneloop and other NiMH batteries fairly fast is to over discharge them.