Nuon batteries = crap

[TPA]

Does anyone else here happen to have Nuon alkaline batteries? I'm not sure where my workplace buys them, but I've long suspected that it was either the batteries to blame or that some of my portable electronic tools were having abnormal current draws.

Well, threw 2 AAs, each fresh from a pack into a Maha C9000 and ran the discharge cycle @ 500mA. The first battery scored 692mAh, the second 675 mAh. Brand new, right out of the plastic and that's the crap performance they gave, from 2 separate boxes. For alkalines, no less! And I thought the Energizer 2500's were crap until I saw this. Still trying to convince my workplace that Eneloops + a good charger would be a good investment, but all they see is that it'll cost them money.

 

[mdocod]

I have NUON lithium primary cells (AA) and use them in my LM301s... but My digi cam refuses them for some reason. In the flashlight they perform well... But I've heard bad things about their rechargeable... your work would definitely benefit from an investment in good eneloop or comparable cells.

 

[TorchBoy]

Well, threw 2 AAs, each fresh from a pack into a Maha C9000 and ran the discharge cycle @ 500mA. The first battery scored 692mAh, the second 675 mAh. Brand new, right out of the plastic and that's the crap performance they gave, from 2 separate boxes. For alkalines, no less!

Have you done an identical test with a reputable brand of alkaline? If what I've heard about the MH-C9000 using a discharge rate of 1000mA with PWM to get the average current as selected, it would be hitting alkalines hard for half of the time, which alkalines wouldn't do as well with as if they were hit half as hard all the time. If that makes sense.

 

[GaryF]

I ran the same test on an Energizer yesterday, Maha C9000 set at 500mA, and got 1664mAH as the result. This surprised me, as it's slightly better than Energizer's own data sheet, which shows something just under 1500ma at a 500ma rate: http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/E91.pdf

 

[jayflash]

Why would the local Batteries +, a specialty store, sell the crappy Nuon brand? Their prices are high, too. Seems like a bad combo.

The NiMH Nuons I've had were poor quality.

 

[TorchBoy]

I ran the same test on an Energizer yesterday, Maha C9000 set at 500ma, and got 1664ma as the result. This surprised me, as it's ...

... a current rather than a capacity (aside from capitalisation - mA and mAh). :thumbsup:

That does put the Nuon alkalines in a bad light.

 

[TPA]

Why would the local Batteries +, a specialty store, sell the crappy Nuon brand? Their prices are high, too. Seems like a bad combo.

The NiMH Nuons I've had were poor quality.

The last time I was in a Batteries + store, I was less than impressed. Sure, plenty of batteries, but the prices were atrocious. I still buy my sealed lead acids from alarm system distributors.

 

[TPA]

Well, I don't have any great name-brand AA batteries around here (just use rechargable AAs), but I did scrounge up a Panasonic battery of unknown history. Got 1430 mAh out of it, so I think the C9000's probably reading correctly. I have a feeling that Panasonic battery is a bit old and probably is used.

 

[BadWolf_38]

I recently bought some nuon AA Li-ion cells. They seem to work pretty good for me. The guy at batteries + said they were rebranded samsung cells. Can anyone confirm this??