Rayovac Hybrid NiMH

[Curious_character]

I'm a real Eneloop fan -- I've been using them heavily since they came out, for everything from high current flashlights to digital clocks. So far not a single cell has failed.

But I've occasionally gotten a few LSD cells of other brands just for comparison. This included Rayovac Hybrid AAA cells, and one of the few cells has just failed. When I tried to charge it on my MH-C9000 charger, the charger said "high", which is not a good sign. So I ran it through a "break-in" cycle. At the "break-in" discharge, the capacity was about 400 mAh, and a discharge after the "break-in" cycle also showed about 400 mAh. This is half the rated capacity. The cell probably has around a dozen cycles on it, and no more than 20.

I also have a few Sony Cycle Energy cells which are doing ok so far. But no more Rayovacs for me.

c_c

 

[ChrisGarrett]

The problem isn't capacity with the cheaper/lessor cells, it's longevity, in my opinion.

When I began revamping my NiMH stash in January 2012, I got a few different brands: Eneloops AA/AAAs, GP ReCyKos, Imedion 2400s, AccuPower 2900/1200s and Sanyo 2700s to fiddle with.

The AccuPower batteries, both the AAs and AAAs have pretty good capacity, but the other day I noticed that two of my AAAs that were left in a MagLite and drained, weren't testing at the usual 1000mAh mark, but are now closer to the 800 mark with moderate use. The the other two in the quad, are behaving the same way, so it wasn't 'discharge abuse.' It happened quickly too, not gradually. I even ran a break-in for 40 hours on the C-9000 and no dice. I need to monitor the second quad that I got, but the cheaper cells don't seem to last.

I had two Soshine 16340s that I initially got and one of them really hit the wall to the point of being recycled, after only two months and the other one charges up to about 4.13v, so it's good for about 12 minutes in my V11R. Four AW ICR/IMRs are still kicking butt 16 months later.

Like anything in life, sometimes 'cheap' works, but often times it just doesn't last. I realize that batteries/cells are consumables, much like my rifle/pistol barrels, but two months and maybe a dozen cycles?

Chris

 

[Lampbeam]

I read an article about batteries in the 80s. I think it was in Consumer Reports. It said Energizers were marginally better than Duracells which surprised me because I always liked Duracell. The article also said that Radioshack batteries exceeded expectations and that Rayovac performed underwhelmingly. The Cold War is over and the world has changed, but it sounds like Rayovacs have stayed the same.