Readily available NiMh AA brands- which are best?

[Jedi Knife]

Hi all,

I was at the two larger retailers in my area, Wal-Mart and Target, and the only NiMh battery brands I could find were Duracell, Energizer and Ray-O-Vac. I was just wondering if any of you have had experience with these brands and if any stand out over the others. I was looking for the Sanyo Eneloops, but could not find them locally. Should I just go for one of the above brands that I could find, with the highest mA rating? By the way, I am particularly interested in the AA and AAA sizes.
Thanks for any input!

 

[WildChild]

If you want good batteries, get the Duracell Pre-Charged or the Rayovac Hybrid. Stay away from Energizer... The Duracell Pre-Charged are believed to be rebadged Eneloop. They physically look the same and they also act the same capacity/voltage wise. They are excellent. I use them in my Mag 11/ROP. The Rayovac Hybrid have a slightly higher capacity but a higher self-discharge rate. They are also cheaper. I have a few and they are good. I may buy more Hybrid when my NiMH stock decrease a bit and because they are $8 for four instead of $18 for four Duracell Pre-Charged here. About Energizer, their marketting is oriented toward their lithium batteries. They have no low self-discharge NiMH batteries and I'm not sure they plan to market some. For their 2500 mAh NiMH, they tend to go the cheap way since a few years.

 

[Jedi Knife]

Ahh, excellent post WildChild, and timely too! This is the information I was seeking. Thanks a lot, you have helped me make an informed decision. BTW I am a long time Doors fan.

 

[WildChild]

Ahh, excellent post WildChild, and timely too! This is the information I was seeking. Thanks a lot, you have helped me make an informed decision. BTW I am a long time Doors fan.

WildChild didn't came from The Doors (even if I like a few songs from them). It came from the nickname of Alexi Laiho, the singer/guitarist of Children of Bodom.

 

[Bones]

Just a caution that the Duracell Pre-charged comes in two editions now.

As WildChild has previously noted, one edition is believed to be a re-badged Eneloop. It can typically be identified by the white filler surrounding the positive post.

The other, which is differentiated by a black filler around the positive post, is also a low self-discharge cell, just not the Eneloop.

For what it's worth, the Duracell with the black filler around the positive post is outwardly identical to the RayOvac hybrid, so it seems a reasonable bet that its also a very good cell.

Additional details on the two editions of the Duracell can be found here, and ample reason to heed WildChild's advice to avoid the Energizer, and virtually any 2500mAh NiMH cell for that matter, can be found here.

 

[jerry i h]

IMHO, there are only 2 types of NiMH: Eneloops, and everything else. I have never seen Eneloops in a B&M, so that leaves everything else. I have a ziplock baggy full of Energizer AA's. Not because they are better than Rayovac or Duracell, but because a local nationwide drugstore chain kept putting them on closeout sale for 1/2 price.
I go with whatever is on sale. I realize that there is a difference between brands, but here co$t is the major consideration. The Energizers I have cost me between $1 and $1.50.

 

[Flintstone]

Before I knew about Eneloops I got a few packs of Soshine 2700 mAh from DX. After a Break-In my MAHA C9000 says they hold about 2300 mAh. Eneloops seem to get 1900-2000 on other threads here (haven't tested any of mine yet) and barely costs more. When you count in the LSD it's a no brainer. I will never purchase anything but LSD batteries in the future...

 

[Mr Happy]

I have a ziplock baggy full of Energizer AA's. Not because they are better than Rayovac or Duracell, but because a local nationwide drugstore chain kept putting them on closeout sale for 1/2 price.
I go with whatever is on sale. I realize that there is a difference between brands, but here co$t is the major consideration. The Energizers I have cost me between $1 and $1.50.

I think there is something wrong with your accounting. There's a reason things go on 1/2 price closeout -- low cost junk is still junk.

If lots of your batteries are in a ziplock baggy instead of in items that use them, then you have spent money unnecessarily on batteries that are surplus to requirement and have not really saved on cost. For the same amount of money you could have purchased fewer high quality cells and kept them in the things that they power. The high quality cells would not need replacing so often and would cost less in the long run.

 

[pertinax]

Seconding the "...will never buy anything but LSD again..." comment. I'm busily giving my "regular" NiMH batts away to friends with kids, that actually run them down faster than they self-discharge.

 

[dkelly]

The Wal-Marts around me all stock Kodak pre-charged. If you can't get Eneloop, I think that these are by far the best bang for the buck at $8.99 for a four pack. If you have an hhgregg, they have 4 packs of Eneloop for $7.99, the absolute best deal.

 

[jerry i h]

...If lots of your batteries are in a ziplock baggy instead of in items that use them, then you have spent money unnecessarily on batteries that are surplus to requirement and have not really saved on cost...

Agree 100%. In fact, the truth is even uglier than that . So, here is the rest of the story. I was looking for the wall-wart for the universal charger, when I discovered a few packages of new but expired AA alkys in a box. A few tested as dead, but most still registered as OK. So, I decided to replace all the torches that had the Energizer NiMH's with the expired alkys (hence, the NiMH's are in hopefully temporary storage). As the expired alkys die, I will cycle the Energizers back in. But, this introduces more problems:
**I am now paranoid about dead batts in my commonly used torches.
**I am thinking that they should all have a back up (fauxton) physically attached to all torches that normally uses an Energizer NiMH
**When the Energizers get cycled back in, they will probably be partially depleted, needing a topping off first.
**OTOH, I have been using the Energizer NiMH's for a couple of months satisfactorily; when they get weak, just recharge instead of chucking and buying new alkys.

 

[h2xblive]

I think there is something wrong with your accounting. There's a reason things go on 1/2 price closeout -- low cost junk is still junk.

If lots of your batteries are in a ziplock baggy instead of in items that use them, then you have spent money unnecessarily on batteries that are surplus to requirement and have not really saved on cost. For the same amount of money you could have purchased fewer high quality cells and kept them in the things that they power. The high quality cells would not need replacing so often and would cost less in the long run.

I personally don't buy my eneloops to save money...well I wouldn't buy 32+ eneloops to save money. I buy eneloops for the coolness and convenience, mostly.

 

[AlexLED]

Hi all,
I was at the two larger retailers in my area, Wal-Mart and Target, and the only NiMh battery brands I could find were Duracell, Energizer and Ray-O-Vac. I was just wondering if any of you have had experience with these brands and if any stand out over the others. I was looking for the Sanyo Eneloops, but could not find them locally. Should I just go for one of the above brands that I could find, with the highest mA rating? By the way, I am particularly interested in the AA and AAA sizes.
Thanks for any input!

You should not at all look for the highest mAh rating. Several batteries have are overrated, just so people buy them because of the rating.
More important, if you actually maximize capacity, you will loose life-time and increase internal resistance as well as self-discharge.

Problem with Energizer and Duracell is, they don't build NiMH themselves but purchase from others, so you don't always know what you get.
Ok, the recent 2500 mAh from Sanyo seem to be bad, but generally Sanyo and Panasonic cells are quite good in terms of reliability.

In a recent test here in Germany the Eneloops had the least self-discharge, the Panasonic Infinium had a little more and others had even more SD.

 

[Robstorch]

Go for eneloops! I bought some that were 15 months past their initial charge and they could still run my digicam just fine. Enegizers I had I
could get them to last a week or two sitting on the shelf, I got rid of
them all.

 

[Crenshaw]

Im using powerex Imedions...thier pretty good, albiet slightly expensive

Crenshaw

 

[gswitter]

I have never seen Eneloops in a B&M

All the Bay Area Fry's and Costco's I've been in the past year have had them in stock, but I haven't been further north than Fremont.

 

[RGB_LED]

Im using powerex Imedions...thier pretty good, albiet slightly expensive

Crenshaw

+1 for the Imedions. True, they are a bit pricier but, compared to typical charger / battery pack prices at your local sporting goods store, it's a bargain and they'll likely last longer than those. I picked up 8 of them for about $32. I also picked some eneloops and, as indicated by many on this board, they are fantastic.

 

[mdocod]

figure out some way to get your hands on some eneloops or rebadged eneloops and be done with it.

The eneloop represents everything the consumer rechargable NIMH cell should have been.

 

[Mr Happy]

figure out some way to get your hands on some eneloops or rebadged eneloops and be done with it.

For instance, if you can find any Duracell PreCharged cells in Target or any other outlet with the white plastic at the top, they appear to be Eneloops in different clothing.

If you look in a Fry's and can find the UniRoss Hybrio in the red, green and black packaging with white plastic at the top, these also appear to be Eneloops in different clothing. At $9.99/4 they are the lowest regular price "Eneloops" you will find in a B&M store.

 

[cave dave]

I wouldn't take energizer 2500s for free, they are that bad. I gave away 4lbs worth of NiMh and converted over to Eneloops and a few hybrids.

Get a good charger mail order too. Not the crappy Brick and Morter ones.