Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops...?

[Mr Happy]

I happened to look closely at some Uniross Hybrios I have, and I realised that they looked very much like Eneloops. Suddenly curious, I picked up some Eneloops and compared them. Here is what I found.

Appearance

The Hybrios have the same white top and squareish button that Eneloops have. They also have exactly the same shaped ridge on the negative end. If you took the wrapper off the cells and compared them side by side I doubt you could tell them apart.

Dimensions

Here are some measurements with calipers:

..................... Eneloop ... Hybrio
Length .............. 50.26 ..... 50.26
Diameter ............ 14.10 ..... 14.10
Button diameter ...... 5.43 ...... 5.41
Tail ridge diameter .. 9.55 ...... 9.55

Dimensions are in mm.

Weight

Weight of one cell in grams:

Hybrio ... Eneloop
26 ....... 26

Charging

Two Eneloops and two Hybrios were charged from a completely empty state on the MH C-9000 at 1.0 amp and left on the charger for 4 hours after Done for topping off.

............ Time .. Charge .. Voltage after charge
Eneloop 1 .. 121 ... 1827 .... 1.454
Enellop 2 .. 126 ... 1911 .... 1.454
Hybrio 1 ... 128 ... 1943 .... 1.450
Hybrio 2 ... 128 ... 1950 .... 1.450

Time is in minutes, charge in mAh. All cells displayed an identical voltage/time profile during charging.

Discharging

Discharged at 1 amp on the C9000.

............ Time .. Capacity
Eneloop 1 .. 121 ... 1820
Eneloop 2 .. 124 ... 1860
Hybrio 1 ... 122 ... 1839
Hybrio 2 ... 128 ... 1904

All cells displayed an identical voltage/time profile until the last few minutes of discharge.

Here's a second discharge test. The cells were charged at 200 mA for 12-14 hours until the voltage stabilized at 1.51 V (I didn't record the exact time but it was the same for all four). After a 12 hour rest and before the discharge test, the voltage on all cells was 1.44 V within a few mV. Discharged at 400 mA:

............ Time .. Capacity
Eneloop 1 .. 310 ... 1864
Eneloop 2 .. 316 ... 1892
Hybrio 1 ... 310 ... 1865
Hybrio 2 ... 323 ... 1928


Internal Resistance

The internal resistance of sample cells was measured by applying a load and measuring the decrease in voltage.

........ Eneloop .. Hybrio .. Kodak Pre-Charged
V(OC) .. 1.433 .... 1.430 ... 1.357
V(LD) .. 1.404 .... 1.402 ... 1.300
dV ..... 0.029 .... 0.028 ... 0.057
I ...... 0.58 ..... 0.58 .... 0.56
R ...... 0.050 .... 0.048 ... 0.102

Where:

V(OC) = open circuit voltage (volts)
V(LD) = loaded voltage
dV = V(OC) - V(LD)
I = load current (amps)
R = dV / I (ohms)

Other Eneloops and Hybrios were tested with not much variation in the results. The above results are typical. The result for a Kodak Pre-Charged is shown alongside to provide a third reference point. All cells were freshly charged before the test.

Self Discharge Rate

I don't have any numbers for this, but I have left the Hybrios for months and found them to remain very well charged when later tested. They definitely hold their charge well.

Conclusion

By every test and appearance, the Uniross Hybrios that I have are the same as Eneloops. Since they are available in Fry's at $9.99 per 4-pack, this makes them better value than either badged Eneloops or Duracell Pre-Charged (another Eneloop clone).

Curiosity

The Hybrio label says they are made in China, whereas Eneloops say they are made in Japan. This would suggest there are at least two factories making cells using the Eneloop technology.

 

[TorchBoy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

I think this is very significant, although Uniross Hybrios are even rarer here than Eneloops are. :sigh: I don't think I've ever seen them at all.

The Duracell might get reasonably common here eventually. Where are they made, and what capacity do they have?

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

The label says "2100 mAh - Charging time: 7H-420 mA Made in China".

But I don't believe what the label says about the capacity.

I haven't had the patience to run a full break-in cycle, but I did a long slow timed charge overnight and I'm going to discharge at 400 mA now to see what I get. I'll post the results tomorrow.

 

[Ray_of_Light]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

Thank you for posting it. I come to the same conclusions. I'm very interested since here in Italy Hibryos are available in every supermarket and specialty store, while Eneloops are much harder to find and more expensive.
Uniross is a French-British venture and seems they "invaded" Europe with their product.

Edit: I run the capacity test on the Uniross Cell. The label states 2100 mAh, I measured 1900 mA/h at 1 A (discharge current) after three full cycles, and 2000 mA/h at 300 mA. May be they will give 2100 mA/h capacity at 20 mA discharge current, but I don't bother measuring it...

Anthony

 

[chewy78]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

I believe these cells are made in europe

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

I added a second discharge test to post #1 as measured after a slow timed charge.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

Conclusion
By every test and appearance, the Uniross Hybrios that I have are the same as Eneloops. Since they are available in Fry's at $9.99 per 4-pack, this makes them better value than either badged Eneloops or Duracell Pre-Charged (another Eneloop clone).

Thank you for this very interesting report, from the evidence of appearance and measurements you presented I would draw the same conclusions.

Up to now I had thought of just about all the LSD batteries the Uniross Hybrio were the most dissimilar to the eneloops -

............. Hybrio ....... eneloop
Capacity 2100mAh .... 2000mAh
Cycles ...... 500 ......... 1,000
Made ...... China ........ Japan

Some previous threads about Hybrios -

Uniross Hybrio - CandlePowerForums

Hybrio -v eneloop - CandlePowerForums

This thread actaully has a lot of debate on Hybrio vs. eneloop -
Lowest cost Low Self Discharge

Post #123 in Eneloop AA are not that good due to reduced capacity
reference for the Hybrio % capacity retention - a UK site (US Hybrio site no longer seems to be working)

LSD cell comparo at DPReview.com which points to Low self-discharge AA comparison @ dpReview -

also the same poster @ dpReview AA and AAA NiMH low self-discharge tests--... these measurements seem to show the Uniross Hybrio with higher capacity than eneloops.

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

Interesting links. One thing to note about all these tests is that the age and condition of the cells plays a part.

The Eneloops I have were manufactured in 2006, so they are getting on for two years old now. I do get the impression that these cells have a gradual loss of performance with age. When I first tested some Eneloops I got capacity measurements up to 1980 mAh, but I can't achieve that these days.

The Hybrios I tested do seem to have a slight edge on performance over the Eneloops, but it's only slight. Since the Hybrios are apparently made in a different factory, perhaps they have a more recent manufacturing date. Perhaps too the Hybrio factory has a better quality of manufacture?

I have many Eneloops and there is a good bit of variation between them depending on how many cycles they have had and how they have been charged. So I wouldn't tend to conclude too much from differences observed in spot tests between two different brands of cell. I could test two Eneloops that might vary by as much.

When it comes down to it I think the Hybrios are solid performers, and assuming the ones in stores now are the same as the ones I bought, I would have no hesitation in buying more of them.

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

The Hybrios I tested do seem to have a slight edge on performance over the Eneloops, but it's only slight. Since the Hybrios are apparently made in a different factory, perhaps they have a more recent manufacturing date. Perhaps too the Hybrio factory has a better quality of manufacture?

This is a very interesting thread - since up to now it was believed that there were only two LSD technologies
- and only two (maybe three) manufacturers of LSD cells - Sanyo in Japan and Yuasa in China.

Obviously the Uniross Hybrio (made in China) being so similar from your testing to eneloops has really now thrown this for a loop.

It's somewhat ironic you suggesting that the Hybrio China factory may have a better quality of manufacture than the Sanyo Japan factory......

Especially considering this concurrent thread -
Duracell Pre-Charged Rechargeables - Buyer Advisory

where it was pointed out that Duracell Pre-Charged were suspected re-badged eneloops only if they were made in Japan -
whereas there are now Duracell Pre-Charged made in China
(although with different appearance - eg: black surround +ve button)

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

I think that when a company like Sanyo really wants to get the most return from its investment, it may not want to (or have the capacity to) keep a monopoly on manufacture. Once the technology is defined and patented, Sanyo can license it to other manufacturers in return for license fees and royalties. Sanyo engineers could work with the licensee to build a factory that makes cells to exactly the same specifications as the Sanyo manufactured cells. It's possible, even probable, that this is what has happened with the Hybrio cells.

 

[TigerhawkT3]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

That's odd - I got some AAA Hybrios a while ago, but they didn't come pre-charged and couldn't even hold a charge, so I returned them. I got some Sony CycleEnergy AAs (rebadged Eneloops), and they did come pre-charged, as well as holding a charge quite nicely. :thinking:

 

[TorchBoy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

It's somewhat ironic you suggesting that the Hybrio China factory may have a better quality of manufacture than the Sanyo Japan factory...

In the post immediately before your one Mr Happy suggests the Eneloops are two years older. :ironic:

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

In the post immediately before your one Mr Happy suggests the Eneloops are two years older. :ironic:

Yes, indeed - I was merely quoting and responding to -

Perhaps too the Hybrio factory has a better quality of manufacture?

perhaps you missed that quote in my post?

 

[TorchBoy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

Probably did - I didn't entertain the idea at all. The Japan-made Eneloops have two years production experience, and Mr Happy's Eneloops have two years use. If they are made in different countries I'm amazed they're as similar as his tests indicate. I wonder what his Eneloops were like when new...

 

[UnknownVT]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

The Japan-made Eneloops have two years production experience, and Mr Happy's Eneloops have two years use. If they are made in different countries I'm amazed they're as similar as his tests indicate. I wonder what his Eneloops were like when new...

Perhaps a small point to consider - I think that two years on the eneloops was from date of manufacture -

The Eneloops I have were manufactured in 2006, so they are getting on for two years old now. I do get the impression that these cells have a gradual loss of performance with age. When I first tested some Eneloops I got capacity measurements up to 1980 mAh, but I can't achieve that these days.

(I'm not sure if Hybrios had any manufacture date).

Mr Happy will be able to tell us when he started using those eneloops.

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

Mr Happy will be able to tell us when he started using those eneloops.

They have a date code of May 2006 and were purchased in August 2006. I have not put that many charge cycles on them, perhaps half a dozen or so. Eneloops never run down, so they rarely need charging.

 

[TorchBoy]

Re: Uniross Hybrios are Eneloops

OK, so they're not very used (compared to some, at least). That means they are well matched in age, and very well matched in performance. These Hybrios don't perform like those in previous tests. A reformulation, or a new contract? Could the packaging be wrong when it says made in China?

 

[Mr Happy]

It has become apparent that there is more than one kind of cell being badged and sold with the Hybrio name. Since I neglected to do it before, therefore, here are some pictures of the Hybrios tested in this thread. The Hybrio is shown side by side with an Eneloop.

Negative end:

Positive end:

Side view:

And the packaging they came in:

This package is as found in Fry's at $9.99.

I also weighed them since I forgot to do that in the first post of the thread. The Hybrio and the Eneloop both weigh 26 grams.

 

[VidPro]

good stuff Meester Happy.
i compare to the pics, and everything i see , and that you show, measured, looks the same as the enloops i have got ,both from years ago, and rescentally.

looks like, in that situation you got a cell that is as close as can be in similarity, so close i would wonder if they didnt all come from the same factory reguardless of the label (saying china/japan).

your "resistance" test should be enough to figure if there is the voltage drop too.

the only reason i mention is, some hybrio tests have shown a LOT more voltage drop under load than an enloop, which is the only thing that scared me. some tests were displaying "runtime" without concideration of the voltage.

made me appretiate Silver Foxes Graphs with the voltage shown , even more than before. plus the Watts too.

 

[Mr Happy]

Just as you wrote that, VidPro, I was completing the very kind of test you mention.

So here is a discharge test of some Hybrios like the ones pictured at 1000 mA on the C9000. Each cell voltage was recorded at various points during the discharge:

Capacity (mAh) Voltage
.... 150 ...... 1.25 ... 1.26 ... 1.25 ... 1.26
.... 500 ...... 1.20 ... 1.21 ... 1.20 ... 1.21
... 1000 ...... 1.19 ... 1.20 ... 1.19 ... 1.20
... 1500 ...... 1.16 ... 1.17 ... 1.16 ... 1.17
... 1700 ...... 1.13 ... 1.14 ... 1.13 ... 1.14
... 1800 ...... 1.11 ... 1.12 ... 1.12 ... 1.13
... 1900 ...... 1.07 ... 1.05 ... 1.08 ... 1.08

The final recorded capacities at the end were: 1972, 1937, 1976, 1984 mAh.

I would have liked to see voltages in the 1.25 - 1.30 V range at the 500 mAh point, but truthfully I don't think I've seen Eneloops manage that either.