AAA lithium primary batteries
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AnAppleSnail
Flashlight Enthusiast
Higher capacity at low or high temperatures, higher capacity in high-drain situations, will not leak. Alkalines have a slight edge in low-drain apps, but can leak.
Shadowww
Banned
Erm, alkalines don't have any advantages in low-drain applications either. I dunno where that common misconception comes from.
AnAppleSnail
Flashlight Enthusiast
0.2C+ is relatively high drain outside the world of flashlights.
I suppose I should clarify that alkalines have superior energy density in day-long and longer applications. However, the fact that they have a reasonable chance of leaking corrosive sludge means I do not use alkalines in anything that I like.
Duracell PDF Figure 5 shows a figure of merit: The service life of a Duracell AA Alkaline cell at 100 mW constant load is over 25 hours. Some NiMHs have higher capacity, and 25 hours is right around the turning point I claim for the energy advantage to shift to alkalines.
Here is a thread that tests AAA alkaleaks at over 1C (500 mA drain).
click
Lithium vs alkaleak AAAs. You can't argue that any discharge test under 1 hour is 'low drain,' though, so the alkaline is spanked soundly. The electrical disadvantage of alkaleaks fade with lower current draw, as seen in the pdf.
Alkaleaks are pretty awful just because I guarantee that they will leak without warning, stranding you with no power or destroying your precious devices.
Shadowww
Banned
That was 0.07C though, not 0.2C+.
Also, "over 25 hours at 100 mW", considering average voltage of 1.2V and therefore average current draw of 83mA, is over ~2100 mAh, and over 2500mWh. Lithium AA does 3400mAh with avg. voltage of 1.4V, which is 4760mWh - almost double that of alkaline.
Thanks all for your quick and interesting replies.
AFAIK, lithium have another advantage over alkalines: a much longer shell life.
The comparison plot posted by shadowww shows that the Energizer Ultimate Lithium has almost twice as much capacity as most alkaline.
What is your source for this plot?
Any recommended place to buy such batteries, with reasonnable shipping fees to Europe?
AFAIK, lithium have another advantage over alkalines: a much longer shell life.
The comparison plot posted by shadowww shows that the Energizer Ultimate Lithium has almost twice as much capacity as most alkaline.
What is your source for this plot?
Any recommended place to buy such batteries, with reasonnable shipping fees to Europe?
Shadowww
Banned
It's taken from here: http://www.batteryshowdown.com/
For Europe.. Well, I'm getting Varta Professional Lithium's from TME ( http://www.tme.eu/ ). But I'm getting them in big amounts & shipped together with other items, if you need just a few, TME's option might not be a good deal.
Robin24k
Flashlight Enthusiast
Here are some runtime tests that show alkaline vs. lithium in more practical uses:
It is only when you get down to very low current drains that alkalines can compete with lithiums perhaps for AAA around 25ma or less they start to get close to each other. As you can see even at reasonable currents alkalines can deliver better cost/runtime ratios than lithiums it is such that other factors drive people to use them such as zero chance of leakage, able to handle extreme temps the best, weight, and long term storage viability.
