Are there good C and D NiMH batteries?

Cosmodragoon

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Jun 7, 2018
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I learned about Eneloops from a photographer and ended up investing in Eneloop Pro for my AA and AAA needs. It's been great so far. Some electronics seem to run a lot longer on them versus alkalines. I've heard that some other brands of NiMH are not as good and that Eneloop (or Amazon's version) are the gold standard for AA and AAA. However, it doesn't look like they make a real C or D cell battery. I see adapters for sale. I found an old thread here showing some manufactured Eneloop C and D batteries that inside were just a bundle of the AA and AAA batteries. So, why not C and D batteries?

Are there any good C or D NiMH batteries out there? Help illuminate me on this subject.
 

vadimax

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Dec 28, 2015
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Vilnius, Lithuania
I use these cells:

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in my radio. Some 3 months have passed and the radio (Eton Grundig Satellit 750) battery indicator still displays full charge :)
 

Kouryu

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Jun 14, 2015
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I have the Eneloop C "cell" myself, it does last a long time in my shaver.... obviously, it's just a bundle of AAAs inside, as you said.

I tried putting in 4 Eneloop Pro AAAs in a "C" adapter I bought off ebay and the performance just wasn't the same... not sure what Panasonic did because the Panasonic branded C "cell" out performance and outlasts the 4 AAA hack I did... the Eneloop Pros were all the same production date, from the same pack, topped off out of the box with a Sanyo NC-TGR01 charger... the C "cell" was topped off with a Sanyo NC-TGU01 charger.... I haven't put it in a Lacrosse charger with a C to AA adapter to do a discharge test (to get the true mAh count) out of laziness but also for fear of prematurely wearing it out as the life cycle rating on them are half of the usual Eneloop AA and AAAs
 
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xxo

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Apr 30, 2015
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Tenergy Centuras have a good rep for low self discharge NiMH C and D cells, real Eneloops would be great but so far they have not offered them, just the ones with 3 AA's or 4 AAA's inside. AA Eneloops in adapters are not bad, particularly in C cell lights - you don't even need a true adapter for C cells since they are about the same length as AA's a tube made out of rolled up news paper cut to length and held together by a bit of tape will do the trick. There are 3 AA parallel adapters for the D cells which with Eneloop Pros give capacity approaching that of a real D cells.
 

xxo

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Apr 30, 2015
Messages
2,993
I have the Eneloop C "cell" myself, it does last a long time in my shaver.... obviously, it's just a bundle of AAAs inside, as you said.

I tried putting in 4 Eneloop Pro AAAs in a "C" adapter I bought off ebay and the performance just wasn't the same... not sure what Panasonic did because the Panasonic branded C "cell" out performance and outlasts the 4 AAA hack I did... the Eneloop Pros were all the same production date, from the same pack, topped off out of the box with a Sanyo NC-TGR01 charger... the C "cell" was topped off with a Sanyo NC-TGU01 charger.... I haven't put it in a Lacrosse charger with a C to AA adapter to do a discharge test (to get the true mAh count) out of laziness but also for fear of prematurely wearing it out as the life cycle rating on them are half of the usual Eneloop AA and AAAs

You might be getting more resistance with the adapters - sometimes these don't make the greatest contact with the cells and the metal components/contacts are usually steel which is not as good a conductor as copper or brass. I was thinking of getting a few of those 4 AAA to C adapters, but I have had good luck running AA Eneloops in C cell lights and havn't got around to trying them.
 

Kouryu

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Jun 14, 2015
Messages
114
You might be getting more resistance with the adapters - sometimes these don't make the greatest contact with the cells and the metal components/contacts are usually steel which is not as good a conductor as copper or brass. I was thinking of getting a few of those 4 AAA to C adapters, but I have had good luck running AA Eneloops in C cell lights and havn't got around to trying them.
interesting... haven't thought about that! I will check the resistance sometime soon
 
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