Which Rechargeable Battery is the Best? Let's find out! Project Farm

It's an interesting capacity test. One point about the Eneloop he doesn't like: it's not a 2000mAh battery. It states right on the cell that it's 1900mAh (min). So, I think it's closer to the rated capacity than he claims.

Also, he bought all the batteries on Amazon, which I know is awful for fakes when it comes to lithium-ion. Not sure if it's also bad for NiMH.

Ehhh, come back in two years and let us know how everything is doing.

Nobody should make a definitive quality assessment on any battery/cell without giving results over time.

Chris

ChrisGarrett said:

Ehhh, come back in two years and let us know how everything is doing.

Nobody should make a definitive quality assessment on any battery/cell without giving results over time.

Chris

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Yeah, the title is definitely misleading. "Best" isn't just about the capacity of a new cell that is measured at very modest drains (1 amp and less). But I don't expect a 10-minute youtube video to get into much more detail than that, so the video is fine. It's just the title that is wrong.

I'm taking it this guy knows very little about nimh batteries if he is just starting to think maybe LSD batteries are a better deal. About the Amazon batteries I've heard that some of them have changed from made in Japan to made in China so without him noting the country of origin it is hard to tell which batteries will hold up in actual long term use and which will be fodder for the trash bin by mid this year.
Also focusing on manufacture labels vs actual measured mah is not really helpful either and doing the ~90% of rated capacity graph is a waste of time but cost per mah is marginally useful for those who need maximum capacity and not as concerned about durability in use.

yes i seen a bunch of his videos on you tube. i like the duck tape comparison he does

Duck tape is probly more his area , he doesn't seem to knowledgable about battery's.

Just another video that misinform users... sigh.. just like the many internet pages that show these kind of 'tests'.. just as if you only use you rechargeable batteries 1 time lol Ok.. maybe misinform is a little harsh, but at least not the whole picture.

I appreaciate him to take the time to do these tests, but he misses some very important aspects when it comes to rechargeable batteries and testing. Like walkintothelight already said: they are not 2000mAh, but 1900mAh.

And how about internal resistance? How about the average quality of the batteries themselves, do all batteries perform the same? How many time you can recharge them. etc.. how about LSD.

pity.

I thought it was a good vid - much better than any of my non-existent YT vids! He tested capacity comparing NiMh's to his previous alkaline vid and I think he did a good job showing that the NiMH's have better capacity than alkalines at higher Amp draws, just one of many reasons to switch to quality NiMH's. He didn't test everything and the standard eneloop didn't do all that well compared to the others based on capacity and cost, but so what? He's got his vid out there with close to 200,000 views and 5,000 comments in a weeks time so people are getting something out of it (I am sure a few at least may make the switch to NiMH's after watching the vid). He said he is planning on testing LSD but that of course will take some time.

xxo said:

I thought it was a good vid - much better than any of my non-existent YT vids! He tested capacity comparing NiMh's to his previous alkaline vid and I think he did a good job showing that the NiMH's have better capacity than alkalines at higher Amp draws, just one of many reasons to switch to quality NiMH's. He didn't test everything and the standard eneloop didn't do all that well compared to the others based on capacity and cost, but so what? He's got his vid out there with close to 200,000 views and 5,000 comments in a weeks time so people are getting something out of it (I am sure a few at least may make the switch to NiMH's after watching the vid). He said he is planning on testing LSD but that of course will take some time.

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I think the video will instead of encouraging people to buy LSD nimh (eneloops) it will encourage people to buy non LSD nimh including high capacity non LSD nimh which many of us here in the forum have been down that dead end route as the higher capacity non LSD nimh tend to fall prey to high self discharge which in my case kept me buying alkalines as the nimh cells were too high maintenance.
So until his LSD nimh testing is completed almost nobody watching the video will buy any of them and be stuck with batteries that they will end up replacing with eneloops.

4 or 5 of the 9-10 batteries he tested are eneloops or rebranded eneloops, including the amazon basic hi cap that he liked based on cost and his capacity testing. I think some of the Chinese cells he tested are supposedly LSD, not as good as eneloops but better than the old hsd NiMH's from 10 + years ago.

Not a bad "preliminary" video, but he really should do a long term test to see which cells perform well the longest. After 2 years, I found my Amazon Basics Silver cells weren't holding up as well as my Eneloops and out of a pack of 4, one of them complete died on me.

I have very good luck with rebranded eneloops, they seem to be just as good as the eneloop branded ones.

I have some old Duracell Japanese "stay charged" cells with the white tops (rebranded eneloops pre 2012), that have seen many hundreds of charge cycles over the years with most if not all being over discharged at some point that I checked the capacity on and they actually have higher capacity than my eneloops that are much newer and supposedly form newer "generations". The few Chinese made versions of these same duracell stay charged cells (black tops) are not nearly as good - lower capacity and less consistent from the start and they lost 25% of there initial capacity after a year or two.

I also have a bunch of the succeeding 2400 mAh rated duracell ion cores (rebranded Eneloop Pros) which are holding up great after hundreds of cycles, same thing with some energizer "recharge plus" hi-cap eneloop rebrands.

I also have some fujiloops (Japanese fujitsu cells) which are excellent in every respect, but I guess they are not really re-brands since fujitsu makes the Japanese eneloops.

Projectfarm's follow up Vid on self discharge:

I actually seen this already but thanks for posting it. 😁