Anyone try TENAVOLTS Rechargeable 1.5V AA Lithium Batteries?

ampdude

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Well, I just got my package as posted in the Good Deals forum. Tested out the batteries on my super high quality Harbor Freight multimeter and they arrived at 1.55V, 1.54V, 1.50V. & 0.00V. I think the 0V one is dead. They are all labeled 04/2019. I tried the two highest voltage batteries in an incan light and not surprisingly I got a brighter, whiter beam with these light weight batteries. I decided to put all of the batteries in the charger it came with and let them go through a cycle. Maybe the circuit is tripped in the 0 volt one and it will 'untrip'. If I don't post anymore it's probably because my house burned down and I'm not among the living anymore.

Overall not very impressed so far with the quality of the batteries. If the one battery doesn't correct itself, or I notice the hot terminals like some people have commented in the reviews I will probably be initiating a return.
 

ampdude

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Thanks for posting that. I have a "specific use" in mind. You mentioned unregulated flashlights being one of them. Mine is running either a Minimag 2AA or a Surefire MN01 lamp assembly in a 2AA body brighter than two NIMH or Alkalines can do, and in a lighter weight battery, without having to resort to AA Lithium primaries. Currently all the bays of the charger are off except the one cell that registered 0 volts. I'm going to pull them all after awhile if the bay/charger doesn't turn off and see what I have. If I return them, I might look into some NIZN's, though I'm afraid the voltage even under load might be a bit too high for my application.
 

ampdude

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Okay, so the one charging bay for the battery that registered 0.00V is now off. All bays are now off and the lightning bolt is green which means that charging is complete per the manual. I tested all of the batteries and they tested 1.55V, 1.54V, 1.50V, and 1.56V. Ironically the battery that came at 0.00V now has the 1.56V. The battery that came at 1.50V is still 1.50V. The batteries and charger were all cool when I unplugged it. Now I will test the batteries out in my incan setups and see how they do..
 

flydiver

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Okay, so the one charging bay for the battery that registered 0.00V is now off. All bays are now off and the lightning bolt is green which means that charging is complete per the manual. I tested all of the batteries and they tested 1.55V, 1.54V, 1.50V, and 1.56V. Ironically the battery that came at 0.00V now has the 1.56V. The battery that came at 1.50V is still 1.50V. The batteries and charger were all cool when I unplugged it. Now I will test the batteries out in my incan setups and see how they do..

When protection kicks in it's not unusual for cells to read 0v. As you see it resets in the charger.
The differences in voltage between your cells is trivial and will not change function at all.
@zeroair review is quite good.

I picked up 4 to try. Now I have a dozen, all in service. Certain applications that benefit from 1.5v do work better. The rest of the applications, well, just run as they should. Lights don't dim, but they may suddenly just go out when the protection kicks in. Since the discharge curve is completely flat you can't do any kind of remaining capacity test on these. That might be an issue for some applications....or people.
At $35 they are stupidly expensive. [Slickdeals] has specials all the time for $10-13 with charger. At that price they become reasonably competitive.

They seem to be very well made, consistent, and so far reliable. We'll see what the long term reliability is....later. We are all beta testers here.
 

ampdude

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Yep, only reason I tried them it because I got them in the sale. If I had looked closer and saw they were li-ion cells with a regulation circuit I might not have even bought them. For some reason at first I thought they were some new type of chemistry until I got them. I've had the protection circuits trip on many cells in the past for many reasons, usually you can get them to 'untrip' by applying enough voltage. I wonder how much energy is being lost on the protection circuit in these cells.
 

xxo

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Lights don't dim, but they may suddenly just go out when the protection kicks in.

They can dim and flicker in lights that don't draw much power. I've had it happen in a Life Gear AR flashlight/lantern (3 AA direct drive) and a enerizer weatheready 2 in 1 flashlight/lantern (2 AA, also direct drive) - both dimmed noticeably and started to flicker when the batteries stated to die, the weatheready got very dim very fast in fact.

In a higher drain light (xeno 1 AA) the Voltage dropped as low as about 0.24V (fluctuating to about 0.60V) immediately after going out, which I thought was strange as I would have thought it would have been 0 Volts exactly if the protection tripped?
 

ampdude

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Yea, I've noticed the same thing when charging cells slowly. The protection tends not to get tripped either. It's best to have a good charger or watch your cells really close then. I try to be extra careful when I'm using cheap chargers!
 

schuster

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Tried them in a portable radio and, as feared, RF noise from the buck circuit inside nearly totally obliterates reception on the AM band.
 

Infarouge

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Does anyone know if the Nightcore D2 can automatically charge 1.5v LI-ion AAs to capacity?
 

jimsy1

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are there any comparison charts for 1.5AA rechargeable batteries somewhere or which one could be the best and what could be their actual max capacity?
 

ampdude

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I thought I had guestimated their capacity awhile back, but I cannot find my notes. And it also depends on how efficient the buck converter is in the battery itself. I mainly only bought them for one purpose, to run an MN01 lamp assembly in a 2AA light. And because they were cheap, and because they are lighter than NIMH batteries. I'm not really that impressed with them and one of the four has a bad circuit that trips sometimes. I have noticed that an MN01 seems to have brighter, whiter output on these two batteries than a CR123A or obviously two AA NIMH batteries. I will have to double check on the CR123A though as I'm not sure the CR123A's I tested against these batteries were new.
 
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MarioJP

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I keep getting ads about these cells. From the marketing, my understanding these AA's suppose to be the next gen AA that will put an end to nimh or the eneloops?

At first glance, the concept is a nifty idea, but all it is, is a step-down circuit that houses a lithim-ion. But will these revolutionize based on from marketing claims?

Secondly, the extra voltage being stepped down has to go somewhere. I am guessing these AA's gets warm/hot.

Sounds nifty though.
 
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WalkIntoTheLight

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I keep getting ads about these cells. From the marketing, my understanding these AA's suppose to be the next gen AA that will put an end to nimh or the eneloops?

At first glance, the concept is a nifty idea, but all it is, is a step-down circuit that houses a lithim-ion. But will these revolutionize based on from marketing claims?

I think you already know the answer.

Secondly, the extra voltage being stepped down has to go somewhere. I am guessing these AA's gets warm/hot.

I'd bet there's a somewhat proper buck driver in there. Otherwise, over half the energy would be wasted as heat, which would be an incredibly stupid design.

Sounds nifty though.

Meh.
 

HakanC

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are there any comparison charts for 1.5AA rechargeable batteries somewhere or which one could be the best and what could be their actual max capacity?
HKJ have tested a few 1.5V AA LiION batteries

TenaVolts AA 2775mW
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...st-review-of-TenaVolts-AA-2775mW-(Black-blue)


Kentli AA PH5 3000mWh
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/v...8-Test-review-of-Kentli-AA-PH5-3000mWh-(Blue)


These, and others, are also in his AA comprator
https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php



 

HKJ

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This type of batteries have their applications.
They are very light weight and have high output voltage, but energy contents cannot match NiMH yet.

If NiMH works I prefer them over the LiIon type, but for light weight and/or high voltage NiMH cannot match them. There is also the issue about the battery indicator, it will show full until the batteries are empty. Another problem is RF noise, they are not very good in sensitive radio receivers. This is not something that cannot be decided from specifications, but it basically have to be tested.
 

xxo

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This type of batteries have their applications.
They are very light weight and have high output voltage, but energy contents cannot match NiMH yet.

If NiMH works I prefer them over the LiIon type, but for light weight and/or high voltage NiMH cannot match them. There is also the issue about the battery indicator, it will show full until the batteries are empty. Another problem is RF noise, they are not very good in sensitive radio receivers. This is not something that cannot be decided from specifications, but it basically have to be tested.

Energy appears to be pretty good on tenavolts, watt hrs seems to be somewhere between standard and high cap eneloops. In some applications, such as single cell lights, tenavolts sometimes run considerably longer than high cap eneloops, I am guessing because that their higher Voltage results in less losses in the boost circuit?
 
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