80 AA Alkalines $10 at Comp USA

In Sunday's (11/24) Comp USA ad there is a loss leader for *80 alkaline AA's* for $10. Buy 40, get 40 free. You have to buy 2 pkg's of 40 to get the deal. They are RedCell brand, made in Germany. At that price, you can't go wrong. I was at Comp USA around 2 PM, and they still had 30 or 40 packs of 40, but these will go FAST! Good luck!

I picked up some of these the last time Comp USA had them on sale (80 for $10). Have gone through the first 40-pack, and will be getting some more. Can't tell any difference between them and the Ray-O-Vac Ultra's that I used previously.

I checked the package, and they have a June 2006 exp. date. Not bad for 12.5 cents/ea, plus sales tax.

How exactly do you manage to use that many AA? If you do use them up, why have you not moved to rechargeables?

My question is very sincere and no disrespect is intended. I only use disposibles for very low drain applications such as remote controls. For almost everything else which involves high drain such as electrical motors (e.g. toys), I put rechargeable and instruct my kids to come to me when they need to change the batteries.

I have picked up bunch of AA's a while ago before I discovered NiMh. At the rate, I don't think I can justify picking up AA alkalines.

I too was not happy with my NiCd experience but with good quality NiMh and a nice charger, you would wonder how you lived without them!

Try it.

- Vikas

I have NiMH and a good charger, but I still find them frustrating to use because of the fast self discharge rate. I use them in my digital camera, but it often sits on the shelf for a few months between uses (I mostly take pictures on trips) and I usually have to remember ahead of time to recharge the batteries and the spare set. In that case it is worth it because alkalines perform very poorly in digital cameras.

I also have some FRS radios that I only use occasionally. I bought a set of NiMH batteries for them, but they are always dead when I need the radios (and I never remember ahead of time).

For a flashlight that I'll be using all the time rechargables are good, but for one that will often sit untouched for weeks at a time the NiMH can mean a flashlight being dead when I need it.

I really like NiMH and use them when I can, but there are still a lot of places where alkalines are the way to go. At $.125/each or even the $.25/each from Costco it's hard to pass up.

- Russ

Same with me: I often find my NiMH AA cells dead. They really need to be charged every two to three weeks. Alkalines this cheap mean I can 'waste' them in frivolous ways....

I usually have no problem remembering to charge my camera or MD recorder in advance, but the FRS radios are hit'n'miss. My radios use AAAs though, and my Maha charger will top them off in only 20-30 minutes. Usually when I want the radios I'll be driving somewhere, so I just keep the charger in my car.

That is a good price. Ikea always sells 10 packs of alkaline AAs for $2. A good deal and you don't have to wait for a sale. Problem is getting to an Ikea is rarely convenient.

I use the alkalines just for the standby applications, where the device is not in regular use, but has to be ready when I need it, like standby flashlights that I don't use regularly. That's what NiMH's aren't suitable for; otherwise I use the rechargeables whenever I can, provided I know I'll be using it in advance, or for the heavy drain applications like digicams, for which alkalines are useless.
With my FRS radios, I leave alkalines in there and just put a strip of insulating paper on one of the batteries to eliminate all the parasitic drain in standby. That way, I can count on the radio always being ready-

Hey, I did it -- found this very sale at the local Hawaii CompUSA and for once the price was the same as you mainland guys. Thanks for the tip Gandy!

Mr. B... don't you just hate that price thing? Same thing here in Alaska, you see commercials all the time with those "low prices" until you go to take advantage of them..."Oh, that's only in the 'Lower 48' or 'the Mainland'".

I don't know what good it does, but I starting emailing every business organization that does that. I usually hear something back, but it's a reality with the extra labor, delivery of goods, etc. that we have to deal with.

(And yes, they were $10 here also!)

Like the others, I use rechargeables in my digital cameras religiously. They get used a lot, so there's no problem with the "drain-down". My flashlights, FRS radios, daughter's CD player, Gameboy, etc., etc., etc. don't always get used regularly. If not used for a while, the rechargeables are always very low voltage, if not dead. This is where the rechargeables just can't measure up to a good set of cheap alkalines. I've also found that the rechargeables, even with a fresh charge, die out MUCH quicker than alkalines in really cold weather.

Anyone know of a good place to get a few NiMH AA's and a charger? Thanks

-Mike

Do a search in this forum for battery chargers. I believe Thomas Distributing had some great deals on some Maha chargers and batteries (package deals as well as others). However, I just bought the C. Crane smart charger after reading many posts in this area and am totally pleased. Sure takes the headaches out of charging and reconditioning batteries!

Comp USA sale ended 11/27/02.