Rechargeable AA's
 

I plan on getting some Eneloops and some Sanyo 2500's now I'm looking for the best price. Deal Extreme has the 2500's at $8.50 for a pair which is pricier than I remember them being.

Any suggestions? Maybe even a suggestion for a different battery.

Answering my own question...:o

I see Battery Junction has the 2500's for half that...a 4 pack for $8.95 but they are out of stock.

I love those Sanyo 2500s! They are incredibly consistent. Thomas Distributing has them cheaper than DX - $8.57 for a 4pk, less w/ a coupon code.

I was recently suprised and extremely pleased with some DX Soshine AAAs; listed as 1100mAh which after conditioning in came in at 1050mAh each. Might have been a fluke, may not hold true for their 2500 AAs, they may not last as long as a Sanyo but seems worth mentioning. I'd be tempted to try them if I needed something else from DX except they cost the same as Sanyos.

I'd be surprised if MOST of the batteries on DX weren't fake, though. For premium cells for key uses (like the S/2500 or Eneloops) I stay away from DX. Even the Soshines are probably fake since they are not in their product listing. Which is why I was surprised.

Thanks! Battery Junction has some cheap Tenergy's. I'd mostly be using them for lighting and I charge those often. Wonder if these would get me by just fine.

Bear in mind that there is some indication that the Eneloops on DX may be counterfeit. I did buy some off-brand LSD AAAs from DX and they're working OK, so I don't know for sure myself. Just something to think about if the price is close with some other source.

Plus with the long wait for shipping I'll likely stay away from them. It's looking like Battery Junction at the moment.

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/sa...-batteries.htm
These are almost as good as the 2700's. http://www.thomasdistributing.com/sa...-batteries.htm

I bought Eneloops from DX and - fake or not - I have been happy with them. What I like is that they don't lose their charge while just sitting there, so we can use them in stuff that doesn't get used everyday (camera, for example) and be pretty sure they'll still work when we need them to.

Do the others you're discussing, like those 2700s, have the same property?

Speaking of AA batteries, I'd rather convert all my light apparatus to 18650 lithiums. $8 for 2 18650 = $12 6 AA Eneloops.

where?

$25 for these, 8 AA, 2 AAA, Charger, Adapters.


http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-...281408&sr=1-23

Include $10 shipping on that. I already have a charger. That wouldn't be a bad buy for someone without one though.

If I understand the question, no high capacity cells dont work like LSDs and there are no high capacity LSD cells. Hi Caps will have more power than an LSD for a week or 2 after charging; various user tests on good, fresh cells actually show LSDs dont cross over until more than 30 days out. As they wear though, that margin will shrink.

Another advantage of LSDs is that they tend to be 'better' constructed. In order to make hi cap cells (> 2100 in AA), they use a thinner separator. This makes them more prone to damage from dropping, poor charging and they age faster. It also argues against chasing the largest mAh claim on the label such as 2700, 2850, 3000 etc - that capacity comes at the cost of durability which can be an issue in bike lights (bumps, spills etc).

How you use them has another impact on perceived performance. 'Low' capacity cells including LSDs tend to do better in high drain applications like flashlights than hi cap cells especially if they are old. An LSD wont beat a healthy hi cap like the Sanyo 2500 fresh off the charger though.

Sounds odd. Most AA based things are 4.8V or 6V, so that to go to lithium you need a regulated pack. You are also sort of comparing apples and oranges (or a Huffy to a Cannondale). $4 wont buy an 18650 cell comparable in quality to an Eneloop; its more like $9-$13 ea. Oh, and the cheap lithium is not likely to have th same service life as a good AA. I sympathize though: I love the energy density of the 18650.


Not for nothing, but Eneloops are not the only LSD cells out there. They are great, but the Imedion is higher capacity (for real, not just on the label) with the same characteristics and same price.

I don't notice a substative difference between battery life on my 2000mA Eneloops vs my 2700mA Duracells, both from Amazon, both the same age. I've used both extensively - I wore a Fenix for marathon training (yes, running!) and ran nearly every day for 90-180 minutes, so I got to A/B test both tests repeatedly until they dimmed. In my hands, Eneloops 2000mA = Duracell 2700mA. (I was hoping the Duracells would last a lot longer but they definitely do not.)

The Eneloops also definitely deliver on charge retention - they lose about 10-15% very quickly like a regular NiMH, but after that, they hold 80-85% for months. Pretty impressive, as the regular NiMhs are nearly completely dead by then.

When I do my next battery upgrade, I'm going to go all Eneloops (or Eneloop knockoffs.)

Just the kind of information I was looking for and why I love these forums. Thanks

By the way, there are some stores selling "precharged" AA NiMHs in a house brand. In the midwest, the Meijer stores have a house brand and 4 AA cells are $7.99. I've bought several packs of them and they work well. Very comparable to Eneloops.

Don't expect anything from DX to actually be the real product and not a counterfeit.

Try Thomas Distributing for good prices on bats. FWIW, I wouldn't go for LSD bats unless you have either a very low drain light (for instance a taillight) or only use your light from time to time. A standard 2500 ni-mh will take a long time to self discharge to 2000. If you change your bats once a week or more go for the 2500 as you'll have longer runtime. I base all of this on my experience with Sanyo 2500 and Eneloop bats in a Fenix LD2 used for commuting.

Thanks Ziemas. The LSD's are for a digital camera and other little used items like that. I use the 2500's for my lights. In fact, I may have learned that from you in another battery thread! :)

I only buy LSD batteries now, because I like to have spares, and I dislike having to keep special batteries for individual purposes. I still have a pile of old batteries that will probably take me several years to wear out, especially now that I have replaced my old headlights with lights that have LiIon batteries so I'm not using nearly the batteries that I once did.

IMO a set of AA NiMHs last so long that it's worth investing in decent cells rather than just buying what you need for one specific purpose. My batteries have all outlasted whatever purpose I had in mind when I bought them.

The problem is that LSD batteries have a 20ish% shorter runtime that decent vanilla ni-mh. For high drain bike lights that can be a big difference. In any event, they're cheap enough, so why not have a dedicated set that gives you longer runtime if you need it?

How many years have you had your batteries? How many times have they been charged, very roughly? 100's of times?

Mine are very new, charged maybe 6-8 times so far. They already paid for themselves. Hopefully they'll last a few years, even one year would be worth it.

Anyone in the 500's in the charge cycle count? How long have them been in service?

Anywhere between a few months and 8 or 9 years. Actually the ones that are more than about 6 years old have been recycled by now. I haven't kept track; with LiIon specialty batteries I put the date in service on them with a marker, but though I used to do that with AAs, the marker just wears off anyway so I don't bother anymore.

I have no idea how many times. Maybe some of them have been charged 120 times or so. I tend to have plenty of spares and cycle them rather than charging the same set over and over. Again, I started out trying to keep track, but the marks just wear off anyway, and I decided I didn't care that much.

The set that's in my Dinotte taillight right now I've decided to cycle hard just to see what happens. I run it about 90 minutes a day and charge it every 2 days. It's an old set that a friend gave me, saying they were junk. I found they were fine and she probably just had a cheap charger. But they're a bit old, only 2000 mAH. I've been running them for a couple of months now.

Costco has had some good deals on Sany Eneloop multipacks. You might find some still hanging around your local Costco.

I don't know how many charges, but I have Sanyo 1500 and 1650mAh NIMH from as far back as 1999 that still test around 80% capacity. I've retired those and use them in kids toys now.

It would be cool to run a test with those old Sanyo from 1999. Charge them up and run them in an output regulated flashlight (one the stays at a set brightness till the voltage drops too low to support that output). See how it compares to flashlight manufactures estimated run time.