Guide: Rechargeable AA batteries / 14500 batteries / Chargers

NiMH batteries under the sort of load that things like the Uniquefire AA-S1 put on a cell (2195mA measured) will perform way, way better than alkalines which won't give you the output. Or the runtime. It is pulling 2.6W from the cell and will do so for 69 minutes to 50% of original brightness with a 2000mAh Eneloop freshly charged.

It gave me 2830 lux at 1m for throw and 693lux in my lightbox. On a 14500 it gave me 6100 throw and 1535 total output - so it is more than twice as bright on a 14500.

These figures are not precise enough to be absolutes, but in comparison they are perfectly adequate.

I'll do this in tabular form where it will make more sense. Remind me... I'll need to do a runtime on an alkaline - I think I have 14500 runtimes somewhere.

Cheap rechargeables are usually not too bad as long as you don't go for high claimed capacities which are always overestimates (This is China we are talking about after all). Avoid anything with a claimed capacity of over 2100mAh altogether - it will be flat within a week of charging. The lower capacity cells (1700-1800mAh aren't usually so nasty and don't self discharge as quickly) But all the non LSD (low self-discharge) types will need to be charged within a month of charging even when not used.

Many of the 2500mAh+ claimed capacity ones are too physically large to fit in a lot of things and are very, very delicate. Some reputable "2700mAh" ones I bought a couple of years back never gave better than 2400mAh and wouldn't hold that charge for more than a couple of days.

Actually I'd only recommend the Sanyo Eneloops for NiMH cells. And I've been through a great number of rechargeable AAs over the years. Since I bought myself a stock of Eneloops I've not used the other ones much at all. Sanyo claim 1500 cycles for their latest (Japan only) version and 1000 cycles for the ones we can buy.

For a cheaper alternative, the GP LSD cells are well regarded. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8746 They do them with a charger for $23. I bought some Vapex LSD cells. There's nothing really wrong with them, but for my purposes the Eneloops work better. The Eneloops cost almost 2x as much but were well worth it. In my very picky digital camera the only rechargeable AAs that work well are the Eneloops.

After 150 cycles in a digital camera, cheap NiMH cells are toast. Older digicams are very, very hard on their batteries. I never could persuade the person I share an office with to buy decent NiMH cells - she probably owned more of them than I do. By 250 cycles even if gently treated most cheap cells are going to be toast.

Chargers:

Completely avoid 15 and 30 minute chargers. They kill cells. Quickly. If you must use such things get 15-1800mAh cells of very good quality and expect to junk them annually. Even 1 hour chargers are pushing it. Slower chargers tend to be gentler though many people charge NiMH cells at high currents and then use them hot off the charger for maximum capacity. The RC model crowd expect to get very few cycles out of their cells but then they are very, very hard on them.

I own two Angeleyes chargers that I got from KD. Unless you want the battery analysis features these are OTT $35. Anyway, I can't find them on either KD or DX any more - both used to stock them.

For a straightforward charger that won't cook your cells at a reasonable price I'd go for this one. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6152 $13.98

There are plenty cheaper ones but they tend to cook batteries. Heat is not good for any sort of cell/battery. I'd check the reports on any of them to see about their heating up batteries. Yes, they should be warm, but not too hot to touch - if they are, they have been damaged by the charger.

The Vanson BC1-HU is a decent charger, reasonably priced. It has been rebadged by many, many companies and is of distinctive appearance so is easily enough spotted.

The larger Maha chargers are excellent, but not cheap. Avoid LaCrosse chargers, they melt.

The upcoming NiZn cells and their chargers seem well worth watching but there aren't enough of them out in the field yet to see how they will bear up under hard use.

Apart from their environmental nastiness and generally low capacity, NiCd cells have a lot going for them. They will withstand incredible abuse and keep going. I own some NiCd D cells that were bought in 1984 and still provide above their nominal capacity though they won't give 20-40 amps on a dead short the way they once would. Their self-discharge is much lower than NiMH and they can be used to do things like start cars (I once did this with the 10 Ds mentioned above) - which NiMH cells might do once, they will be good for nothing afterwards. However nobody makes good ones any more. Cadmium is nasty stuff.

1 Thank

Excellent info, thanks Don! So I can expect longer runtime and brighter output with 1.2V NiMHs?

It appears that the charger with batteries that you mentioned is a 220V version from the comments. Here we have 110V power.

I wouldn't buy NiMH batteries from DX. People have reported getting Eneloops from them that turn out to be fake. And crazy offbrand NiMH's aren't worth the trouble unless you know people have been getting good results from them. If possible get a charger that charges cells individually instead of in pairs. Usually you only know that because it will say "charges 1-4 batteries" instead of "2 or 4 batteries" or it has two indicator lights for 4 bays. The Soshine charger Don linked to should be decent, but I got a Maha C9000.

Lithium-ion batteries won't typically last as long because they are driving the light harder and draining power faster than NiMH or alkalines. NiMHs outperform alkalines unless the device just needs that extra voltage (some cameras).

For lithium-ion batteries at DX, people seem to like Trustfires more than Ultrafires. But I have a set of 18650 Ultrafires that are better than the very similar Trustfires (both gray, protected, 2400mAh). Be aware that some of these batteries are way off in size, for example there are some 3000mAh 18650's which are 20mm in diameter (or something like that) and while they should all be 65mm long, most are 67mm and some are 69mm. Also not all protection is equal. Some protect for overcharge and undercharge, but not for a short (too much draw). Don't rely on the protection to tell you when to recharge the battery. Recharge them at 3.5 to 3.6V.

Don't get li-ion batteries unless you also have a multimeter to monitor voltage. I got a cheap one someone recommended by someone at CPF at Amazon to measure currents and it seems to work pretty well though it measures a few hundreths of a volt less than the meter I bought from Home Depot a few years ago. I just use it for currents, but it does all kinds of things.

http://www.amazon.com/Sinometer-DT830B-20-Range-Battery-Tester/dp/B001T3Y8XW/

Didn't think to check the voltage as almost everything DX sells is 110-240V. China uses 220V I believe, and I thought that most of South America did too. After a spot of digging, it would appear that most of South America does use 220V, apart from the bits that don't.

Looking through both DX and KD they don't have nearly the number of NiMH chargers they once did.

At low current drains, the story is different though. An alkaline has a higher nominal voltage and will hold it happily at a few tens of milliamps. At 10mW power (say 8mA) out of the cell you'll get over 3000mAh

At 1A you'll be lucky to get 900mAh. The higher the current the better the rechargeable will do. To take the Uniquefire AA-S1 again as an example it is pulling 2.2A from the cell. A Duracell will be lucky to give you twenty minutes of that sort of abuse though since LEDs will consume every last scrap of power and still produce light this may not be so evident. I'd guess that after 30 minutes it'd be dimmer than an NiMH by a long way. I have some decent NiMH and alkaline cells and plenty of junk ones of both flavours so will do some runtimes etc to see what happens.

NiMH cells are intrinsically capable of higher currents anyway as their internal resistance is lower. Short good NiMH cells and something is going to melt. This is not a good thing to keep up as it'll kill the cell if you let it.

Basically, alkalines decline gently and may have a rather long "tail" if the device will still light up. NiMH cells have a much flatter profile, but then they drop off a cliff. You will know when NiMH cells need recharging...

Here's where I dug up this information from. http://www1.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/new/MX1500_US_UL.pdf

I would also like to chime in but the points have been made. This is what i get for working...lol. I have a lot of Titanium LSD's that are good for the money, but the only downfall is that they need to be cycled and broken in. Its nice to have a couple of sets of rechargeables so that way you know that you have a fresh batt depending on usage and you can keep your primaries for that just in case moment.

And another thing that you might consider is that lith rechargeables lose there capacity as where HQ nimh cells gain. As Don said stay away from the higher capacity cells.....my powerex 2700's only got about 2400mah and its been going downhill from there.

Great info all of you, thanks to Don, brted, and Al. I'll do some deeper research into brands and model numbers during the next few days and I'll let you know what I come up with.

This post is going sticky. Just PM me if you find any other very useful posts that you want to see on the top of the list.

NiMH's gain capacity you say Al? Could you explain a bit for me please? And what about decharging in storage, NiMH vs. Alkaline? Thanks!

This will only occur in good quality cells, in a small test that i did on duraloops and titaniums because of the price per cell. You will see an increase in mah, the more you use the cell the more mah capacity it has.......this is also true for going downhill as will. You want to treat your batts like babies because you want them to last long. When i first got the Titaniums when they were first introduced i was getting about 1600 mah on a R/A cycle- Refresh and Analyze-. Because of the price per cell the cells were never ran through a break in at the factory hence the cheapness of price. I ran them through 5cycles of charge and discharge and then a disharge with a day of rest to equalize the cells and then ran them through a break in.......the capacity of the cells improved to about 1800-1900 mah. There was a lot of cpf members that did'nt like the cells at all because of the the work one had to do to bring the mah up but for me im not one to pout so i was able to put in the work. To this day they still R/A about the same mah, and i do one every three months. And for choosing nimh vs. alkies i would go with nimh for the simple fact that the voltage doesnt sag when using a high powered light as with alkies. And it puts a smile on my face that your really thinking about going nimh. Remember the more capacity a cell has the more fragile the insides are and you will tend to lose capacity in the long run. And as for chargers go with a smart charger if you can, they will be good for the cells in the long run. And as for the batts in storage you should always keep some energy in them, lsds can be fully charged and put away. This is the part where skimping is not an option, better to buy good cells and have them last for years, or by cheap ones and have them for only a couple of months. I would like to go on and on but im here as usual if you have any questions.

Ah, OK, I got you Al. Good, great information. I am looking at the LSD (new readers note: Low Self Discharge) cells per the recommendations here. I often store batteries, so I want them to hold their charge. It looks like I can get possibly genuine Eneloops 4x for $12 - $14. But since this is BudgetLightForum and I am a self-proclaimed tightwad, so I wonder are there any other LSD models/brands that are "pretty good?" If an Eneloop is "elite" like a Nitecore flashlight, what LSD NiMH battery would be like a "pretty good" Tank007? How are Duraloops compared to Eneloops?

I still have no idea what sort of a charger to get. I don't need a super-duper charger, but I do want it to have an automatic shutoff circuit and "Charged" indicator. As Don cautioned, I don't want it to be an ultra-fast charger, I can wait for half a day or all night long for it to charge. And it needs to run on 110V. And it would be nice if it didn't catch fire very much.

I'm looking on eBay too for this stuff, they have great selection and almost DX-cheap prices for batteries and chargers, but the problem is that there are no product reviews.

Thanks to all for the help!

Well you have the white top Duraloops which are made in japan and the supposedly black tops which i see a lot now that are made in China. The white tops are considered to be rebranded Eneloops..........and lets say that the ones made in China are okay but dont compare to the white tops. I was taking a look at these because of the price for my rc radio, they seem to have great reviews. http://hobbycity.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10456&Product_Name=Turnigy_AA_LSD_2200mah_Low_Self_Discharge_(ready_to_use) I havent put my order in yet since my job is cutting hours right now.

I know that you want to save some money as well.....i also have a ton of these rayovacs, there about 1400 mah but with little discharge in the long run........when topped off and stored for about 2 weeks the chager puts about 80-100 mah before the charger says its done....not bad i say, especially when you can get an 8 pack for close or under 10bones, i think i paid about 8bones. Another good lsd i keep hearing about are there hybrids.......

http://rayovac.com/recharge/easy_batteries.shtml

http://rayovac.com/recharge/hybrid_batteries.shtml

Merge with http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/183#comment-1337 ?

Good price. Do you know anything about shipping costs from these guys?

Hope all goes well with your job Al.

I take it from looking at there site that its by weight.........i hope so too.

OK, I'm looking at the following items:

Eneloops:

  • http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6807
  • http://cgi.ebay.com/SANYO-eneloop-Precharged-NiMH-battery-4xAA-4pc-FreeShip_W0QQitemZ170423196866QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27ae039cc2#ht_2894wt_941

Chargers:

  • http://cgi.ebay.com/AA-AAA-9V-Ni-MH-Ni-Cd-Rechargeable-Battery-Charger-NiMh_W0QQitemZ170412175453QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27ad5b705d#ht_2546wt_1098
  • http://cgi.ebay.com/Quick-Charger-4-AA-AAA-9V-Ni-MH-Battery-NIMH-Batteries_W0QQitemZ200380047440QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea794e050#ht_3853wt_952
  • http://cgi.ebay.com/Q51Quick-REChargeable-4-AA-AAA-9V-Ni-MH-Battery-Pack_W0QQitemZ150403401981QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2304bdc8fd#ht_4602wt_1167
  • http://cgi.ebay.com/AA-AAA-Battery-Intelligent-Indicated-Function-Charger_W0QQitemZ350309235881QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item51900ebca9#ht_1803wt_941

This should run me a total of $18.00 - $20.00 for a cheap charger + 4 Eneloops.

I'm looking at the cheaper chargers because most of them seem to have very low power charging, so I won't ruin the batteries. Most are supposed to charge at ~200mA. Does that sound ok? The one that Don recommended says AA Charge Current: 1050mA when charging 2 AA rechargeable Batteries - 525mA with 4 AA Batteries, so the cheaper ones I listed above are actually much lower. I would really prefer that it have a "Charged" indicator and automatic shut-off in case I leave it charging. However, Soshine claims the following:

Does that sound correct? Or is 200mA so little current that it doesn't matter if I leave the batteries in there for 24 hours without a shut-off? And any idea if these chargers can charge single batteries or do they need to be in pairs?
At any rate, please let me know! Thanks a lot!

The BTY and Power looks like your best bet.....to me the chargers would be able to charge in singles as well since each slot has there own indicator light. 200ma is not much at all.....going to take a long time for the batts to charge up. Im basing my decision on the charger specs, the ones that have them.

OK, I finally pulled the trigger and bought some AA Eneloops + cheap charger. The charger comes with 6 cheap rechargeable NiMHs too as a bonus, which I'll use for my wireless mouse. It appears to have 4 individual charging channels, auto-shutoff, and it has VERY low power (80-200mA) output so it doesn't fry my batteries. As for the Eneloops themselves, I hope they're genuine. The seller swears that they are genuine, and the pictures show an anti-piracy hologram. Note to potential buyers: don't buy Eneloops from DealExtreme.com, they are confirmed as fakes. That's why I bought on eBay this time. Total price for 4 Eneloops, a charger, and 6 cheap AA NiMHs, $22.15. At least I'll save the environment a bit and reduce battery costs in the long run. Here's what I bought:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390173375222#ht_2221wt_941

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390183203971#ht_2259wt_941

Nice to see you go rechargeable....you will be saving in alkalines and spending the extra cash on new lights. You will love the performance of the eneloops.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited too. Thanks for the help in choosing. You know, all my AA lights are so efficient I hardly ever have to change the batteries. It's my wireless mouse that eats batteries like they were going out of style.