Guide: Rechargeable AA batteries / 14500 batteries / Chargers

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.

I didnt help out at all, you already had your heart set on getting some.

Also quite a few lights will be brighter on rechargeables as they have a much lower internal resistance and so will happily deliver more current. The only disadvantage can be for very voltage sensitive devices - my grandmother's hearing aid needed to use alkalines as it didn't give her enough volume on rechargeables.

But for power hungry lights rechargeables are def the way to go. You will be happy.

I LOVE ENELOOPS! Kiss

I've been using rechargeables since the mid 80's but there were always hassles. For he first time I'm now able to just take a battery out, stick it in a device and expect it to work - and go on working for a reasonable time. It means I don't have to drag around a charger (Though I usually do) because the batteries will have enough charge in them that they'll do what I want them to. I need fewer chargers and a lot less messing around.

Yup, Eneloops are great.

Hello all, another question: Can NiMH cells be run to 0 without damaging them? Is the "cell protection" feature of some lights only for Li-Ion cells? Thanks a lot!