NiMH comparison - 1 year test

Can you link to independent tests that support this?

He shows the Voltage readings on his charger in the vid; if you have questions about his testing, why don’t you ask him?

Again, please link to the testing that refutes the “definitely wrong” results in the vids.

There are some significant advantages in later generations:

1. Cold weather performance is improved (from –10 to –20). I verified Panasonic’s claim about that, when using 1st gen Eneloop in an outdoor weather station. In extreme cold, they wouldn’t work. I replaced with 2nd gen, and they work fine in extreme cold. So they did something to improve that.

2. Lower self-discharge.

3. More cycles (though, not as many as they claim, since they use partial cycles). Plenty of tests over on cpf to verify that.

Panasonic states that. It’s ridiculous to think that they would intentionally talk-down their own product. Other than this one dubious youtube claim that is counter to all other claims, can you link to some independent tests that shows Panasonic is lying? Why do you think Panasonic wants us to think their high-capacity cells are worse than they really are? Are they trying to get people to buy their lower-priced regular batteries, in hopes that they will make less profit?

I have quite a few IKEA Laddas. In Canada they’re half the price of Eneloops. A great value.

I still favor the Japanese Eneloops. I value longevity and I’ve heard so many reports of them remaining solid after 10 years of use or neglect. That’s real value.

Take your magnifying glass with you if you buy new Duracells. The last 2 packs I got from Sams Club say made in China.

I bought some Duracells about 5 years ago that were touted to be the same as Eneloop pro’s. They only lasted about a year before they had so much voltage sag that a discharge test at 1A only took 60 seconds :frowning:

Of the 8 I bought none can be charged on 5 different smart chargers (too much internal resistance) so I have to charge them on a dumb one (still good for usage in remotes, etc).

The Amazon silvers and blacks sounded promising (I was skeptical of them without seeing test results), but when I searched just now I found that Amazon only has green AA cells. They must have discontinued the silver and black ones. And who knows if the greens are any good!

I’m glad he didn’t bother testing Tenergy Centuras. I have had awful luck with those. Threw out a third of the last batch I bought. Never again…

Yeah, I bought some Tenergy Centura 9 volt NiMH batteries. Pure crap. They lasted about a year. The Energizer 9 volt batteries I bought at the same time lasted much longer. But even the Energizers aren’t great. I doubt I’d buy 9v NiMH batteries again. Nobody seems to make good ones. They haven’t improved the tech since the first ones I bought about 20 years ago (they didn’t last long either).

I recently went through considerable trouble to find and buy Fujitsu’s - glad I did after seeing these results.

My experience was bad with them also.

Eneloop AA Markings:
BK-3MCC (produced in Japan)= no additional letter, Japan market only
BK-3MCCA (produced in Japan) = North American market and China
BK-3MCCE (produced in Japan)= European market/Russian market
BK-3MCCE* (produced in China)= South American market, Southeast Asian market, Australian market/New Zealand market.

They also have a manufacture date pressed into the wrapper.

My Sanyo XX 12-06-L1 purchased in South Korea average capacity 2400mAh

MY Eneloop Pro 15-06-L3 purchased in South Korea average capacity 2575mAh

MY Eneloop(white)19-03-L7 purchased in US average capacity 1900mAh

AFAIK there are no Eneloop Pro made in China

The BK-3MCCE code is the same in different regions, even though one is sourced from China, and the other is from Japan

When Eneloops with an E at the end of the code are purchased in Europe or Russia from authorized resellers, they will be sourced from Japan

****The regular capacity AA Eneloop is also produced in red,blue,green and brown wrapper and was sold in the Asian market at a price premium just for the color.

I used to always say “no” to this question and I still use alkalines in traditional “movement” clocks because I want them to run for very long periods of time without hassle. However, I now use NiMH cells in all my TV remotes and many similar devices simply because I have old cells lying around that aren’t good for much else.

Even at half-capacity, a set of old LSD cells still lasts for 6+ months in my thermostat (this won’t be true for most people as my stat now just displays the temperature). I also put rechargeables in all the children’s toys, though most of the nieces and nephews are getting too old for them.

With the move to low-self-discharge chemistries, I consider NiMH cells to be preferable for all but the lowest drain applications. Alkalines still work well in wall clocks and I still use them for smoke detectors (I write the date on the cells and change them annually and yes, I’m aware of the recommendations), but today’s NiMH will work in practically every application.

In fact, non-rechargeable lithium batteries are usually superior in the few remaining applications where alkalines are still preferred over NiMH. Modern alkalines are quite good, but a lithium cell will last longer in a smoke detector (but this increases the risk of forgetting to change them!) and a NiMH cell will eventually pay for itself when used in a TV remote.

One thing that I will state emphatically is that it’s nearly criminal that China has brought Heavy-Duty cells back into our marketplace and consumer acceptance. I was so happy when these useless cells disappeared from the U.S. market in the 90’s and even happier when NiMH began to become more common in the 00’s, but now my family members have all abandoned their NiMH cells and chargers and are now buying Heavy-Duty batteries in bulk packs from the dollar stores :person_facepalming: :cry: :rage: .

They go through them by the dozens and this feels like returning to the Stone Age.

I’ve just pulled a dozen alkaline cells out of household detectors for annual refresh. They’re not dead. I’m using them in my lights and questioning why I’m doing it. As a result I’ve parked my nimh cells. There’s some satisfaction in not wasting them but it’s not really saving the rechargeables a lot of wear. It seems all I’m really doing is exposing my equipment to leaks.

9V are indeed a weakness for NiMH. Long ago, Powerex made a 9.6V NiMH “9V” cell. The capacity was even lower than usual, but the voltage satisfied even the most contrary 9V devices (some wouldn’t or won’t work with 8.4V NiMH “9V” cells). I used the Powerex cells to replace all of the alkalines in our church’s wireless microphones. We used about 3 generations of NiMH cells in these devices for about 15 years and saved a lot of money and waste, but I’m no longer involved and they’ve now switched back to alkalines :frowning: .

You just can’t win.

However, most devices today will operate at the 8.4V of the common NiMH “9V” cell and I believe that some of these cells are worth using. However, it remains that case that none of the 9V options are as good as the AA and AAA cells offered by major manufacturers. Unfortunately, as the 9V battery becomes less and less popular in products, I don’t think manufacturers will have incentive to produce top-quality 9V options.

The problem with the NiMH 9V PP3 batteries is that they’re several 1.2V cells in series and there’s no way to balance them. They rely on charging at a low enough rate for the cells which hit full charge first to survive the overcharge until the other cells catch up. It works for a while, then one of the cells inevitably wears out and renders the entire battery useless.

I think the above analysis by @Phlogiston is true. It’s also a function of +very +tiny cells. In my experience, the smaller the NiMh, the worse off it is in almost all ways, not just capacity.

FWIW, I have had great luck with Li-on 9v. They have decent capacity, hold way better current than any other 9v, and retain their charge well.

Have not used the ones with USB charging. HKJ has done tests on various 9v:

I have the iPowerUS, all of them discards from a place I volunteered. Most were fine in spite of being 7-10 years old, showing capacities of 400-500 (520 claimed). It was probably a policy to replace batteries after x-years old. I seriously doubt there was anyone there in charge of battery QA beyond simply tracking and replacement. Meaning no one likely did capacity tests or had the equipment to do so. It is a time consuming process. The manpower costs would be way more than the battery cost.

I also Got some EBL 6F22 from there. These do not have a date code so I can’t tell age. They appear newer. They also show capacities of 400-500 (600 claimed).

The iPowerUS has a proprietary charger, which I do not have. I use a hobby charger which works fine.

Supposedly the EBL have a charge/discharge limiting chip so you can use a stock 9v slow charger. I frankly don’t trust that and use the hobby charger, which works.
If you look at Amazon reviews it would seem that the quality is highly variable. I suspect mine are OK as the ‘duds’ probably were discarded as soon as they gave problems. In spite of probably being much newer they do not seem as good as the iPowerUS…quite.

Both are WAY WAY better than NiMh 9v. No comparison. I’ve gotten rid of my NiMh 9v as soon as I got my hands on these. I even use them in smoke alarms that are easy to reach. They last ~6 months.

Has anyone tested the “new” Amazonbasics?
Im wondering if they are the same as the old ones and I need new cells.

Im not gettin the duracell Ion anymore as they dont last for very long even with some mild usage.

The Amazon reviews indicate they are no longer Japan make, now from China and aren’t as good. I have some Chinese Eneloop AA and they are not as good.
The older Basics were from Japan and most likely Eneloop rebrand. No idea what the new ones are.

I’ve seen the same claims and myself suspect that these are now Chinese cells. However, it should be noted that the bulk packs of AmazonBasics NiMH cells are cheap enough that they are still a good value, especially if you get them on sale or with an instant coupon (see HERE). They’re about $1.25/cell.

A 16-pack of Eneloops costs $32 and the Eneloop Pros are $65. That’s $2/cell for standard Eneloops, which is reasonable, but $4/cell for the Pros, which is even more expensive than the 16-pack of 2450mAh Duracells. The Duracells are $5/cell in smaller packs, though, which is ridiculous, though still smarter than buying alkalines and magnitudes better than buying useless heavy duty packs.

You can still get the older style of AmazonBasics High-Capacity (2400mAh) cells HERE, but it’s a pack of 4 AA’s and 4 AAA’s, which is a bit strange. The pack thus averages $2.23/cell at the time of this posting, which isn’t bad if you want both sizes.

Though some individual reviewers can be trusted at Amazon, I would not trust the overall review scores at Amazon for any sort of technical product. I don’t want to be mean, but most buyers are just ignorant about technology and tend to give every product either 1 star, even if they simply didn’t know how to use it, or 5 stars, even if it’s an average product.

A month or two ago, I saw one reviewer give a product 4 stars when it arrived broken and the company never responded to his requests for assistance. Huh? :person_facepalming: What would a company have to do to earn 1 star from this guy? Murd*r his family? Nah, he’d likely still give them 2 stars for showing up :stuck_out_tongue: .

I’m sure most BLF members already know this, but I would never purchase something from Amazon just because it has 10,000 positive reviews and has earned their “Amazon’s Choice” banner label. There are some extremely popular products on Amazon that are absolute crap. User reviews are nearly worthless in the modern era, as users are just not knowledgeable or patient enough to review products :frowning: and have been trained to give any working product 5 stars.