Hobby King gave me a store credit of $5, so I wanted to try out some of their batteries. The batteries are $0.79 each, but Hobby King charges for shipping. Their lowest shipping rate is $2.99, making the order total $6.94 for 5 batteries (6 batteries would have increased the weight to the next shipping rate, $4.99). I could only use the store credit for the merchandise, not the shipping, so I paid $2.99. Their shipping rates are pretty crazy, but the $4.99 includes tracking which the $2.99 rate did not (but you can't opt out of tracking for 6 batteries!).
These batteries are AAA NiMH batteries, advertised as low self-discharge (LSD) like Eneloop batteries. Update: The ones I ordered were the 800mAh batteries, but now they sell 900mAh batteries (I have some of the 900's on the way and will test their capacity, but I don't know if I will be able to do self-discharge tests on them).
They have a claimed capacity of 800mAh like AAA Eneloops. Since I just got them, I can't test whether they are really low self-discharge or not and I may not be able to do long-term tests since I bought them to give away. But I was quite happy with the initial numbers. Hobby King had been out of stock on these and I ordered as soon as they were back in stock, so these are probably new batteries and I suspect they were not fully charged at the factory.
I did a discharge at 400mA first to see what kind of initial charge they had on them. I couldn't get a reading on Battery 4 for some reason, so I don't have a result for it. After that I did a Refresh/Analyze, charging at 600mA and discharging at 400mA. Battery 4 only took about 200mA, so I think it was partially charged, but the Maha C9000 didn't read it correctly. It didn't read HIGH on it or anything. The batteries tested out quite well, better than Eneloops and their stated capacity. They were also very consistent, though the key is whether they will hold their charge. I'll try to do some tests over time, but I may not have these batteries for long.
UPDATE: I tested these cells at 5 weeks and 7 months (sorry about the oddball timing). They don't hold up as well as Eneloops, but 80% after 7 months isn't bad at all. And because they start with higher capacity than Eneloops, after that much time they will probably have about the same capacity left as an Eneloop. Looks like No. 4 is a dud though.
I have been throughly impressed with the capacity of all my Turnigy batteries from HK. They have ALL been exceptional in discharge capacity at high currents.
I have 4? of the AAAs and they all work sweet, and the AA all give me 2200mA consistently. To me their Great value and not at all a gamble. I feel they are superior to eneloops for capacity and definitely on price (saw eneloops today locally for $22 for 4) so these HK batteries are a bargain for us in australia.
I have some Turnigy that I bought about three months ago, and I think they are a bit better than Eneloops; and also they are cheaper! (I would pay more, the price is great!)
I include some batteries every time I make an order at HobbyKing to fill the remaining weight, I like those Turnigy :D
> $6.94 for 5 batteries (6 batteries would have increased the weight to the next shipping rate, $4.99
I got some a while back as part of a bigger order and have liked them fine.
Several times I've tried to create a larger order of AAAs and AAs and every time, I calculate the maximum number of AAs and AAAs to qualify for a given level of shipping. And -- then I try to check out and the shipping price changes. Maybe they've got that worked out; are they shipping from their US warehouse yet?
I don't think they are doing batteries or chargers from the US yet. I haven't ordered from them in a while, but I have put some orders together to see how much it would be to get different numbers of batteries. The shipping price always kills the deal for me.
I just got 5 more of these yesterday. Discharged out of the box they were 622-650 mAh, except for one that came in at 319. Could be another dud. That's a little worrying. After charging, discharging, and then doing a refresh/analyze, they all came in around the same number: 859-875 of capacity at 500mA discharge. That's a little lower than my first batch, but still pretty good. Even the one that was 319 came in at 871, so towards the high end.
Anyone knows how to use their buddy codes to buy more than just one piece of every discounted item?
Its strange that you can buy only one piece AA and one piece AAA batteries at discounted prices...
I once managed to get 5xAAA (quantity was not limited at all - maybe was some kind of error) at buddy price, but now 3 is the limit - you have to be signed in and click this link: http://hk.rc-international.info/buddy/turnigy-aaa-lsd-800mah-low-self-discharge-82282 (not mine btw)
As a follow-up . . . I haven’t done a great job of keeping track of these batteries, but when I was testing some others, I noticed that it looked like I hadn’t charged the 1-month set since that test. So that is 14 months. I can’t swear to that, so I won’t add it to the chart, but I discharged them and got 676 (77.3) and 691 (78.6) remaining capacity after over a year. That’s pretty close to the same as the 7-month values, so I’m not real sure about that. But maybe as you put a few cycles on them, they perform better, including on self-discharge.
Also, I retested the dud (Number 4 above) after a month and it seemed to be holding a charge. I recharged it again and have tested it again after 7 months and it retained 85.4% of its original charge. So if you get a dud, I think they can be rehabilitated.
Like the AA’s, it looks like Turnigy has bumped up the nominal capacity and the price on these, calling them 900mAh instead of the original 800mAh (see next post).
I posted this in the BLF battery database, but since they were mentioned here as well, I tested some new Turnigy 900mAh batteries. They really are higher capacity. Fully charged and then discharged at 500mA, I got 996, 984, 977, and 987 mAh capacity (average 986mAh). I was pleasantly surprised. I may let these sit around a little while and see how they do holding a charge.
