Duraloops are on sale at Rite aid again starting on Sept 25th $9 for 4AA or 4AAA.
Hopefully they are white top and not black top cells.
Thanks for the heads up.
If they don't have white tops than they aren't duraloops . the white top means sanyo ./ japan
they can be durabrids / rayovac hybrids
there is a black top made in japan too ..haven't seen it in a while but it was pretty good too
The local Rite Aid mixes them on the same rack. Don't buy the blacktop made in China ones they are garbage, check for the made in Japan white tops they are definitely better.
I have a four-pack of each (Duraloop and Durabrid) in AA, and while the white tops are indeed better, I would hardly call the black tops garbage. They are definitely low self-discharge – one of them has been driving my mechanical kitchen wall clock since last November and still reads 1.245V… Another one is the fifth cell in my SB-800 flash (along with all four of the white tops), which I just measured as sucking upwards of 7 amps after a full-power flash.
There are different versions of the black top batteries. The two black tops that I have that came with the charger kit I use in my 4AA gun safe light. The black tops typically recharge in one half the amount of time as the white tops take to recharge from the same device. So it does seam like a significant difference in capacity to me. I should stick one of each on the hobby charger and get some real numbers. Sorry if my comment seamed harsh.
5 cells? that's an annoying number to recharge, seeing as most chargers only have 4 bays. Battery holders tend to have only 4 slots as well. Price for a good flash I guess. But make sure not to discharge your set up too much, or the durabrid might get overdischarged.
The fifth cell is optional, and provides for quicker recycling. (The flash comes with two battery-compartment covers, a standard one and one that adds a compartment for the fifth cell.)
When I'm traveling and have along a compact charger that only charges cells pairwise, I switch back to using four cells in the flash. My backup set, if I expect to be using the flash a lot [*], is also only four cells. At home, it's no big deal to pop the fifth cell into the C9000 after the first four finish charging.
[*] and I do mean a LOT -- I took 1100 flash photos on one charge at a graduation last year, and could probably have gone a couple hundred more.
I know these have been on sale a few times lately, but this week is particularly good. 4 AA Duracell precharged cells for $9.74. The Sunday paper has a P&G section with a coupon for $1.50 off. And Rite Aid will give you $2 off you next purchase. So net price is $6.24 for 4 batteries. I may have to get some even though I don't need them. I'm hoping my Rite Aid has some white tops.
Thanks for the tip brted, might have to check today's paper for a coupon :)