I know that alkies have a lot less umph than NiMH but I found this link. You may already know this or seen the link but I hadn’t nor did I realise quite how poor alkaline cell were. @ 1a they have a quarter of the capacity!
I did a visual comparison a year ago with a NIMH, an alkaline, and a 14500. It’s pretty interesting to see how runtimes are affected with three different batteries on the same mode.
You can find a more direct comparison of battery chemistry here: http://lygte-info.dk/info/ComparisonOfAABatteryChemistry%20UK.html
Using my comparator you can compare both alkaline, NiMH and a few other at different current: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php
I will be adding more alkaline over the next few months (I have already tested some).
I have just been in a discussion on another thread, regarding AA lights. I personally like them but the cells have their limits as we know. What I don’t understand is the fascination for a light that pumps out a silly amount of lumens whilst running on NiMH. Especially when they are wanting multiple cells. To me it is clear that lithium’s have so much more juice, on all fronts.
Lithium is good, but way to expensive, I prefer LiIon. I do like lights using a single AAA NiMH, but when you get into larger light with high performance LiIon is the best.
Marcl, the thing is that I, for example, want a versatile light that can run on all kinds of AA sized batteries there are ;)!
Primary I will be using 14500 and Eneloop Pro’s, however ability to use much safer chemistry and be able to pump out plenty lumens is good thing to have.
Especially in emergency.
Leaving high output to lithium batteries only, well, thats not going to happen, not until everyone drops alkalines and NiMh’s and starts buying only rechargeable lithium batteries.
Yes I have no problem with that, that’s why I like my s15. But I think when you get to seriously high outputs things get limited, very limited. But I love my AA lights, I just don’t want them to produce 1000lm.
Just FYI I didn’t post this because of the AA light thread, I was searching for ‘second fill technology’ because of the alkalines GB posted. That’s when I found the above link.
I understand the point, but IF the light can deliver those 1000 lumens, even if its only for 15 minutes before single NiMh AA depletes, its still good to have such burst of bright light ;)!
The way I look at it, the more energy we can get from the battery to the LED, the more efficient the driver is. If you want less light, you can always scale it back from there or use a lower mode. In doing so, you can have even better run time than if the driver could only do less to begin with. Similarly, a triple LED flashlight has better efficiency on low modes than a single emitter.
No matter how you define “better”, a flashlight that can do more with less has to fit the description.
P.S. In the interest of NOT trolling your thread, I’ll let this be all I have to say here. :bigsmile:
I just found a stash of AA alkaline cells and I must say I don’t mind not dealing with corrosion any more. I feel like the orthodox father who rips his shirt “alkalines are dead to me”.
Comparing NiMh AA with 14500 Li-Ion, for the same size, NiMh is not that bad. For example, the most 14500 are in the range of 600 to 900mah. the NiMhs are from 2000 to 3000. Considering the normal voltages are 3.7 and 1.25 respectively, they are almost the same when considering the energy that they stored. I feel the issues for AA NiMhs are the weight and peak current, especially the latter. Also the drivers for AA are not as efficient as for 14500. Make any sense?
Otherwise, I will be happy to use NiMh AAs because the safety and accessibility.