For any Canadians looking to buy Eneloops, Costco has them on sale now (starting cyber Monday). About 25% off the regular price, which is a great deal for Canada. US might have them cheaper, but the US$ is a lot higher too, so it balances out.
Anyway, I ordered my yearly supply of AA’s and AAA’s, which I do every year, whether I need them or not!
That’s odd. Every Eneloop I’ve ever bought (from 2006 onwards) has a white wrapper with blue (and grey) writing. I know there’s also special editions that have fancy colors, but I’ve never seen blue with white writing.
Costco’s been selling the light and dark blue AA Eneloops for years. The AAA’s are light and dark green. I have over 60 of them and they all meet or exceed their capacity. So far they’ve been 100% reliable.
Yeah, the only reason I buy Eneloops is because they’re still the made in Japan ones. If they switch to the Chinese versions here, I’ll start buying Duraloops or Ikealoops or some other no-name version.
Agreed. I’m going to Costco tomorrow and buying two more 10 packs and won’t open them until I really need them. Hopefully I’ll have enough to last me the rest of my life.
Yes, I’ve got a large supply of unopened packs that I realistically won’t get around to using for a few years.
But they last a long time. From my first 8 AA Eneloops I bought back in 2006, I only just noticed that 1 of them is finally showing reduced capacity at high-drain. It has about 75% capacity from original. The other 7 appear to still be holding up. I’m not sure if it still has full capacity at low-drain, but regardless that’s not bad for 10+ year old cells.
I haven’t used them anywhere close to 1000 cycles (the generation 1 cycle count), but at 10 years old, I presume age is a more significant factor than cycles. I’ll continue to use them, and see how many more years I get. When they can no longer be used in flashlights, perhaps I’ll stick them in remotes. Or maybe they’ll just die completely. Interesting to see what happens to them, as I’ve never killed an Eneloop before.
The only other significant reduction in Eneloop capacity I’ve seen are to a couple of 3rd gen cells that I ran in a 4sevens light that gets way too hot when left to tailstand. After a few times letting them cook in it (I could smell them), they’re down to about 90% capacity. So high heat is not good for Eneloops.