As of 6 May 2021 there is no ‘Last chance to buy’ message for either the AA or AAA LADDA cells on Ikea’s Australian site.
Edit: The AA cells are out of stock in the UK and Ireland, but there is no last chance message on the AAA cells. Canada has the last chance message on both AA and AAA.
I ordered 3 packs from the website. These are usually sold out in stores in the Maryland area, especially this past year. Maybe COVID related, who knows. Last chance message convinced me !
Nice to have no matter what happens in the future.
They won’t ship to my state apparently. They don’t have a store in my area. I guess they don’t want my money. I was looking into getting more nimh, the last ones I got were the Japanese amazon basics ones. Now amazon basics are the crappy chinese ones. Seems like Eneloop are my only good option.
Edit: I tried again and now it lets me check out, but once shipping is added It seems about the same price as buying eneloops on amazon with free shipping. I guess these are only a deal if you get them in the store.
Edit some more: Oh the Laddas are the Eneloop Pros right? So yea they are a good bit less but I’d rather have more charge cycles than a little higher capacity.
Still in stock for me here in Sydney the AA’s are at $15 a pack. I bought a bunch of Coles branded NiMH on clearance not to long ago They are okay so far.
only cells more durable than Eneloop Pro / IKEA LADDA I know of are 2100 cycle 1900mAh japanese Eneloops but it’s the exact same technology, just less capacity.
Btw, Varta Endless = Chinese Eneloops
Those have a track record of dying way earlier than panasonic claims.
Part of the reason japanese eneloops can do 2100 cycles is very, very pure metals for the aloys of the electrodes which I guess the chinese factory is probably penny-pinching on.
This NiMH Handbook by GP goes a bit in-depth on the chemistry of standard NiMH batteries, FDKs low self discharge tech is even more advanced.
For all we know they are simply replacing the label with a more colourful one.
That said perhaps they are changing supliers or getting out of the battery business. We just don’t know.