How are your oldest eneloops doing?

Upto now it has been used in a budget $5 ebay ‘smart’ charger with independent bays and indicator. Its a cheap charger that sb reviewed.

Usage has been very varied. From being used in toys for kids, to being used in my camera (sx130is) and most of the usage was on a Quark X AA2 Tactical as bedside lamp on medium running at least 8 hours day. The cells were either being charged on a daily or on each 2 day basis (on the 2nd day the cell would be completely depleted before charging). Had its use on turbo too while using bike at night.

Presently, it is being charged on a daily basis. Once I get the charger, I’ll post up some numbers in a thread :slight_smile:

Guys I received the Technoline BC-700 Charger. I will put up a thread and perform the test on the eneloop!

Here is what I can think of. After each test, I will record the MAH. Do I need to record the voltage too or no?

TEST1: Charge the cell AS IS on day of receiving charger. (already done)

TEST2: Use cell overnight (medium mode as night side lamp) and charge AS IS.

TEST3: Perform Capacity test

TEST4: Perform Refresh

no voltage necessary

I did a test (discharge-charge)on my beat up eneloop and it came out at either 1728 or 1782 MAH something….
I will do a 2nd test, which will test the eneloop for max capacity.

I have switched to low selfdischarge batteries in 2008. The first lsd batteries were GP Recyko’s, and these are still working perfect.
Since the i bought several different lsd batteries (Aldi Top Craft, Tronic from Lidl, and Eneloop), only one AAA Top Craft battery died, but that is probably because it was completely discharged for a few months.

All these batteries are Always charged in the Maha MH-C9000, the ones that are nog used get a refresh/analyze every year (even the oldest batteries have almost the same capacity as when they were new).

The AA batteries are charged with 1000mA, the AAA batteries with 300mA.

Don’t discharge the batteries completely, and don’t charge them with high currents, because the heat will kill them.
Use a charger that charges every battery separately, and don’t use batteries with different capacity together (check the capacity with a decent charger like the Maha).

I’m curious to see how everyone’s eneloops are holding up now…
I don’t have any “old” eneloops.
Oldest batteries I have are 5 year old Rayovac lsd, which still seem to do ok today.

My oldest Eneloops are from 2006 & still going strong. :white_check_mark:

My oldest Eneloops BK-3HCCE (Eneloop Pro, Made In Japan) are about 8 years old and are powering a brutal device for batteries: Wahl hair clippers. So they had to direct drive the clippers, travel through various countries, go through cold and very hot climates, and get a lot of vibration and hits.
They still run fine, capacity is almost as high as new.

some of my 5 year old AAA eneloop pro are half as bright in my Lumintop AAA Tool, as my same age eneloop…

so I bought a few more non-pro

I cant measure capacity, but I do have a light meter, so I can compare different battery outputs in the same light.

11 years. decent shape.

I have 4 gen1 AAA sanyo eneloops manufactured 12-2007, used for high current (flashlight) but infrequently, so definitely <50 cycles.
Charged in BC700, always at 200mA before I knew better :confused:
Capacity still seems fine, the worst one has 85% left but all of them have developed high internal resistance.
They can only be used in low-drain devices now but 13.5 years is beyond impressive.
Sadly I have no meter for measuring the internal resistance.

My old eneloop are still fine, about 6 years old. Mostly used in RC toys and flashlights.
They hold up fine, I think.
worth the money.

i have some first gen from 06 in a solar light.
recently tested at 1781-1784 @ 1a.
great for a set in use cyclically every day for 10 years.
ir 60mohm.
new are around 30.
i just opened a set of duraloops from 11.
1.31v all 4.
out of the pack they gave 1123-1125 1a after 2 cycles i got 1887-1891 1a

9/2011.

Chris

This thread had me wondering about some of my Eneloops— I tested some random singles I had at 800 ma discharge

Sanyo 11/13 ——- 1773 / 1790

Panasonic 5/16 ——— 1585 / 1773

I do not understand how to measure batteries performance, and I do not understand the meaning of several of the posts with IR numbers in them

can you explain what measurements give what info, what does IR tell you?
does higher IR correlate with Lower Lumen output?

my experience is after 5 years of light use, zero abuse, my Eneloop Pro produce half as many lumens in my aaa Tool… than they did when new. but I dont know how to measure IR, so I dont know if those two factors, higher max output, and Lower IR, are correlated

factual, measurement based education welcome…

can you summarize this thread, to tell me what you learned?

Batteries/cells develop high internal resistances over time and as a result, they tend to self-discharge more, don’t output the same current as when new and become harder to charge, to the point that many consumer chargers will reject them due to crappy power supplies. Some dumb chargers can force charge high I.R. batteries, but it’s a losing proposition.

Analyzing chargers with internal I.R. functions are flaky at best and the ‘number’ should rarely be viewed as gospel, but it does give the user a sense for comparison purposes.

Chris

thank you

does high IR also reduce runtime?

I cant measure IR, but I can measure lumens. I dont usually worry about runtime, so have not checked…

though my old eneloop pro AAA in my Lumintop Tool, dont reach 50% of maximum anymore, the low and medium modes work normally…

so I think people with old batteries in low drain devices like remote controls, or flashlights with low output levels, will not notice when an old eneloop is no longer able to support maximum output, since those low drain applications dont have such a high demand for power. Does that make sense?

I have some really old Eneloop white (circa 2007-2008), and back then I didn’t know how to charge them so they last longer — I bought a GP 1-hour rapid charger to charge them since I thought a fast charger will be good when I need batteries to charge faster (my only other NiMh charger back then was a very slow ~8-12 hour standard charger which I find too slow).

I recall the NiMh batteries do get very hot while charging, so these likely reduced those old Eneloops.

When I got the SkyRC MC3000 about 2 or 3 years ago, using the DC IR resistance check function, they read ~2000-3000+ mOhms.
Using the YR1030 AC IR resistance test, these also have like 5Ohms (ie. 5000+ mOhms).

A new Eneloop I bought in the last few years (not abused / charged at very high charge current), the DC IR from MC3000 will read below 100mOhms
YR1030 AC IR of the new Eneloop will be somewhere from 20-30mOhms.

When used in a flashlight, eg. Tool AA:

  • the ’old very high-resistance” Eneloop won’t go to High mode (High will drop to Medium, which is a low-brightness “Medium” brightness)
    (there is a slight brightness difference between Low and Medium)
    ( I don’t have a way to measure lumens though)

- new Eneloop works fine with Tool AA, there is a difference between Low and Medium and High , which are distinctly different brightness

In terms of capacity, I believe my old Eneloops still have fairly good capacity providing the discharge current is very low (eg. below 0.10A). Any higher than 0.1A and the voltage will drop a LOT.
Unlike the newer Eneloops which work well even at higher current like 1.0A

thanks!
that is very helpful info
it provides a way to know when a battery is failing, without measuring IR, and without measuring lumens… if the battery can no longer support a normal High Mode.

I have the same result with a Tool AAA, the lower modes still make the same lumen output as a new eneloop, but the high mode is only slightly brighter than medium, with my old tired eneloop