The newest IKEA LADDA NiMH batteries with the "grayish-blue colored wraps" (that replace their older batteries with the white colored wraps) are in-stock at IKEA stores located in the US.
Great prices! There was evidence already posted they are made in Japan, so hopefully no surprises there.
I hope we are able to confirm the quality, but for that price I will go ahead and buy some 1900mAh and 750mAh regardless, since I need more AA and AAA rechargeables anyways.
Well, I just tried to order some & they said they could not deliver them. But I could pick them up at the store closest to me, which is Atlanta… about 2 hours away.
They would have to pay me to drive to Atlanta & get tangled up in that huge traffic jam to get a few packs of batteries.
With lion 1.5v AA you absolutely can tell nothing at all about the charge state other than 1.5v>>>>>>>0.0v, due to the circuitry.
You can tell “something” about NiMh. Not perfect, but it’s something.
Decent NiMh have more capacity, and far more current capability. They have less parasitic draw again due to the circuitry. LSD NiMh can retain voltage much longer, and cost WAY less.
Lion AA are expensive.
Eneloops are rated for over 2000 cycles. Thought lithium was less. Can keep them topped off ready to use. Lithium? Besides they are so useful for devices all around the home.
ChibiM, who runs the Eneloop101 site, and had the opportunity to interview Fujitsu (Eneloop parent) battery engineers, believes they are equivalent to 1st generation Eneloops:
I don’t know if he is still active in testing, but it will be great if AACycler is able to test a set. I would bet HKJ will do a test, but he mainly tests capacity and charging characteristics, not cycle life.
Just finished charging up the dark grey Ladda’s (2450mAh ones). Bought 3 packs (12 batteries) on 8-10-21. Yes, they are marked as “Made in Japan”. These all had an embossed date code of 2103. I’m taking that as March 2021. So, if this is correct, and assuming worst case…,(end of March), that is around 4 months of sitting around…actually being shipped from Japan to where ever to southern California to the IKEA store I purchased them from. Here are my findings so far. They may be about 1mm longer than the white ones. I have not measured them, but they seem to stack differently and slightly tighter than the white ones. Just an observation. After the first discharge/charge cycle in my AccuPower IQ338XL charger, set to the non changeable default discharge of 500mAh and the charge setting of 700mAh, these came in with a residual charge of 1789mAh to 1934mAh discharge out of the box and 2616mAh to 2886mAh taking some 4 hours 16 minutes to 4 hours 43 minutes to charge, with 15 to 21 milli ohms of internal resistance on the 1 cycle. I did all 12 batteries. Then after the first 12 discharge/charge cycles were accomplished, I put them all in the charger to do them 1 more time. After the 2nd discharge/charge cycle, the discharge ranged from 2462mAh to 2669mAh. They all seem to discharge over their rating of 2450mah. The charge cycle ranged from 2586mAh to 2884mAh taking some 4 hours 13 minutes to 4 hours 42 minutes to charge with 15 to 30 milli ohms of internal resistance. They seem to behave just like the white Ladda’s so far. I have quite a few of those that I have been using and testing for the last 2 years. The test AA’s AAA’s (12 of each) have shown to be above their ratings and the shelf life are still above 85% of listed capacity at 15 months of sitting on the shelf, which I believe to be fantastic. Will try to update in a year to give you’al some feelings into the low self discharge of the new style batteries.