new duracell rechargeables made in china now

Had a 8 cell set made in japan die in about a dozen cycles so duracell sent me coupons to get replacements.
The new ones are all made in china and do not resemble fdk product.
Will test and report back.
Out of package they are close in voltage so thats a good sign.
Hopefully they went with a good china battery mfr.
Yes there are a few.
Like pkcell.
Btw the aa included with the charger are 1300mah.
The ones in the package by themselves are 2500mah.
I have some of each.

this is one of reasons we have been reluctant
to fully embrace rechargeable flashlight batteries.
for the immense money charged, they should be immaculate.
Chinese rechargeables, so far, have not been adequate.

of course, disposables do the same sourcing thing.
however, for us right now, they are much, much cheaper
considering all the costs to buy and maintain rechargeables.
bluntly: $18 worth of budget disposables will last us ~ 2 years.

I bought 8 of the Duracells about 10 years ago and they all went bad in less then a year. The resistance on all of them were so high that none of my chargers would charge them.

I can’t imagine the new ones made in China being any worse, nor can I imagine any battery made anywhere being any worse than the ones I bought.

I have some china made gp and pkcell that are fine.
And some kodak that look like the gp.
Those are 10 years old and still ok.
But generally a shift to a china product after years of selling rewraps of the best rechargeable cells made means a drop in quality.
Boosts short term profit.
But the word gets around.
Duracell does not need any more bad press with all their leakers!

Have Amazon rechargeables made in China 2000 mah they working well so far. I avoid high capacity cells.

Two words: dura, cell.

Ie, no thanks. Doesn’t surprise me they went to Hell so quickly.

If I’m getting cheap cells, I’d stick with PKcells vs paying extra for the “name brand”.

I haven’t been “exercising” my PKs, but 2 AAs in my freezer as a remote “weather” sensor has been going great all the way down to single-digits. (Cycles from 22°F–25°F down to 8°F–12°F, no complaints.)

I switched to energizer recharge from eneloop several years ago. They cost about a buck each and IMHO, just as good as eneloop.

From what I heard, eneloop is also now made in China.

Duracell 2450s were made by FDK, but being Hi-Caps, they only lasted a couple of years, which is typical for Hi-Caps.

Now things are anyone’s bet.

Standard cap FDK/Eneloops last a lot longer and give us more power over the years.

Chris

All 4 came out of pack at 1.31 to 1.33
Averaged 1900mah as they were.
1st cycle average 2440.
Spread was minimal.
These so far appear decent.
But only time and cycles will tell…

I have Energizer 2000mah made in japan and they look and perform identically to the white eneloops. Same with the 800mah aaa.
Those were a steal at the flea.
We dont know if the very best go to Panasonic and everyone else gets a different bin.
But the mfr process is very mature now and i dont see any differences worth noting in any one package of fdk cells.

That may be, but feeling global supply chain insecure, I (over)ordered a bunch of AA, AAA, pro AA and proAAA Eneloops off Amazon from the “Eneloop” store. They arrived both yesterday and today, every package was printed “made in Japan”.

The only hickup was that ch2 on my Xtar VC4s went out and believes everything I put in that slot is already fully charged.

As far as country of origin check here.

Some are made in china but i dont think those are shipped to usa.