Lithium vs NiMH Battery for Storage in Remote Control?

Yes, just put 2 Eneloops in and everything will be fine :slight_smile:

Yup, some remotes are picky and will not work with lower voltage cells, like partially discharged NiMH, which means you’ll end up having to recharge them sooner. It’s worth a try though.

I’m using the Tenavolts AA Li-Ion cells in my universal remote that gets the most usage in the household. They maintain steady 1.5V output throughout the entire discharge cycle. Alas, these are not cheap and require a proprietary charger. It may be cheaper for the OP to just buy some regular Lithium AA/AAA cells instead.

I’m also trying that out. Alas, the special deals that were on when these first came out has not been seen for well over a year. A couple other brands I’ve tried (USB charge), weren’t nearly as good.
When they ‘go’, they are……gone. 0 volts until charged.
For properly chosen applications, I like them, but, at the old cost. :wink:

I have had all of them that I have used leak. Duracell, Eveready, Rayovac, and maybe worst the Kirkland cells from Costco.
Just the other day I opened a box that had 16 Duracell AAAs n it. They had never been used and stored at right around 20 C. 15 to 25% humidity. In a dark area inside a dry cardboard box. Every darn one of them showed signs of leakage. EVERY ONE!
This after about 3 years… they are advertised to have a 10 year shelf life.
I don’t use any of them unless it is for an application where I will use a device that quickly drains them fully, then take them out.

Those are not Low Self Discharge (LSD) cells. Which is what you need for something like a remote. Eneloop claims they will hold 85% charge after a year or two.
If you go NiMH, make sure you get LSD cells. NON LSD cells often have higher capacity ratings, but they are basically charge and use immediately cells.

I have NiMH cells in a dozen remotes, they all work fine. Over the years I have used them in at least a dozen more. There may be exceptions, of course, but not enough that it is not worthwhile trying the Eneloops for the OP.

I only use my AC remote in summer. In winter it snows here, so I put pieces of paper between the batteries and the contact points. This saves me from removing the batteries and storing them separately.

Im using cheap Alkaleaks without issue, as they dont make contact for 9 months out of the year. Been using the same Alkaleaks for 2 years now.

otoh, NiMh also work fine, but they need to be LowSelfDischarge type, as in Eneloop, not the old type that have HighSelfDischarge

Lithium primaries also work fine, they just cost more…

Eneloops.

That is all.

That brings up and interesting question, and an observation;

  1. Those cells are [Heavy Duty], so technically they are not ‘alkaleaks’, they are zinc chloride. I’m not sure they have any advantage is the (non) leak department.
  2. So, I suspect either you are simply lucky, or……the paper isolation ‘trick’ removes some minuscule electron path that facilitates the leaking. I don’t know. Do you have some insight?

My vote> you’re lucky. :wink:
After all, it seems to be a very limited experiment, and they don’t leak ALL the time, just too damn frequently.

I think, Just Lucky! The cells I had in the box were not connected to anything. They ALL leaked all over themselves. :frowning: I had to pitch 16 relatively new cells.

But, for some reason the original batteries that I have gotten for radios and remotes… mostly no name cells (likely zinc chloride) , have fared much better than the supposedly high quality name brand alkaline cells…
??

I’ve never had a problem with a lithium primary, but don’t use many. I’m still barely started on an AA 8-pack purchased over a decade ago. Zero experience with AAA lithium primary.

Lithium ion cells have failed, but never leaked or caught fire.

I’ve had lithium poly lose lots of capacity and get puffy, but never worse than that before I disposed it them.

Alkalines have leaked in storage after partial usage and in devices, although so far no completely unused alkalines have leaked.

NiMh have never leaked. AAA’s are more problematic, and although none have become completely worthless, the capacity and self drain is terrible, often so bad that it’ll only charge if I partially charge it by shorting it with another AAA. I only keep those bad AAA’s (Energizer, GP, AmazonBasics) around as a sort of experiment. “9V” hasn’t been great either, and I want to say those were Tenergy. The exception so far is Eneloop and Fujitsu AAA’s. The only AA’s that have experienced terrible capacity is the ones that came with my old Garmin. Most are nearly a decade old, some are over 15 years old. My conclusion is that nimh AAA’s really need to be high quality or they won’t last long.

NIMH in a remote is good, Lithium energizer is the best.

p.s. Since you are in israel you may have other brands of lithium AAA, besides energizer, Here in usa, only energizers are available in stores, somehow energizer created monopoly on lithium aa, and aaa in usa,

My vote would be lithium primary for anything with extended storage requirements (provided the voltage is compatible). Using alkaline cells in the piezo igniter in our gas grill caused contact corrosion in a matter of a days, and I’d constantly have to clean the internal contacts to make it work. Switching to Energizer Ultimate resolved the issue, and after several months without any maintenance, it fires every time.

This thread is reminding me that it is time to do my annual charge of the NiMH batteries in my thermostat. Have an old set of AA made in Japan Amazon Basics 2450s with way to high of IR to be satisfactory in a flashlight. Work great in the thermostat. Large capacity and work for a very long time. I always charge them when the weather starts getting really cold out and I don’t remember if I ever have to charge them until the following winter.

You think that only the adage “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” applies here? I think there’s collusion between batteries and electronics manufacturers involved to stimulate the need to replace batteries and electronics damaged by them. Planned obsolesce.

I have recently bought Panasonic BQ-CC17 charger and tried charging Sanyo XX 2450mAh in it. I am disappointed to some extent: Charger LEDs flashing with Ni-MH batteries - #13 by killswitch

We have Energizers, sure, as well as VARTA but 2 batts range in cost around $10-$15.

Internal resistance issue? I have Sanyos XX 2450mAh and Panasonic BQ-CC17 does not want to charge them. Camelion charger did and I thought it will “fix” them but Panasonic charger still refuses to charge them: Charger LEDs flashing with Ni-MH batteries - #13 by killswitch

It sounds like your Sanyos internal resistance has gone up too high to be accepted by the Panasonic.
Camelion has a LOT of chargers.
Which one do you have?

Some chargers will charge ANYTHING. Those can be useful for some circumstances. I have a very old Radio Shack (company out of business a good while ago) 4-cell/2-channel AA/AAA 6-hour/timed “dumb” charger. It will charge a PAIR of anything for 6 hours, even a dead battery.

Plus a Sanyo ‘sorta smart’ 2-cell/2-channel charger that will also charge a dead cell, but generally will terminate properly if the cell resistance isn’t too bad.
I mostly use both of these to boost dead cells so the smart charger will take them. If the smart charger starts having termination problems and the resistance is too high it’s recycle time.
Note - I consider the IR tests on slider-analyzing chargers to be very rough. I have a ZH-YU ZB106+ v1.3 that tests them far more accurately and reliably that I finally got, both for capacity and IR.

Had camelion aa nicads arrive with about half of the 24 pack leaking.
Sent back.
Seller couldnt understand why he couldnt just send replacements for the leakers.
Since they were backup power for a cnc control i wouldnt take the chance.
Seen some fuzz but no damage in all my years of using nicd/nimh.
The leakers i saw were junk noname stuff or very old.
My remotes all have lsd nimh in them.only way to go.

Here I had Camelions Ultra for almost 10 years sitting disconnected from each other in a cheap voltage detector. They did not have transparent plastic which I placed recently for not sure what since these don’t leak.

I can’t find Alkaleak brand online.

Model BTR-3013

Don’t seem to have that one anymore. Closest is BC-1012, which may not be close at all.
https://www.camelion.com/en/products/chargers/fast-chargers/bc-1012/

Looks ‘basic’ and should be OK if yours is similar.

You realize that [Alka-leak] is a jab at their tendency to……leak……not a brand? :person_facepalming:

I have recently been testing these batteries; I didn’t get them because of the capacity (real about 600mA) but because they are Lithium, but rechargeable with a normal charger for NiMh or NiCd; they have 1.2 volt output (1.4 when fully charged); they have a circuit to manage even the minimum and maximum voltage. I am putting them through some tests and we will see over time the result. They are inexpensive, so I don’t expect miracles; I only tell you because they exist.