A article more about batteries and it will be the last for now. The actual contents of this article is a bit on the light side, but I believe it is nice to have a comparison between the different chemistries.
As usual I like getting feedback, both mistakes and ideas to improve the article.
I plan on adding more review links, when I publish reviews for the different batteries.
Thank you! I have been wondering about this for a while. I guess as long as I can keep gettin the energizers at a huge discount I will keep using them primarily
Naw, not even then. The only device I use AA's now is my gps, and a set of batteries in it will last a few weeks with the way I use it. Bringing a charger doesn't even make sense. I'll just bring a pair of lithium AA's and start looking for a new pair after a couple weeks. It costs more than nimh, but saves time and weight. I've been considering getting an [AA phone](http://www.spareone.com/spareone/spareone-emergency-phone) though. Probably not though since it's heavier and way more expensive than my burner phone.
Duracell is a possibility, they have been on sale lately and I got a large pile of "Plus power", but I do not know when (I have a lot of Sibeile batteries to test).
Thanks, i thought you may be able to settle the Duracell - Energizer rivalry by showing which is better, or if there is a difference between them at all
HKJ, awesome review and I can’t wait to read through some additional ones. This answered a lot of questions I had as to which cells are actually the best for different purposes, thank you!
One problem. If you’re out hiking and encounter a small town, you may very well find that Energizer Ultimate Lithiums are not available. Whenever I’ve looked in a small town gas station or a small store in the middle of the Sierra (Things are probably the same elsewhere), about all you can get are basic alkaline AAA, AA, C and D batteries. Some stores even skip the AAA and C cells, selling only AA and D cells. In other words, I’m SURE you’ve probably been forced to use alkaleaks.
Speaking of taking time to charge NiMH batteries in small towns, ever consider a solar charger? Not sure where you hike. But at least in many of the western mountains, the powerful sunlight actually does a GREAT job charging batteries.
Thanks for the very informative last couple of battery reviews. It was interesting to see the lithium battery drop from near on 1.75 volts to 1.53 volts with only .1 amp load but hold the voltage very well for the life of the cell. I bought my father some of these cells for his digital camera after using NiMH and he hasn’t gone back. They seem to last 10 times longer than anything else even though they are not cheap. Cheers.
Another possibility if higher voltages are needed is NiZn. This battery is actually quite similar to NiMH and Nicad in many of its characteristics (ie stable output voltage, high current capacity, etc). But it maintains a voltage of around 1.6V rather than 1.2V. They admittedly are not the most reliable cells in the world, and tend to develop problems like high self discharge and reduced capacity. And the high voltage can be damaging to some devices. But for applications NEEDING a hugher voltage, they can work quite well. Of course, unlike lithium primaries, they have the added benefit of being rechargeable (albeit with much lower cycle life compared to NiMH or Nicad).