Comparison of AA battery chemistries

It's not the first time I've been called an ass.

Please test Nice lithium from Fasttech

I do not plan on testing a many primary batteries, they are a lot more work, even when I only test once at each current.

But I have ordered some of the NICE batteries and will probably test them.

i was going to ask for Duracell and Energizer AA battery tests, since they are the most popular name brand Alkaline.

Thanks for the review, HKJ!

Don’t use Duraleaks though! (To be fair, P&G kindly reimbursed me for the damaged clock).

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!

Not at the current time, also note that Duracell has multiple series of batteries, the "Plus power" is not their best battery.

I will not really call this a review (Reviews will follow later), it is more of a comparison.

Very true, in the old days there was just the regular Duracell and Energizer

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).

I'm almost exclusively a Pacific Crest Trail hiker, and I've been through part of the Sierras. Yeah, finding lithium AA's isn't guaranteed, but I can pass through a few trail towns before I need new ones, and I'm fine with throwing away AA's that still have juice left.

I'm trying to remember towns that have lithium AA's. I'm pretty sure Mammoth and Wrightwood did.

If it got really tough to find, I'd just throw them in mail drops that I already use. For those that don't know, mail drops are packages that I mail to myself at various post offices along the trail.

Solar sucks unless I'm camping out for a long time. I wasn't joking about that pack train. Aside from a couple hikes in 2010 to see if using a solar charger would fit my hiking style, the only time my solar charger has been on the trail was when I had pack support. I'd leave the charger sitting on a boulder in camp all day.

Solar works better for north bound PCT hikers than on most other trails, but the weight and hassle isn't worth it even when they charge quickly. Weight-wise it's better to carry more batteries, especially if you have a phone with a removable battery. As far as battery use, my gps works for weeks because I only turn it on long enough to write down the coordinates and then remove the batteries to avoid parasitic drain. My cell phone is only turned on in town, and I bring a charger to charge the battery externally because of a broken usb port.

The secrets out leaftye. Do you have a blog or what on earth are you doing. Sounds interesting.

I always buy my AAs at Costco, their house brand alkaline AA works well, and the Eneloops are cheapest there too.

Oh, and HKJ, thanks for the reviews!!!

I have a source for disposable Li-SOCl2 14500’s rated to 2450mAh @ 3.6v, I’m wondering if these wouldnt be good for daily use in my SC52 giving me the capacity of NiMH and the ~500lm’s like on Li-ion 14500’s (at the expense of one-time use) HKJ do you have any experience with any brand of these? If I sent you a couple could you do some tests? The brand I ran across is “ultralast”, not sure if there are others.

Thanks HKJ, this comparison concurs with my findings, I only use Eneloops and keep the lithiums as backups due to long shelf life.

Good read.

I believe that these batteries can only deliver a low current, i.e. they are not good for flashlight usage.

At the current time I will not say yes to test them, I have way to many batteries in queue.