How are your oldest eneloops doing?

i have 60+ eneloop/duraloop 1st - 3rd generation

varying from 5-50 cycles and 3 months to 2 years old

all perform like new… some are used at loads up to 4.4 amp in my d40a-vn and still work great.

I am surprised that no one has replied with more then 1000 cycles on their batteries, i have some duracells (that coincidentally appear to be duraloops from about 4 years ago, well before i heard of duraloops) with maybe 300 cycles and are doing fine, but are used in a camera and GPS so not high draw.

I would enjoy seeing some testing on eneloops with 1000 discharges at 1-2C and testing their voltage sag, capacity and self discharge rate.

Given that they've only been available for around seven years trying to get 1000 cycles on them by now would be pretty ambitious. Rough napkin maths tells me that would require they'd been through a full cycle approximately every 2 1/2 days since purchase, and that is assuming they were first generation Eneloops.

I think there is a tendency for enthusiast groups such as ours to get caught up in the specifications and sometimes not face the reality that we really don't need the life cycles that are claimed. In all likelihood my Eneloop cells will outlive me as long as I keep using them at the current rate, don't insanely abuse them and keep charging them with a decent charger.

I bought a half dozen 8-packs of Eneloops on sale at Radio Shack in 2006 when they decided to stop stocking them. I’ve only opened about 3 of those packs, but they don’t seem to perform any different today than when I first charged them. They’re white, I have no idea what ‘generation’ they might be.

I do keep them in matched sets (I’ve numbered them with indelible marker to keep them sorted), and I usually run them till they quit before recharging, but I don’t keep track of the number of cycles. They all still hold about 1900 mAh, and so far none have failed or gone measurably ‘out of synch’ with their mates. Mine are used in flashlights, radios, and digital cameras. None are in toys.

Here a site which tested continuous charging and discharging.

http://www.ultrasmartcharger.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=69

Charging at 2A and discharging at 1.7A

(Way, way above testing standards) but still being able to get 700 cycles.

If he had followed the standards, he would have gotten much more out of them.. 2A and 1.7A is preset hardcore for continuous testing.

You have a point on the time required to get 1000 cycles, however when i travel for work i am half draining them each day, i must have over 200 days of use on my duraloops since i got them.

Also i am more concerned about longevity, if they last 10 years that is great, my rayovacs are not fairing well and they came out about the same time as the eneloops and have maybe 200 cycles on them (abused because of the dumb charger that came with them though, not intentionally)

thanks for the link, i skimmed through it and will read it in more detail later

All of my 18 AA and 16 AAA eneloops and the eight AA duraloops (all of which I acquired in 2011) are still working fine.

In fact, no rechargeable cell has died on me ever since I tortured those 18650s to death, almost three years ago (drained down to 0.1V, then let it sit for months before a recharge… aye, that’s really bright, innit? Be aware, noobs… Li-Ions don’t like being treated like that. Don’t be as much of a fool as I had been ((probably still are)), never run down a Li-Ion completely, and never let it sit depleted for a longer period. LSD-NiMH Eneloops, however, actually seem to appreciate being tortured. No matter what I do to them, they still continue to work as advertised!)

I have 16 Eneloops AA (first! generation) from ~2008 and all where used and abused by Pentax DSLRs and flashlights and believe it or not, they all still kick a$$ and are measured around +/-1950 mAh ! :slight_smile:

I have one cell that might be in the 800-1000 charge ballpark. The 2nd gen eneloop. I have no proper equipment to test it and it is still being recharged daily. That alone makes it 800+ recharges. I will get a BC700 clone soon (ordered from nkon.nl).

Is there any test/readings that might be useful to you guys? I can post pic of the battered eneloop :smiley:

Details are good, what do you use it for, what is the discharge rate, do you smart charge it presently, which charger?

would be nice to see how much juice is left before you "Refresh" it.

Fully charge it, and do a Recharge, show the numbers.

After that, you can do a "Refresh" on your BC700 and see how much, if, it improved mAh.

do a capacity test first, that will charge it, and drain it and tell you the number. The refresh repeatedly drains and recharges it until maximum capacity is reached, it can take take days.

What Bort said!

Upto now it has been used in a budget $5 ebay ‘smart’ charger with independent bays and indicator. Its a cheap charger that sb reviewed.

Usage has been very varied. From being used in toys for kids, to being used in my camera (sx130is) and most of the usage was on a Quark X AA2 Tactical as bedside lamp on medium running at least 8 hours day. The cells were either being charged on a daily or on each 2 day basis (on the 2nd day the cell would be completely depleted before charging). Had its use on turbo too while using bike at night.

Presently, it is being charged on a daily basis. Once I get the charger, I’ll post up some numbers in a thread :slight_smile:

Guys I received the Technoline BC-700 Charger. I will put up a thread and perform the test on the eneloop!

Here is what I can think of. After each test, I will record the MAH. Do I need to record the voltage too or no?

TEST1: Charge the cell AS IS on day of receiving charger. (already done)

TEST2: Use cell overnight (medium mode as night side lamp) and charge AS IS.

TEST3: Perform Capacity test

TEST4: Perform Refresh

no voltage necessary

I did a test (discharge-charge)on my beat up eneloop and it came out at either 1728 or 1782 MAH something….
I will do a 2nd test, which will test the eneloop for max capacity.

I have switched to low selfdischarge batteries in 2008. The first lsd batteries were GP Recyko’s, and these are still working perfect.
Since the i bought several different lsd batteries (Aldi Top Craft, Tronic from Lidl, and Eneloop), only one AAA Top Craft battery died, but that is probably because it was completely discharged for a few months.

All these batteries are Always charged in the Maha MH-C9000, the ones that are nog used get a refresh/analyze every year (even the oldest batteries have almost the same capacity as when they were new).

The AA batteries are charged with 1000mA, the AAA batteries with 300mA.

Don’t discharge the batteries completely, and don’t charge them with high currents, because the heat will kill them.
Use a charger that charges every battery separately, and don’t use batteries with different capacity together (check the capacity with a decent charger like the Maha).

I’m curious to see how everyone’s eneloops are holding up now…
I don’t have any “old” eneloops.
Oldest batteries I have are 5 year old Rayovac lsd, which still seem to do ok today.