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
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.
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
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.
My oldest Eneloops BK-3HCCE (Eneloop Pro, Made In Japan) are about 8 years old and are powering a brutal device for batteries: Wahl hair clippers. So they had to direct drive the clippers, travel through various countries, go through cold and very hot climates, and get a lot of vibration and hits.
They still run fine, capacity is almost as high as new.
I have 4 gen1 AAA sanyo eneloops manufactured 12-2007, used for high current (flashlight) but infrequently, so definitely <50 cycles.
Charged in BC700, always at 200mA before I knew better
Capacity still seems fine, the worst one has 85% left but all of them have developed high internal resistance.
They can only be used in low-drain devices now but 13.5 years is beyond impressive.
Sadly I have no meter for measuring the internal resistance.
i have some first gen from 06 in a solar light.
recently tested at 1781-1784 @ 1a.
great for a set in use cyclically every day for 10 years.
ir 60mohm.
new are around 30.
i just opened a set of duraloops from 11.
1.31v all 4.
out of the pack they gave 1123-1125 1a after 2 cycles i got 1887-1891 1a