HarborFreight NiMh 900mAh AAA batteries

Just bought some of the 900mAh NiMh AAA batteries from HarborFreight.
Pretty good results. Especially for $5.45 for a pack of 4 (with 20% discount coupon)

Discharge Test - 500mAh charge & discharge rate (1st cycling)
The mAh I think will increase a bit with additional cycling. Or so I’ve generally read.

1.51v & 976mAh
1.50v & 955mAh
1.50v & 1003mAh
1.50v & 999mAh

Not a bad deal I suppose?

Wait, your getting 1000mah from nimh aaa? What are you using to measure capacity? Can you run a test with 1 or even 1.5amp discharge?

Those last figures are charging results?
How did you arrive at the discharge and charge capacity/what charger?

Charge capacity for NiMh is not very useful. Only discharge counts.

Please share more info, I need to buy 12 nimh AAA’s Thanks!

Personally I think this might be a better option, though these are Chinese and not rebranded Eneloops.
AmazonBasics AAA Rechargeable Batteries (12-Pack)

Well, I’m using an AccuPower IQ338XL and the discharge results are very consistent with the charge results.
And it says “900mAh” right on the battery. Another 100mAh doesn’t seem that far fetched?

My IQ338XL can only discharge at 500mA

But I do have a Turnigy Accucell 6 I could get a 2nd reading from. Might try it a 1 amp and 1.5 amps tomorrow.

On the AccuPower IQ338XL it only has 500mA discharge rate.
I can try it at a higher discharge rate on my Turnighy Accucell 6

If you read the reviews, these batteries get very high satisfaction marks from a lot of people. I’ve used them in the past and they’ve always been pretty dog gone good for me.
Of course, their not top of the line batteries but hey, better than a lot of Chinese “take your chances” batteries for sure.
Besides, if they don’t work for ya, just return em!

Ikea Ladda 900’s are only a buck more at $6.99, made in Japan, and supposedly the same the Eneloop Pro’s

Just picked up a set to play with.

I think what this proves again is that buying from large retail chains is safer than buying from an unknown source on the internet. No telling where the stuff comes from or what it is. Large retail stores have an interest in being reasonably sure what they are selling isn’t absolute junk.
I know some people think that everything Harbor Freight sell IS junk, but actually some of it is pretty good.
And then again, some of it is pretty bad. It would so far appear that these cells are pretty good.

Once again, I’ll ask what flydiver asked. Is that the measured discharge capacity, or is it the charge capacity. With NiMH cells charge capacity can be 20% higher.

There is no mention of LSD, so these might lose ~0.5% of the stored energy per day, if they perform like some high capacity non LSD Panasonic AA cells I tested. That means that they are unsuitable for devices that you want to forget about and use occasionally. You’d be better off getting LSD cells. They would last longer. And those Panasonic cells I tested wore out quickly when subjected to regular high current discharges. After one year they were down to 1400mAh from the claimed 2800 mAh (or whatever the exact value was). So they may well be unsuitable for high drain devices too.

Ikea do a lot of good stuff, big purchasing power means good value. Even Chinese LSD cells can be very good, albeit not as good as Fujitsu made cells (they don’t last so long).

I was looking for LSD in the description too. Power over storage time is important in most of my applications so I’ve been buying mostly Eneloops. Amazon.com
Probably other brands with same or greater “maintaining charge” claim but the Eneloops have had the power whenever I’ve needed it even after sitting a year or more. Would be nice to get the same performance for less money though.

They’re marked as “Ready to use” which implies LSD. Capacities of the various Ladda types map to the equivalent Eneloop Pros and Eneloop Lites made by FDK (in Japan). Read HKJ’s reviews of these cells for more info.

Thanks, I’ll see what HKJ has on them.

The Ikea batteries look good too. It’s just a lot further away (about $10.00 in gas to go there). Haven’t been there in years. I can walk to HarborFreight. Might make a trip to Ikea one day and pick up some of the Ladda batteries up too. But right now, I don’t need any LSD AAA batteries for my purposes.

Does “Ready To Use” guarantee they are LSD ?

My use for these HarborFreight batteries is constant low drain so I don’t really need them to hold their charge an extended time. The alkalines I was using lasted 3 weeks max then needed to be changed. At least I can recharge these HarborFreight AAA’s every two to three weeks.

If the Ikea batteries are LSD then sure, those would be better for flashlights or devices that would sit extended periods of time between uses.
At least that’s what it seems I have learned from reading this forum.
I guess there’s more to buying batteries than just buying “top of the line”.

It suggests so, although I do not know what consumer law is like in your neck of the woods. Can you imagine standard non LSD cells being useable after a year on a shop’s shelves?

I saw HJK’s review of these batteries and I think he confirmed they are LSD
They look like excellent batteries at a good price.

In which case an excellent buy. :+1:

I noticed that the LADA batteries state that you can charge them….“up to 500 times”.
Now the HarborFreight AAA batteries says “can be used up to 1000 times”

500 more cycles is significant. Is there anything to that ?
Should it be assumed that HarborFreight is fudging the truth and Ikea is not?

LADDA Rechargeable battery IKEA
Rechargeable battery
$6.99
Key features

- You can use these batteries for all types of products. Batteries with a high energy capacity (high mAh number) are particularly useful for products with a high energy consumption, such as MP3 players, cameras, toys, flashlights and game controllers.

  • The battery is ready to use.

>>>>> You can recharge these batteries approx. 500 times. <<<<<

Voltage: 1.2V.
Battery capacity: 900 mAh.
Life: approx. 5 years.

500 chargers vs. 1000. People seem to get caught up in that spec.
If you used them hard enough you had to charge them every week, you’d get 2 years out of them. Pretty much no one does that. If you did you wouldn’t need LSD type anyway.
Mostly they die of old age, neglect, and various forms of abuse. In that case a quality LSD like Eneloop is far more likely to last.

Capacity is one metric, charge cycles another. I think possibly the most critical characteristic for me is real world longevity, which is about impossible to measure in a useful way. By the time you’ve acquired that information THAT particular battery, even if it has the same name and wrapper, is likely no longer made.