I ordered both batteries of these out of curiosity to basically check and see if they are worth anything. I have been looking for a cheaper alternative to Eneloops for around the house as I don’t use AAA’s often. If you figure a decent alkaline AAA battery is about $0.35 each, these NiMh batteries only have to last about 5 or so charges to equal the cost of alkalines. Anything charges over that is money saved.
Keyko Energy KT-AAA800
Keyko is supposed to be a Japanese company per their website, but I expect the cells are Chinese.
Tech Spec Sheet can be found here
Reported to be low self discharge
Rated at typical 800mah with a minimum of 750mah
Rated can be recharged over 1000 times
Keyko batteries purchased at Amazon $11.95 shipped for an 8 pack which is $1.49 each.
AccuPower AccuLoop AL950
AccuPower is an Austrian company. Who knows where the cells are from. Their website lists HR-4UTG under the technical information and HR-4UTG batteries are the Gen 1 Eneloops.
Tech Spec Sheet can be found here
Reported to be low self discharge
Rated at maximum 950mah with a typical of 870mah
Rated can be recharged over 1000 times
AccuPower batteries purchased at Amazon $5.39 for a 4 pack which is $1.35 each
I have no expectations of either being as good as Eneloops and I don’t have all the fancy testing equipment that HKJ has. I’m simply going to do a charge-discharge-charge capacity test on Lacrosse BC-700. I couldn’t find my Gen 3 Eneloops (i don’t know what device they are in) so I had to use my Gen 2 HR-4UTGA Eneloops rated at 1500 cycles, with a typical 800mah and minimum 750mah. By specs, the Keyko and Eneloops should be close and the AccuPower should be better, but in reality we’ll just have to see.
I use a charge of 500mA and a discharge of 250mA for 4 batteries of each brand. The final Lacrosse voltages also coincided with 2 different DMM’s I have. I don’t plan to do a self discharge test over time on these batteries as I will just forget about it and it will never be completed.
Final results of the Lacrosse: discharge capacity shown with final recharge voltage just to show consistency between cells
Keyko batteries averaged 837.25mAh per battery with a spread of 52mAh
Keyko #1. 831mAh with a final voltage of 1.44v
Keyko #2. 860mAh with a final voltage of 1.42v
Keyko #3. 850mah with a final voltage of 1.44v
Keyko #4. 808mah with a final voltage of 1.44v
AccuPower batteries averaged 899.25mAh per battery with a spread of 25mAh
AccuPower #1. 910mAh with a final voltage of 1.46v
AccuPower #2. 897mAh with a final voltage of 1.46v
AccuPower #3. 905mAh with a final voltage of 1.45v
AccuPower #4. 885mAh with a final voltage of 1.46v
Eneloop batteries averaged 855.25mAh per battery with a spread of 13mAh
Eneloop #1. 850mAh with a final voltage of 1.45v
Eneloop #2. 850mah with a final voltage of 1.46v
Eneloop #3. 863mah with a final voltage of 1.47v
Eneloop #4. 858mah with a final voltage of 1.46v
Value: price per cell vs average mAh per cell
- AccuPower Acculoop batteries cost $0.15 per 100mAh
2. Keyko Energy batteries cost $0.18 per 100mAh
3. Sanyo Eneloop batteries cost an estimated $0.26 per 100mAh (As the Gen 2 Eneloops I tested have been discontinued, I just used the going Amazon price of $17.99 for an 8 pack of the current generation Eneloops which is $2.25 per cell and I figured that they would have a similar mAh of the Gen 2’s I tested)
For me to just use these AAA batteries around the house and in the occasionally used flashlights, I’m going to look seriously at the Acculoops. It remains to be seen how they handle self discharge over time, but as it stands they offer more capacity for the price. They are almost twice the value of the Eneloops. The other side to that is the current Eneloops are rated for 2100 cycles which is twice the lifespan of the Acculoops. As the batteries with be in a couple of alarm clocks, some remotes, toys, and a few flashlights, they will never see 2100 cycles anyway. If I were using them in primarily in higher discharge environments such as cameras and flashlights, the Eneloops would probably be the better selection.