Keyko Energy vs AccuPower AccuLoop vs Sanyo Eneloop LSD AAA battery comparison

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

  1. 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.

Where did you get them and how much were they? Linky?

I updated the original post with a link

updated and added info for the AccuPower batteries

Thanks for the update.

The Acculoops seem to be excellent performers, and free shipping with prime membership. But I don’t have much experience with high-end, NiMH batts, eneloops, etc.

What are your overall impressions of all the batts you are testing?

Is it me, or is the button-top very pronounced on the Acculoops?

The button top is just the picture. I compared all 3 and the Eneloops actually stick up a hair above the others. Just doing the capacity test the acculoops seem to be a bargain. I’ll do a test on all 3 in a flashlight left on high and see how long til it dies.

Nice report. Thank you.

Competition is good. Look forward to hearing updates over time.

I just wish I could find some reasonably priced Acculoop AA’s. I can find the AAA’s and 9v all day long but not regular AA’s

Mentioned in the OP: Keyko #1. 831mAh with a final voltage of 1.44v

I assume since you mentioned final voltage of 1.44v, they are “Charge” figures? (not Discharge Capacity Available)

The only reason I mentioned the final voltage after recharging is I’ve had cells in the past that were bad and would not charge to a voltage close to others. If you bought a new 4 pack of batteries and one would only charge to 1.2v and the others to 1.4v there is a problem.

The mAh is all discharge capacity.

Ah, ok.

The final voltage is just a deal with me as I bought some powerex AA batteries a couple of years ago. In an 8 pack, I had 2 that were bad cells. The mAh was much less than the others and no matter what charger I used they would not hold a charge to a voltage above around 1.1 to 1.2. They got hot as hell during charging. I had to send them back for replacements.

Yes, I have D and AA Powerex cells too and they are very inconsistent cells. I own Eneloops, Duracells, Tenergy Centuras and Powerex and for consistency in maintaining capacity, I rate them in the same order, with the Eneloops far ahead.

Btw, in your OP, your Lacrosse consistently gives a higher reading than its typical capacity. Personally I’m surprised as my iCharger, C9000 and Opus BT-C 3100 v2.1 always give out lower figures than its typical capacity, even with new Eneloops.

I stuck with the lacrosse. I did the same tests in my opus, but the charged to voltage was lower than actual voltage per two DMM’s. Plus the mAh numbers were much lower as well. I need to figure out why. I’ve had and trusted Lacrosse products for several years so I just went with it for the sake of consistency. If the readings are high then they are consistently higher, and there was less variation between the cells. Where with the opus, I had capacity vary up to 100 mAh on the same exact cell. I didn’t have that with the lacrosse. I’m not sure why this was occurring with the opus. I do know resistance between the leads is higher in the opus and it is tougher to get the batteries to contact the leads correctly. I bumped the opus at one point and it began reading one of the cells as NULL. That little bump dislodged the cell from the contact.

I have the feeling that your Lacrosse is not truly giving you the correct discharge capacities. While they may be consistent among cells, having a consistently high reading on ALL the cells that you tested in the OP, at a much higher number that its typical capacity, is a cause of concern of its accuracy.

For example, your Eneloop AAA cells in the OP averaged about 6% over, and not one cell falling below the nominal.

While with Li-Ion cells, getting a higher discharge capacity than its typical capacity is common, with NiMh it is very surprising, to say the least.

Regardless of the brand of the cells and the aforementioned charger/analyzer that I used to test, as far as I can remember, Nimh cells always give out lower than its typical capacity.

I separated out 3 cells, one of each brand, and ran discharge capacity on them 3 times in my opus and 3 times in the lacrosse. There was no consistency in the results of any of the cells on the opus in the 3 tests. They varied as much as 100 mAh from one discharge test to the next. On the lacrosse they didn’t vary more than 40 mAh and that was on just the keyko battery, the others were closer. The lacrosse did seem to be reading higher than expected on the mAh’s, but it was consistent in the readings. On the Opus, it was inconsistent in the readings. One reading would make the cell look great, the next poor, and the next in the middle. I just need more time to try to figure out why. For the time being, I chose to use the lacrosse readings because of the varying results I had with the opus.

Oh, ok…perhaps when you eventually get your hands on a Maha C9000 or a good hobby charger, you will have something to compare with your Lacrosse and Opus. Alas, this makes this hobby more worthwhile doing, doesn’t it?

My observations differ a bit from Tatasal’s. I use a C9000 and check capacity by discharging at 0.5C. I have approximately 160 NiMH batteries (not counting C and D cells that don’t fit the C9000).

Numbers below are from a quick glance of my tracking sheet:

  • I have never had an Eneloop test lower than advertised capacity (when new), usually show at capacity to +5%.
  • Tenergy Centuras, 5 of 62 at –1% capacity, the rest within +5%.
  • Tenergy Blue a mixed bag, about 60% within –5% and the rest within +2%.
  • Imedion 100% at –2% capacity but it’s a small sample.

HJK test of the Opus 3100 V2.1 didnt reveal anything (at least he didnt mention anything) to sugest that the OPUS provided false readings.

Nor have I read elsewhere of this so I am surprised and disapointed if indeed the OPUS is not providing with more accurate discharge readings of nimh batteries as I just purchased one because of that.

I cant believe that such old devices like the lacrosse and the maha and others actually provide more accurate readings then these newer models.
I thought by now they would master the nimh technology better, have more accurate hardware available to provide reliable results.

When I get my Opus I will be also testing it against my Lacrosse BC9009 and will also compare it to other charger that I just returned the FT2000 because I thought it was giving wrong discharge results.
I am concerned if I have to return the Opus as well for the same reasons. :frowning:

Like n10sivern, I went looking for Acculoop AA batteries after reading about the AAA ones, but they ones listed are overly expensive.