Maybe they are Asia and Europe distribution regions. These BK-4MCCA seem to be made in Japan too:
First photo of Chinese made eneloop cells just received from Panasonic. Sorry it’s a crappy shot but they are already in testing so I couldn’t remove them to photograph.
Keep us posted accumulator..
if possible, could you compare them to the Japanese eneloops,and maybe make some graphs.. or publish some numbers?
1st Tests: 0.2C (400mA) > 1.0V IEC Discharge test straight from the pack to determine the amount of factory discharge. Tested on Cadex C7400
Users may not be aware that LSD cells made in the Twicell factory in Japan for export sales are shipped 75% charged. Incidentally they are charged using solar panels on the factory roof (Panasonic do not make this statement in their promo material for the China made eneloops but do for the eneloops they source from FDK Twicell).
Anyway they are then shipped around the world in refrigerated containers to keep the charge intact. That they are not fully charged is a safety factor as bulk NiMH cells are rated as DG (Dangerous Goods) as there’s a small risk of thermal runaway should an accident take place and the cells start shorting out with each other. Apparently the lower charge reduces the safety risk.
So the figures we’ve tested for the Japan made cells over the years have been typically very consistent with packed together cells inside each pack being at exactly the same voltage therefore discharging to the same capacity as each other. Depending on age they generally test at between 73 and 75% but as I said always the same for each cell in the pack with no variance.
This test on the China made cells surprised us as the 4 cells voltage tested out of the pack at some variance in voltage & rated capacity (2000mAh) percentage as follows:-
- 1.296V 78% capacity.
- 1.300V 84% capacity.
- 1.298V 85% capacity.
- 1.297V 79% capacity.
They are now in the middle of going through 5 cycles @ 0.2C charge/discharge >1.0V. They’ll probably even out but still quite unsual for such variance out of the one packet.
FYI MFG Date code for these cells is 12/2013
Thank you, that’s interesting.
Can’t wait for further tests! 
If possible can you test how they keep their charge (3,6,12months…)?
Interesting, whereas these cells I bought last week…
…which are discussed in this thread:
Right before I charged them were…
1.33V
1.33V
1.33V
1.33V
…which is sort of impressive.
That’s the plan however that will have to wait until I have more cells to test as right now I’d like to get some further capacity tests done with these cells after we finish the initial 5 cycle test that should be over shortly. I haven’t seen how those tests are going yet at all but here’s my guess what we’ll see… Good capacity but differing enough from the Japan made cells that shows these cells are not the same product as those made in the Twicell factory.
What I’m most interested in with the proposed future testing is the capacity versus cycle life tests. Meaning what will the capacity fade rate be like over 100 cycles and upwards.
Just as I suggested would be the case for cells manufactured at the Twicell factory. You’d be hard pressed to find anything but that type of result as their QC is so high.
So, do you know what market these Chinese-made eneloops are for? Are they cheaper?
I have always been impressed with Sanyo consistency (eneloops and li-ion), out of the box.
The Panasonic Chinese made eneloops are initially being sold through Panasonic Asia (not including Japan) and Oceania sales regions. There will be no price difference between Japanese Twicell factory and Panasonic China factory made 2100 cycle cells. That seems to be the whole point. Maximise profit by lowering production costs.
Panasonic hope to expand sales of the China made cells to all markets eventually. I read this as meaning they’re hoping the general consumer doesn’t notice much difference. I’d guess they wouldn’t care what more technically minded people think such as members of this and other forums as we are a tiny minority.
Yes I agree. Sanyo was the best small rechargeable battery manufacturer. However they no longer exist except as an internal division of Panasonic looking after Li-Ion & Cadnica battery production.
As you’ve probably already read earlier in this thread since 2010 FDK owns the Twicell factory that makes all Japanese made consumer standard NiMH, LSD NiMH (eneloop and other brands) as well as what used to be Sanyo industrial NiMH batteries and the Sanyo primary lithium battery factory. What were Sanyo Li-Ion, NiCd and solar panel factories are now owned by Panasonic and branded accordingly.
Quite unusual results. The test was 5 cycles at 0.2C (400mA) both charge & discharge to 1.0V.
table(table#posts).
|Cell No.|Cell1|Cell2|Cell3|Cell4|
|Cycle1|97|100|105|98|
|Cycle2|97|101|105|98|
|Cycle3|97|100|105|97|
|Cycle4|96|99|107|97|
|Cycle5|96|96|105|97|
Tests conducted on a Cadex C7400 at 20 Degrees C ambient room temperature.
After many months of testing here’s the final results for the Chinese made Panasonic AA eneloops cells. As expected the cycle life (number of recharges) performance is significantly less than the claimed 2100 cycles the Japanese made eneloop are able to achieve.
To understand the tests and why we did them here’s a brief explanation in lay-person terms (Fellow geeks, please bear with us):- Many rechargeable batteries are sold around the world by various brands. Some reputable, some not. There’s a lot of claims about capacity - mAh (milli-amp hours) which is the amount of current you can obtain from the battery over a given time frame. The main international performance standards organisation for electronics including batteries is called IEC. Most batteries are rate in mAh capacity at what’s called the IEC 5 hour rate. That mean the battery is discharged at one fifth of the batteries capacity from fully charged down to a cut-off voltage that is where most if not all the charge is used from the battery. The test should take 5 hours or more if the batteries capacity is fully available as stated at least when the battery is still realtively young. For example a battery is rated at 1000mAh then the 5 hour rate (0.2C) is 200mAh. In the case of alkaline and carbon-zince non rechargable batteries plus nickel cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries the cut-off voltage is 1.0 volts. The battery capacity will degrade as the cycle life of the battery is used. Ideally the capacity degrades very slowly however that’s often not the case.
Battery capacity which is what governs the run time is one of the main thing users are looking at regarding rechargable batteries. Unfortunately many brands make claims that are not completely accurate with many overstating capacities. What is even more important is the capacity over the life of the battery. Good capacity combined with good cycle life is the best combination for best bang for buck. Many brands claim up to 1000 recharges or even more when reality is 300 recharges or so. IEC information is even better for the user because the tests equate to the life of the battery being over when the capacity has dropped to 70% of the original battery capacity. What use is 1000 recharges when half of those recharges are with the battery only offering half or less of it’s original capacity? So when the likes of the eneloop, arguably the most highly regarded and trusted NiMH AA/AAA consumer battery make claims of 2100 recharges you can turn over the package or look on the web site and read that they mean at the 5 hour rate discharge to the IEC specification down to 70% of the original battery capacity.
The technology used in eneloop is unique to the factory that developed it. No other company has been able to replicate it’s performance, reliability and long life as they cannot use the same patented technology. The only true claiments to these same attributes are other brands using the same battery aquired from the same factory so an eneloop in a different skin so to speak. When Panasonic bought Sanyo they bought the eneloop name but not the technology or the factory so they kept sourcing from this factory now owned by FDK Twicell (Fujitsu). Recently when some eneloop production started coming from China instead of Japan we had doubts that Panasonic’s virtually identical claims in terms of cycle life performance would stack up. A few years ago we tested Panasonic Evolta which is their competing version of a low self discharge (LSD) battery. Our own testing showed results way below those claimed on the packaging. Knowing the China made eneloops are actually rebadged Evolta technology we had our doubts so here’s our test results that have taken around 1 year of real time testing to put together.
No we are not a professional testing house and whilst the tests were in an air-conditioned room we did go on a Christmas break and the testing stopped for a while hence some blips in the graphs. And yes the tests are just on only 4 cells freshly aquired at the time. However previous testing on Japan made eneloops showed incredible consistency from one batch to the next so why not expect the same from the China made enloops that have packaging making virtually identical claims. So we are not making any global claims just showing the facts of our own results for the many interested forum users.
Here’s our results.
table(table#posts).
|Battery|Cycles to 70% of rated capacity|
|Cell 1|527 cycles|
|Cell 2|562 cycles|
|Cell 3|567 cycles|
|Cell 4|543 cycles|
And here’s a link to the cycle test graphs: Test Graphs
Tests conducted on an individual cell basis using a Cadex C7400. Tested at 0.2C (400mA) charge/discharge to 1.0V per cell. Average 20 Degrees C ambient room temperature.
So if in your country you can’t buy Japanese made eneloops anymore you’ve got a number of choices if you dont want the China made product…
If it’s any brand and says Low Self Discharge and most importantly the batteries are made in Japan, then it’s a rebadged LSD that is identical and one in the same battery as a Japanese made eneloop made by the Twicell factory. Then look at the claimed number of recharges and the capacity and you’ll know which version. Here’s some examples:-
- Amazon Basics (the white ones) HR-xUTG 1000 cycle model
- Duracell branded LSD batteries 1900mAh 1500 recharges HR-xUTGA 1500 cycle model
- Duracell branded LSD batteries 2400mAh 500 recharges HR-xUWX 500 cycle 1st edition of high capacity XX type model
- Fujitsu branded LSD batteries 1900mAh 1800 recharges HR-xUTGB 1800 cycle model (Fujitsu HR-xUTA)
- Fujitsu branded LSD batteries 1900mAh 2100 recharges HR-xUTGC 2100 cycle model (Fujitsu HR-xUTC)
- Fujitsu branded LSD batteries 2450/2550mAh 500 recharges HR-xUWXB 500 cycle 2nd edition of high capacity Pro type model (Fujitsu HR-xUTHC)
(x in the model number when replaced with a 3 it’s AA size, with a 4 it’s AAA size).
Interesting stuff.. hopefully can respond to it soon
if I remember correctly , the numbers of cycles is calculated till 60%... but can`t find the graph/info at the moment.
Well, the interesting part to me (not unexpected) is that the Chinese Eneloops aren’t anywhere near the same, and as usual for Chinese mfg, they have inflated claims compared to the reality. I guess from now on, we’d be best off buying any of these other brands that use the “formerly Eneloop” cells, under a different wrapper, including Fujitsu, the owner of the factory. I think it is quite short-sighted, if not just plain stupid, of Panasonic to buy the brand without getting the patented process/formula or the factory. It won’t be long before Eneloop NimH cells will be the new equivalent to XXXfire Li-Ion cells. Sad story, indeed. :_(
Is there any data that can be directly compared between the japanese vs chinese cells?
Thanks, good to know.
I make sure i stay away from the fake Eneloops from now on.
Thanks for the review, Accumulator!
What are those drops-spikes in graphs - did you do some refresh on those batteries to get back to normal capacity or was it some common glitch-occurence among those batteries and they jumped back up to normal after some cycles(ie, due to continuous charge-discharge they simply cycled themselves back up to normal)?
Also, given that Panasonic bought only Eneloop branding and not the battery factory and technology itself, should we be worried that Panasonic will slowly shift towards China-only made Eneloops?
What will happen to Fujitsu factory and technology involved in Eneloops, willl they keep on selling Japanese made Eneloop-technology batteries under different brands or simply outsource battery production to China just like Panasonic might be planning to do and shut down their Japanese factory?
Man, that would mean that for us, enthusiasts, the value of Japanese made Eneloops/their rebranded versions will spike and they will be worth a gold in coming years?!
Happy that I bought 20 Japanese made Eneloops recently :D!
There is no need for Panasonic to do this, in fact I wonder if it is even legal! Is this not bait and switch on a corporate scale?
Marc.
I dont know.
Frankly, if they dont give a crap about consumers(which they obviously dont, moving production to China), neither should consumers give a damn about them.
I expect to see flood of less than stellar reviews about Chinese Eneloops, Panasonic will have to swallow that ;)!
It’s a bit of an exaggeration I’ll admit. But what would we all think if Ultrafire bought the Panasoic name and re-wrapped their cells in Panny wrappers?
Marc