An Eneloop long term romance

jeff51 · 2019-12-29T15:57:34.000Z

Loops forever!
Just thought I’d drop a quick post about 10 year old Eneloops.
Got them from Amazon in 09-2009. The standard white wrapper version.
Three of them had been living in an eterrnalight flashlight (remember those?) since new.
I recharged them every 4-6 months. Depending on my mood (or memory).
The light got used every night until the BLF 8Q came along a few years ago.

Then they went to live in the indoor part of a weather station thingy.
Before putting them in the weather station, I ran a test and all three were in the 1900mAh range.
Not bad for something that had been around for so long.

I didn’t pay any attention to them in the station until the thing went dead. Oops.
Pulled them out and they were all below 1v. Stuck them in the charger and ran a charge/discharge test.
2 were in the 1600mAh range and one was 780mAh. Harrumph.

Off the the hobby charger and did 4 cycles of refreshing.
Back to the tester. All three were over 2000mAh!!

Got my money’s worth – Thinks I.
All the Best,
Jeff

tempo · 2019-12-29T16:05:55.000Z

not as great as the barber

ChibiM · 2019-12-30T17:31:45.000Z

Eneloops can last pretty long, for sure!

FlashPilot · 2019-12-30T09:07:04.000Z

I still have a few kicking around somewhere when I purchased them from Costco in 1990 for the first time (sold though out the CA Bay Area Costco chain). I think I paid $30 for the kit. Sold as an 8 pack on a large shrink wrapped blue cardboard, with 8 x AA’s, 8 x AA to C cell converters, and 8 x C to D cell converters + 4 channel wall charger. I threw away the converters long ago and thought the cells would be dead within a year. How wrong I was! AFAIC, there has not been a AA consumer marketed nimh cell produced that comes anywhere near the cycle life and longevity of the standard AA Eneloop. No wonder ChibiM and many others have the sickness!!

Also no date codes, so they could actually be older than that!

arow55 · 2019-12-30T19:15:51.000Z

FlashPilot:

I still have a few kicking around somewhere when I purchased them from Costco in 1990 for the first time (sold though out the CA Bay Area Costco chain). I think I paid $30 for the kit. Sold as an 8 pack on a large shrink wrapped blue cardboard, with 8 x AA’s, 8 x AA to C cell converters, and 8 x C to D cell converters + 4 channel wall charger. I threw away the converters long ago and thought the cells would be dead within a year. How wrong I was! AFAIC, there has not been a AA consumer marketed nimh cell produced that comes anywhere near the cycle life and longevity of the standard AA Eneloop. No wonder ChibiM and many others have the sickness!!

Also no date codes, so they could actually be older than that!

The only thing with more cycle life is the Eneloop Lites. Got some more on order in AAA.

snakebite · 2019-12-30T21:49:15.000Z

i too have some that i got early in the game.
i rebuilt 2 way radio packs with some.
15 years of heavy use and still ok.
worse 10s pack around 1650mah.
that one saw 350± cycles and the charger charges at 2a and terminates on temp.
ir is creeping up on it and the radio is down to 4w tx power vs 5.5 due to sag.
my current users are much newer due to letting them go with stuff i sell or trade off.
i suspect most users will lose them,kids throw them out,ect long before they wear out.

FlashPilot · 2020-01-21T22:58:44.000Z

arow55:

FlashPilot:

I still have a few kicking around somewhere when I purchased them from Costco in 1990 for the first time (sold though out the CA Bay Area Costco chain). I think I paid $30 for the kit. Sold as an 8 pack on a large shrink wrapped blue cardboard, with 8 x AA’s, 8 x AA to C cell converters, and 8 x C to D cell converters + 4 channel wall charger. I threw away the converters long ago and thought the cells would be dead within a year. How wrong I was! AFAIC, there has not been a AA consumer marketed nimh cell produced that comes anywhere near the cycle life and longevity of the standard AA Eneloop. No wonder ChibiM and many others have the sickness!!

Also no date codes, so they could actually be older than that!

The only thing with more cycle life is the Eneloop Lites. Got some more on order in AAA.

When someone reviewed charge cycle tests a while back for the Lite version Eneloop, they degraded at a much faster rate than standard Eneloop. Either way, Im glad to hear from people who have weened themselves off alkaline cells. :+1:

RobertB · 2020-01-23T21:59:08.000Z

Been using them in my Son’s wireless xbox controllers for the last couple years. They get recharged every other day or so. Still work great. I’d be going through a case of alkalines every year if not for these 4 eneloops

ValuseekeR · 2020-01-21T23:39:40.000Z

Similar, we still rock a wii and have the remotes powered by Eneloops. While I’ve bought more over the years and they all get rotated in various devices and lights, the original set of 4 I bought are still going strong after at least 10yrs.

Travln · 2020-01-22T02:30:12.000Z

Same here. My son has a Wii and XBox all with eneloops. My house is alkaline free! Lol

sbslider · 2020-01-22T02:46:10.000Z

Not to defend alkalines per se, but in things like wall clocks that take very low current, they are not a bad option. I just pulled 2 out of a DVM that the display died. The alkaleaks had an expiration of 2017, had been in there 10 years or so. The one good one was still 1.48V. The other leaked.

arow55 · 2020-01-22T08:36:35.000Z

FlashPilot:

arow55:

FlashPilot:

I still have a few kicking around somewhere when I purchased them from Costco in 1990 for the first time (sold though out the CA Bay Area Costco chain). I think I paid $30 for the kit. Sold as an 8 pack on a large shrink wrapped blue cardboard, with 8 x AA’s, 8 x AA to C cell converters, and 8 x C to D cell converters + 4 channel wall charger. I threw away the converters long ago and thought the cells would be dead within a year. How wrong I was! AFAIC, there has not been a AA consumer marketed nimh cell produced that comes anywhere near the cycle life and longevity of the standard AA Eneloop. No wonder ChibiM and many others have the sickness!!

Also no date codes, so they could actually be older than that!

The only thing with more cycle life is the Eneloop Lites. Got some more on order in AAA.

When someone reviewed charge cycle tests a while back for the Lite version Eneloop, they degraded at a much faster rate than standard Eneloop. Either way, Im glad to hear from people who have weened themselves off alkaline cells. :+1:

Eneloop rates lites for 3000 cycles. I’ve got over 20 of the lites but the oldest are just a year or so old. I’ll let you know if I have any problem. Any idea where I can find that test?

FlashPilot · 2020-01-22T11:47:23.000Z

I only run standard eneloops now since they are so cheap and last forever. I dont recall where the “lite” versions were tested but probably by someone on this forum.

Phlogiston · 2020-01-23T21:38:10.000Z

By sheerest coincidence, the Eneloop in my wireless trackball conked out a moment ago as I read this thread!

0.896V. Straight onto the charger, next cell into the trackball, life continues as normal