Has anyone seen the prices on alkalines recently?
At Kroger‘s even for eight packs they’re over a dollar apiece… $9.95 for eight batteries seems crazy.
D cells at $3.50 each .
I thought it was insane when they went to 1$-$1.50 each 4 or 5 years ago .
Prices almost doubled on Aldi’s AAA/ AA’s .
Am I missing something? Have you noticed the jump in prices .
Wow, that’s a lot of money for such a crappy technology.
I’m glad that I learned about Eneloops and other great LSD cells from BLF. 
We had Yet Another Lithium Battery Fire That Killed People either yesterday or today. Saw it on the news, but had the sound off. Piles of dead ebikes burnt to a crisp on the street, evidently the cause.
Wonder if the push to demonise Li cells might have people clamoring for alkaleaks. They might be conflating all rechargeable batteries, even NiMH like eneloops, who knows. Or maybe the ingredients are getting marked up to obscene levels Because They Can.
That’s cuz you’re looking at 8 packs. Go to costco and the 48 packs of Kirkland brand AA’s are like $12 iirc, and Duracell 40 packs are like $18. If you wait for a sale you can get the 40 Duracells for like $12 too.
I wonder why nobody uses IFR/lifepo4 in ebikes, cars and such. I mean i understand phones where energy density is an issue, but otherwise it seems like “but it will last for so long, how are we going to sell new ones?” thing to me. The fact that they fail much less violently (no fire) combined with ~10x longevity seems like good enough reason to sacrifice ~30% energy density in many applications.
Also a couple of fun facts about lifepo4 cells somewhat related to the topic - they work great in any flashlights with stabilized output, because while nominal voltage is lower discharge limit is basically the same. They also have low enough voltage that one almost perfectly replaces 2xAlkaleaks in series, so perfect for those devices which refuse to work with a pair of ni-mh cells because of lower voltage.
As for the prices on alkaleaks… they’ll likely continue to rise gradually as popularity declines. Which is good, because it pushes more people to stop using them. There are very few applications where primary batteries make sense nowadays, and those greatly benefit from lithium primaries anyway…
There was a lithium fire here with a death, but the official cause was blunt force trauma, because the guy jumped out of his window to get away. Another ebike.
Loose cells are taken so seriously but IMO the battery packs are far more dangerous. You can’t see when something is going wrong, you can’t see damage or leaking cells.
A lot of the ebikes that catch on fire have battery packs that are el cheapo pieces of junk.
If I were to get an ebike, I would buy an established brand, hopefully with a good safety record.
(I guess I would have to do research on which brands produce battery packs with less potential risk.) 
I have just bought a Panasonic BQ-CC55 fast charger which includes four AA eneloop cells forS$40 or about US$28.50 from Lazada Singapore. This charger is good; it fully charges these four AA eneloops cells in just about 60 minutes.
For ordinary alkaline battery, I am using Maxell, which comes in 40 pieces per box for only about S$16.80, or about US$12, which comes to only 30 cents apiece. One dollar apiece is certainly exhorbitant. BTY, no shortage of alkaline battery here in Singapore.
Wal mart great value were $1 for a pack of 4
Well Walmart and Krogers are two of the biggest chains in the country . That means the same pricing is in cvs , target Walgreens and a thousand other stores too .
I took some leaking in the
Package alkalines back to Menardds and they handed me a replacement 48 pack that was priced at 14$ … so yeah there is still cheap stuff out there but for how long ?
ALDIs on there smaller quantities
Like 8 or 12 packs they have around the checkout counter doubled in price . Later I saw they had a halfway decent deal on a quantity pack but still pricey .
For devices that really require 1.5V, such that NiMH isn’t an option, now there are lithium ion cells with a regulator IC that put out a constant 1.5V. Usually these cells either require a special dedicated charger or have an integrated USB port for charging. They are ~$5 each but that’s not too bad considering the longevity.
Yeh, I love those things as long as I don’t care about being “surprised”.
There’s zero indication they’re almost dead, so you get full output until… nothing.
Disconcerting when using one in an AA flashlight, to say the least.
I haven’t tried any of the several brands of such 1.5V regulated AA size Li-ion cells, but as I believe only the XTAR version provide notification of impending shutdown (by dropping output to 1.0V), they are the ones I’d try if I were so inclined. I haven’t yet been so inclined, but ‘never say never’.
Go to the dollar store. Which is no longer a dollar store it’s a $1.25. Still a bargain. The one near me is called Dollar Tree.
You can get at least two Panasonic Double A’s for $1.25. 4 X Triple A for $1.25.
Some of these cheaper brands you get four of them. Double A or Triple A.
I believe the C batteries you get two of them.
In USA home depot seems like the best place to get batteries, i tried dollar store batteries, Panasonic, maxwell…ect., they do not compare to Duracell or energizer. not as bad as carbon zinc batteries ,which are also in abundance at dollar stores, sometimes they look like Duracell, but the name is dunacell, unless you looking close, you may easily mistake them for duracells. As far as price, what have not jumped in price these days,
Could be a long time if carbon zinc is any indication lol. Carbon zinc batteries have been obsolete for the better part of a century and they’re still everywhere.
Home depot is good when stuffs on sale. Costco is cheaper tho
Quite possibly, I went there only few times in my life, you need a paid membership to shop there. not that expensive, but still the store is limited to members.
Oh I’m very familiar with how costco works lol.
Ive got 2 ethical workarounds for you there if you’re interested:
That’s in store. But for Costco gas, the gift cards work forever. You never need a membership to get gas if you have a gift card, you can do it as many times as you want.
WOW, those are actually good advices, thanks.
Been using their HDX brand for many years and have never had a leaky one. Every month or so batteries are part of a Today’s Special with decent prices.