Has anyone tried these? I was looking for Eneloops and saw this option. Review by NLee seems promising.
Ebl AA 2800mah
I have seem more stuff from NLee, but there is not much useful and important info, like like discharge current. And voltage under Load. And last but not least, long term using.
HKJ tests are in that regards much better, and you can compare all kinds of batteries. Much much better in my opinion.
Also where are those cells made? China? Who makes these cells, as no new company can ever produce good quality cells without a longer history.
Just my 2 cents
Thanks for posting this. Very tempting, specially since I have respect for Nlee as a reviewer. Only problem is I can get regular capacity eneloops (duraloops) all day long for a little less and I have to many as it is, or I would order a few to test.
BTW……. I found them about $1 each on ebay from reputable sellers.
I bought 8. I’ll try to post some stats when I get them.
If someone doesnt mind, please send a few to HKJ (which could take a while before he will actually test them)
I don’t know if it’s the same for batteries vs. drivers, but I don’t think that HKJ just tests everything that gets sent to him? I asked him about testing a driver that I was interested in (one of the triple drivers from CNQ), and basically, he kind of said “no” (not exactly, but kind of), so I’m not sure what his criteria is.
I think he is definitely more of a Battery guru than a Driver guru.
He must have a crap load of batteries waiting for his testing!
So I only assume that he is more interested in doing chargers and batteries.. just my guess
At least I have tested more batteries.
With LiIon batteries: yes
I do also have a backlog of already tested batteries, where I just need to do the writing and publishing.
Not really, but I prefer to test stuff where I expect many people is interested in the result. Sometimes there is also stuff where I am very interested in the result (Like NiZn batteries, review will get published when I have time to write it).
Alright, I received the 2 packages of AA batteries.
They were all between 1.266 and 1.276 volts. I have an Accucell6 so I can test one at a time. I may test a few. The first thing I did was to try to set it to NIMH Discharge to see how many mah I get out of it from the 1.26 charge level. The Accucell6 offers Discharge settings in Amps and Volts. The default rates were 0.1A and 0.1V. I set it to 0.5A and 0.5V. I think this is going to take a while to process. I don’t see a cutoff voltage setting (I read 0.9V was a safe limit) - is the Accucell going to take it down to 0.0V? It has been camping out at 1.13V for the last 30 minutes.
In other words, please suggest some basic test criteria and I will try to do what I can and post the results here.
The accucel has default settings for things like cutoff volts, and you can change them but normally wouldn’t.
It shouldn’t discharge to 0.
If you want to see the max capacity, discharge at 0.2A to 0.9-1.0v/cell. Not really much capacity after 1.0v.
If you want to see what kind of amperage support it has discharge at 1.0A to 1.0v. 1.0A discharge is the max the AC-6 will do.
Since 1.2v is nominal voltage it should spend a long time at that level.
Personally I haven’t seen much in the way of NiMh over 2500mA that is much good. It’s starting to get into the realm of marketing fantasy. NLee review is pretty positive but others are less so including a guy testing them with a Lacrosee BC-700.
Hard to tell if this is battery or tester/equipment variation.
They don’t appear to be a bad buy, more of a potential prize or potential minor risk.
I have limited experience with NiMH, but you are probably correct that there is very little above 2500mAh, especially if you need some current.
You can see my test and curves here: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/CommonAAcomparator.php
It includes curves where you can easily see the voltage. My curves are not done with a hobby charger, but with equipment where I can use 4 terminal measurement and discharge with 10A.
About a month ago, I was tempted to try these batteries over Sanyo 2700 or eneloop, but I decided against them because some of the reviews were negative and I’m not familiar with NLee. If someone tested them against eneloop or sanyo 2700, I’d be a lot more comfortable buying them.
Yeah, I’d be interested in seeing what results ridinon0 comes up with for a charge/discharge cycle test.
I read up more about NLee and it seems like he has tested many batteries with hobby chargers. It seems the EBL 2800mah AA are truly the highest capacity around, but also of note are the AmazonBasics High Capacity AA that are supposedly eneloop pro rebrands for half the price…
Thanks Flydiver - I will use your suggested rates of 1.0V and 1.0A for a few cycles on this battery and see what I get. Then maybe repeat it on another cell or two.
HJK - I knew your reviews were where I should look for a template. However, I could quickly tell that I lack lots of tech to gather the data you are able to come up with.
Over the course of 10 minutes, it dropped from 0.98V to 0.78V, so I stopped it. However, after a rest, my meter is showing it at 1.07V. I didn’t find a discharge cutoff parameter in the AC6. I don’t see a mention of it in the manual: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/ACCUCEL_manual(2).pdf. Was the charger about to stop the process or was it going to dive to 0V? If I start discharging it again, it drops towards 0.9V in just a few seconds.
Also, what is the advisable charging rate for this? I read safe ranges are 0.5C to 1C for NIMH. So should I go with 1.4A for 0.5C?
In the NiMh section there is a charge and discharge screen. You set up each of the parameters there. Just like Lithium you push the button and the parameter you want to change blinks, use the arrows to change it up/down, then push and hold start to begin.
You must not have set the endpoint.
On a high capacity battery the ability to sustain current will be compromised. If you want to TEST CAPACITY, use 0.2A.
If you want to TEST AMP SUPPORT, use 1.0A. At the higher setting the voltage will be pulled down MUCH faster to the cut-off point.
ALL rechargeable batteries ‘sag’ under load. Take off the load and they rebound. This is normal.
In NiMh voltage ALONE is almost worthless for determining if a battery is charged or not. You can take a DEAD NiMh cell, charge it for a couple minutes, and it’ll probably show 1.2v making many people think it’s half full.
DO NOT USE UNLOADED VOLTAGE TO DETERMINE CAPACITY IN NIMH. PERIOD. Got that? Almost useless. I cannot stress this enough. They are NOT NOT NOT lithium.
You may need to tweak the termination parameters to get the AC-6 to stop properly.
RTFM, or do some serious searching on youtube. I can do it but I’m not going to spend 20” typing trying to explain it.
There are a LOT of good videos on youtube. If you can’t figure it out, spend some quality time there.
Hi,
From here:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/ACCUCEL_manual(2).pdf
Top of page 9, “NiMH Sensitivity”:
This value depends on the size of the battery, the quality of the battery, the age of the battery, AND the components of the charger.
Frankly, you’ll have to sort it out for yourself but the concept of over and undercharging is how you do so.