I’ve become interested in the powerowls-
They claim 10yrs and are near 50% less.
Thought bout buying but I’m chock full of loops and Fs n Hs n Ms.
Since I don’t think I’ll be needing flashlights beyond the next ten years seems like a good buy.
I have had a couple sets of batteries utterly fail at around 20% of the normal runtime. No additional draw, no external issues…similar end voltage too. It’s a rarer occurrence, gone though about 120 lithium AA and had only 4 (maybe less) bad cells.
Besides crazy temp flux, or bad signal to hub, I couldn’t think of any reason they would have failed so quick, besides that one device both sets failed in might’ve been subject to a MITM attack or signal jamming.
Maybe a dumb question, and might’ve missed anyone addressing it, but why use UL cells instead of, say, eneloops and/or LADDAs?
I forgot what I got in my wx remotes other than they’re 2 AAs, but they’re either NiMH cells or, well, something else, but I never got/used ULs and don’t really see any need to.
Especially when as mentioned UL prices shot up quite a bit, each one (disposable) is at least as pricey as a decent NiMH cell. So even if the runt of litter gets overdischarged when used in series with other cells, it’s still worth it to use them vs ULs, pricewise.
No?
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The few multi battery AA lights I own are fed with Eneloops. Single battery AA lights are often equiped with a 14500. Because I use them once in a while.
My AAA lights account for circa 30% of the total. And those I buy mostly because I like the looks (Ti, Cu, SS) and not because of an intended usage. So shelve queens get a UL when the included battery is depleted.
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All my shelf- and box-queens get stripped of any/all cells inside. 
I don’t want anything leakable/combustable inside something that’s gonna sit unattended forever.
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I respect that, and it looks like it is the sensible way. But my shelf queens are not minute men, they all are seconds ladies. And they know it. Who lets them shine as if they came fresh out of the mail?
Project Farm tested a variety of Lithium batteries recently.
With regards to EL, i have found it is FAR more cost effective to buy the 30 pack from Sams Club. The small packs are MUCH more expensive per battery.
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Cold weather. We have some game cameras and weather station sensors which perform much better in cold weather with a primary lithium battery. They also operate for longer periods with the lithium compared to NiMH.
I used to use the Energizer lithium before their price skyrocketed. For the last few years I have been satisfied with the PowerOwl primary lithium in AA and AAA.
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2 main issues:
- Voltage-some devices don’t work or complain about 1.2v.
- Difficult to change batteries on some devices-location access or hassle with re-programming after removal.
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Satisfied? > equally good? Good enough/better than alkaline? A much better buy, but not quite as good?
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Mmm, I remembered the cold weather dealy, but figured that was for higher drain apps, not so much for fleapower drain like wx remotes.
Access, though, okay. Best to not have to be a chore every few weeks vs a month or more.
Yeah, I changed my original “happy” to “satisfied”.
They are better than alkaline for certain. I never kept records of when the various items had cells replaced. All I can say is that the PowerOwl seem to last “about as long” as the Energizer UL, but maybe a little less duration, (measured in a year or so between weather station battery changes).
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I would be willing to try these.
After COVID, they doubled in price. It sucks too because they’re the only batteries recommended for my outside Blink cameras.
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I think we are very close to getting AA lithium rechargeable as a store bought item at an affordable price. When that happens these Energizer lithium will be obsolete overnight.
I don’t strongly disagree, “napkin math” to compare:
Energiser Ultimate lithium = 3300mah x 1.5v = 4.95wh.
Xtar specs say 2000mah at 1.5v =3wh.
Energizer operating temp -40C to +60C
Xtar: -20C to + 60C
So the Energizer has better capacity, and low temperature tolerance but it’s disposable, so once you’ve burned through a few sets, if your use case allows, it would save money to have got the rechargeable Lithiums.
I still think long standby or other niche applications will require the disposable Lithiums. Most rechargeable AA users are already using LSD NiMh anyway, it’s just electronic devices that are “fussy” about the slightly lower voltage that are an issue.
Also to add, most portable gadgets have gone towards built in lithium cells anyway, so who is even buying AA’s anymore? Would be interesting to see some market stats on AA batteries sold over the last 20 years.
On topic of saving money, at least for me in the UK, a Xtar Charger +4 cells is £30.
A pack of 10 AA Energizer ultimate lithium is c.£18 delivered, so £1.80 per cell.
A device using 1 cell, requires 17 recharges to break even.
Device that uses 4 UL Lithiums will cost less to power using rechargeable lithium AA after changing the cells 5 times.
Above is horrible maths and I’m sure it’s wrong, doesn’t include (neglible) power costs for recharging.
I am sure there are many manufacturers looking to make AA rechargeable lithium at a price Walmart would sell. When that happens the quality should go up and the cost should go down. I wish that were the case with the cost of eggs and milk these days.
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Not to belabor the point…but it happened again. 
2xAAA put into extremely low draw service (water leak alarm) on 1/26/25 failed completely on 2/22/25. No battery leak. Date expiration code (I think) 12 2049. There is also an engraved code 0224VBA that I could not find a reference for.
Alkaline tend to last 2 years in this application, but I did have one leak a couple years ago in this device. So, I wanted long lasting, no leaking in here.
You can see the remaining voltage, and the sticker I put on the device to track this.
I put in Eneloops this time.
Note - 2 other identical devices also had the same batteries out of the same batch put in. They seem to be fine.
The leak in this device I was not catastrophic, and I cleaned it up pretty well. It still ‘looks’ OK and seems to work appropriately. If the new battery does not last very long I’d guess I have a voltage drain possibly caused by the battery leak. .
Note #2-This is not the device from the OP.
My dud count just went up. 
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There’s another date code by the positive terminal. If you could give us a shot of that. It might just be me, but something looks off about those cells… could you stick them on a good scale and tell us what they weigh?
Weighed 8g on my scale. For reference 3 other NiMh all weighed 12g.
Can you interpret the date code?
FWIW, some of the cells in this group seem to be holding up normally. 2xAA and 2xAAA have failed very prematurely with no external cause I can find.