I’ve been using rechargeable 1.5V lithiums for game and VR controllers for a year and a half. The self discharge is really low and don’t trigger the battery warnings nearly as much as NiMH and last at least twice as long, but the downside is you don’t get much warning at the end of discharge. Even alkalines didn’t seem to last as long in the controllers and there was always a risk of leakage. They did cost a bit more than NiMH, but the long life, at least in my use case was way worth it. If I had been using alkalines all that time, I probably would’ve spent 5x the cost or more and there’s still plenty of charge cycles left.
I have an old Canon PowerShot camera that absolutely will not play nice with any AA NiMh cells, Eneloops or Fuji's either one. It really wants 1.5v cells. Even good, new AA alkies won't satisfy it for long before it starts whining about cells. I'd been running Energizer lithium primaries in it before I saw the AA Tenavolt cells discussed here. The AA Tenavolt cells I've tried work just fine. Somewhat temperature dependent, as in cold weather makes the camera whine about low cells but, the longer I leave it on, the less it whines. I'm guessing cell impedance drops some with constant current flow. They hold long term charge OK for my use.
Well, learned something new once again. I never knew about these, & the dummy pass through cell would work just fine in the Canon camera. One thing I'm still not clear about is, capacity of the AA TEnavolt cells. Would two Tenavolt AA cells have more or less capacity than one of the linked AA LFP cells?
slmjim
EDIT: I had originally typed Tenergy when referring to the rechargeables above. I edited to correct those references to Tenavolt instead.
In the camera, I’m thinking that they heat up. The Canon is current hungry, which is why it does not play well with other chemistries. So the high draw heats up the battery and makes it work more optimally in the cold.
Heat from voltage conversion is one of the limitations of these cells.
People should be aware of the pretty serious limitations, and a few advantages, of the 1.5v lithium AA/AAA. The ‘generalizations’ are applicable to the entire class.
A BIG issue, is quality; quality of the lithium cell inside, quality of the electronics, and quality of the assembly. We all know there is a HUGE difference between cheap Li-on or NiMh cells. Same with the 1.5v lithium AA/AAA.
I’ve been using Tenavolt 1.5v lithium AA for over a year. Purchased on a great deal, I’m pretty satisfied. They aren’t Eneloops, but they fill a couple niche uses pretty well. For full price, they simply are not worth it unless you have a serious need for 1.5v continuous output.
I….just…. received and am at this moment testing out [4x High-capacity JWWYJ 1.5V USB-C Lithium Ion AA Batteries] that I got from Amazon, only because they were $12 and I was curious.
I can tell you already they are not as good as the Tenavolt; current capability is about 0.5A less, and capacity seems to be around 200mAh less (~1400mAh). They do hold 1.48v under a 1A load right up to shutdown. Tenavolt will handle 1.5A draw fine, and does not do well beyond that.