I’ve been buying ace store brands AA and AAA, for probably 13 years at work, I never measured them, as far as capacity, or current pulling ability, but i have never seen one leak yet, I probably saw all brands leak, but not these, not saying they do nt at all, they may, I just never seen them do that in 13 years. and i use them in different devices, from clocks, to remote controls, and office gadgets.
Top notch data in this video and in the spread sheet Ethan. I can see a tremendous amount of work went into this project.
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Great info and comparisons. I’m surprised the eneloop pro did worse than the eneloop white.
If anybody is looking for cycle testing, I just found out about these tests done years ago.
If you look at real results most of the AA LSD cells start losing capacity and having high IR at 250 cycles, not the 500 or 1500 claimed.
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I’d just stick 'em in a remote, outdoor sensor, wireless doorbell, low-stress light, anything else that’s not so high-strung that it needs all that capacity or current handling.
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Yeah, I’m not surprised.
NiMH cells stopped getting any developments entirely outside of hybrid vehicles from Toyota with bipolar NiMH cells.
That being said, I wouldn’t say no to tabless AAs if those ever came to be.
“Overall, I think it’s very clear that there is no reason to buy alkaline batteries - they are disposable and leak, which are obvious issues, but they have abysmal performance in comparison to everything else.”
What are the options if you need 1.5V carbon zinc ? Li-on is too expensive and NiMH are all 1.2V !
The REALLY good 1.5v Lithium AA are expensive. Some of them don’t seem to be too bad and if you pick them up on a special can be a reasonable buy.
The SinceHoly 3600mWh (85-90% of claimed capacity @ 0.5A - 8 for $22) and the Dracutum 3000mwh (90-94% of claimed capacity @ 0.5A - 4 for $13). Both handle up to 2.5A and the Dracutum has a ‘step-down’ near the end of it’s capacity which can be useful in some situations.
No idea about long term reliability.
They seem to come in all kinds of ‘names’ with/without chargers. It’s kind of a blind auction on what you will really get.
1.5v carbon-zinc have poor capacity, and poor current support. The 1.5v is gone in no time except very low drain devices.
No idea if they are less likely to leak. I quit using them a long time ago.
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I’m curious what the use case is for specifically needing carbon zinc?
Clocks are the only thing that comes to mind, low current draw means the capacity and current limitations are less problematic than in other uses, and the mechanism is likely going to over-discharge NiMH cells.
For some reason I’m under the impression that carbon zinc cells very rarely leak- perhaps lack of anything in them?!?
Yes carbon zinc rarely leaks and if they do leak the electrolytes are not as corrosive as the electrolytes in alkaline batteries that will damage electronics or even the contact springs and contacts. You can find/buy them everywhere for under $0.25 a cell plus you can also recharge them carefully with an old Ni-Cad or even a NiMH charger and they won’t leak like alkaline.
The last time I purchased Li-on AA cells was when Target was closing in Canada which was around 2013. The had 8 packs of Eveready Li-on AA cells for under $5.00. The well known brands of Li-on from Energizer, Duracell etc… were selling Li-on AA for over $12.00-$18.00 just for 2 cells !
If that is in USD it’s still quite expensive. I wouldn’t pay that much even if it was in CAD plus we still need to pay an additional 15% sales tax on top of an additional 10% eco-fee, but that’s just me !
IKEA Ladda for the win ! They are basically Panasonic/Sanyo Eneloops anyways for half the cost !
The hidden issue here is longevity–there are rumors of latest batches being from a different source and lasting fewer cycles before dying.
Also disappointing to see that NiMH cells generally last way fewer cycles than advertised (e.g., Eneloop lasting <400 cycles rather than advertised 2000), with the only exceptions being dedicated, super-low-capacity, long cycle life cells: Capacity vs Cycle Count · AA Cycler
Do note that a big problem of these testers is that they make the cells a lot hotter than they normally would be at those currents.
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Amazing review – really informative. I was hoping you’d cover the paleblue Li-Ion batteries. That’s how I stumbled on your video! Maybe in your next test! 
What would you recommend for low drain devices like smart radiator thermostats (TRVs) which currently use Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA? I’m looking for a suitable rechargeable replacement, and the white Eneloops just don’t last long enough. Or would you not recommend rechargeable and just stick with the LiFeS2?
Thanks for all your effort pulling this together!
That’s a tough call for rechargeable 1.5v Li AA. The electronics have a low grade constant parasitic discharge, along with normal battery chemistry discharge. There is scant information on that variable. Xtar seems to be very good, almost as solid as Eneloop. [Review] Needs translation from German.
[Delyeepow AA 3400mWh] did very well also. Interesting because I have some AAA of that brand and they aren’t all that great. OTOH, the logistics of getting ALL those components in that TINY can is not trivial.
Most seem to be 40-50%/year. EBL 3300mWh was poor at 84%.
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Any scope for some gentle modification to wire in an external pack?
It’s unlikely but does the product have any documentation regarding the acceptable input voltage range?
If the TRV take 2AA for 3V, a 2S4P arrangement should give you 2x the life and you could use alkalines - if they leak it’s easy enough to clean the enclosure out.
Alternatively, if you want to roll the dice, you could risk Lifepo4 cells in parallel, these have maximum 3.7v when charged, 3.2v for most of its life then 2.8V when dead…
Also, for a benchmark, how long are you getting from a set of energizer lithium’s and the eneloops?
Great testing, though it’s a bit depressing to see the cycle life claims for NiMH getting debunked again. 2100 cycles on the Eneloop box always felt like marketing fluff, but seeing them struggle to hit 400 in real testing 
is a wake-up call. I’ll probably stick to the standard Eneloops over the Pros regardless; that extra capacity in the Pros never seemed worth the trade-off in internal resistance after a few months of heavy use.
1A is cooking the Eneloops, lol…I have a few pairs that definitely have over 300 charges on them, but I only hit them with between 100 and 400mAh. I have a feeling that the 2100 claim comes with the caveat of using the specific charger that came with them, the one that takes half a day to charge…
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That’s the charger I use. I’ve got enough spares so I don’t need the fast charging. I’ve also got their faster charger with the different color lights. The lights are nice, but the batteries got hot when I used it so I use the slower one instead.
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