Battery rechargers and rechargable batteries

[biggiesmallz]

I own one of these http://www.thomas-distributing.com/ap-accupower20.htm
It recharges AA, AAA, C, D, and 9V NiMH, NiCD , and RAM? Batteries.
I've even used it to recharge alkaline batteries .(An electronics teacher once told me that it was ok to do.)

I've also heard good things about http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00077...ref=nosim/102-0304400-8999314?n=286168

Rechargeable batteries here
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/rechargeable-batteries.php

Good deal because it saves you $$$$$

I hear people complaining about battery life of batteries when it really shouldn't matter long as gets accepable battery life for the device being used.

 

[dmcowen674]

Thanks for the link.

Love your sig :thumbsup:

 

[kof]

I've been buying nicads from Thomas distributing for years and always reliable service. Get a good recharger and a box of batteries and they will last almost forever. I buy them now for gifts and for the latest highest capacity AAA's. Good site. One point to make though - it seems every time I buy from them they send me a 10% coupon for the next purchase.
Whoops - meant NiMH

 

[filibusterman]

how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

Same here...are these better than the Rayovac 15 minute chargable batteries I currently have?

 

[crisscross]

I was planning to get these since i mostly use alkalines for my tv remote and wall clocks.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Jawo

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

Same here...are these better than the Rayovac 15 minute chargable batteries I currently have?

not much if at all. don't worry about it. per charge its so cheap its not worth fiddling about. and small % difference in capacity.. not worth worrying about either.

 

[mrrman]

may have to pick this up...thanks

 

[mikeford]

The alkaline thing is kind of a quirk, the first generation NiMH chargers used the same chip as the Alkaline chargers (which never worked well for me, not really charging, and making batteries leak) so it may be some kind of legacy thing, or maybe both just work the same way.

Old school alkaline battery brands really lagged behind the new NiCad and NiMH battery makers for a LONG time, but seems like everybody uses the same factories in China now, BUT do make sure you get the highest capacity some on the shelf are still old 1600s and newest are more like 2500+. (in a AA)

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

A photo and camera review site did a large comprehensive test of NiMH rechargeables. Energizer and PowerEx (MAHA) came out on top more than any other brand.

The Great Battery Shootout

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Jawo

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

Same here...are these better than the Rayovac 15 minute chargable batteries I currently have?

not much if at all. don't worry about it. per charge its so cheap its not worth fiddling about. and small % difference in capacity.. not worth worrying about either.

Actually compaired to the Energizer Rechargables (which are 2000mAh) there is almost a 50% increase in capacity if you pickup the new 2900mAh AA's that are out there now. You need a good charger though to be able to handle the new batteries since a lot of them didn't design the charger believing that batteries bigger then 2500 would be possible.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

A photo and camera review site did a large comprehensive test of NiMH rechargeables. Energizer and PowerEx (MAHA) came out on top more than any other brand.

The Great Battery Shootout

That review is over 1 year old now. Energizer and Duracell have not continued to improve on their battery lines while others have... grant it the product lifecycle isn't as fast as the CPU industry but it is pretty close to the 1 year cycle of the video card industry.

They also didn't even include any of the AccuPower 2500 or Ansmann 2600 that were available at the time of the review. And now the Sanyo 2700, MaHa 2700, AccuPower 2900 are available. There are even news that 3000 and 3100 mAh batteries exist in Korea and China, but have not been picked up by a distributer to the USA yet.

 

[probzy]

Got one.

 

[tcsenter]

That review is over 1 year old now.

But represents over two years of continuous testing and updating as new products were released, from 1600 to 2300 mAh. Consistency over multiple product cycles is more instructive than having one bright product cycle or the most current product cycle.

They also didn't even include any of the AccuPower 2500 or Ansmann 2600 that were available at the time of the review.

Nor any other 2500 and higher batteries, for that matter.

Batteries in the 2100 ~ 2300 mAh range continue to account for the bulk of sales. As the author found, it is usually more economical to buy a lesser-rated battery:

It continues to be the case that taking one step down in capacity may yield great economy: Depending on where you buy your batteries, you can often get more bang for the buck from lower-rated cells, which may sell for significantly lower prices.

Which would make 2100 ~ 2300 mAh test results still relevant.

 

[Lucky]

"As the author found, it is usually more economical to buy a lesser-rated battery:"


What does that matter if you are looking for the battery that gives the absolute best performance?

 

[unclebabar]

FWIW, sometimes Harbor Freight have NiMH batteries on sale for $2.50 (4 pk aaa, aa, and prob 2 pk d, c). Last batch I got several months ago were 700 mAh aaa and I think 1800 mAh aa).

 

[Cheapest]

Can u really charge alkalines disposible batteries? Is it any good? Then you you need rechargable battery?

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Jawo

Originally posted by: filibusterman
how are theses compared to the energizer and duracell NiMH recahrgables?

Same here...are these better than the Rayovac 15 minute chargable batteries I currently have?

not much if at all. don't worry about it. per charge its so cheap its not worth fiddling about. and small % difference in capacity.. not worth worrying about either.

Actually compaired to the Energizer Rechargables (which are 2000mAh) there is almost a 50% increase in capacity if you pickup the new 2900mAh AA's that are out there now. You need a good charger though to be able to handle the new batteries since a lot of them didn't design the charger believing that batteries bigger then 2500 would be possible.

well its not really fair to compare energizer 2000 mah when there are energizer 2500mah on sale now too. and with the 15 minute energizer charger too

 

[kwo]

Originally posted by: Cheapest
Can u really charge alkalines disposible batteries? Is it any good? Then you you need rechargable battery?

No no no.
....
...

....

still no.

<After my first response above, I thought I should edit this before people start flaming me along the lines of..YES THEY CAN..BLAH BLAH BLAH>

So, let me expound - It *is* possible to recharge alkaline batteries, but in my humble opinion it's just not really worth it. For a fe more bucks (yes up to 3-4x or so) you can buy some good NiMH that will *fully* recharge a 1000 times in a *safe* manner. Contrast this with trying to "save a buck" by recharging alkaline's which are just not as safe to recharge, although newer alkaline designs have made progress in minimizing danger.

Point in case, I purchased a maha 9v recharger for church. Despite my EXPLICIT instructions to *not* put normal batteries in the charger, someone put a new 9v Duracell battery in there. I discovered this the next morning when I found the bottom of the battery blown out (didn't know that all those tiny tubes were in there) and battery acid spewed all over the desk. Yes, this is an isolated case, but illustrates what will/should *not* happen with NiMH batteries.

Take that for what it's worth, but alkalines will never be put in my chargers for any reason.......

 

[nomadh]

I charged alkalines once. They popped and spit acid then just boiled acid into the charger. Duracells I think. Not a good thing. I'm finding alot of my nimh batteried wont hold a charge now. About 1-3 yrs old and only used 3-8 times. All I can think of that I did was charge them up but then let them sit for 6 months in case I needed them. Its understandable they leaked down but now wont put out power after charging again. I'm finding memory problems worse than the old nicads. Anyone know a good way to recondition AA's ?

 

[kaborka]

Nomadh: I've noticed an issue with some brands of NiMH whereby they appear to charge up but in fact only accept a partial charge. I've got the Maha C204F charger, and the green light will sometimes go on pretty quickly when charging a cell. I have to use the Maha's recondition cycle to get it to fully charge the cell. You may be having a similar problem with your cells. Several brands of chargers have a recondition cycle.

I'm looking for a charger that can recondition a 18V NiCd pack used by my drill. Maha has one that will work up to 14V. If anyone has seen one that will do 18V, please post linkage.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: kwo

Originally posted by: Cheapest
Can u really charge alkalines disposible batteries? Is it any good? Then you you need rechargable battery?

No no no.
....
...

....

still no.

<After my first response above, I thought I should edit this before people start flaming me along the lines of..YES THEY CAN..BLAH BLAH BLAH>

So, let me expound - It *is* possible to recharge alkaline batteries, but in my humble opinion it's just not really worth it. For a fe more bucks (yes up to 3-4x or so) you can buy some good NiMH that will *fully* recharge a 1000 times in a *safe* manner. Contrast this with trying to "save a buck" by recharging alkaline's which are just not as safe to recharge, although newer alkaline designs have made progress in minimizing danger.

Point in case, I purchased a maha 9v recharger for church. Despite my EXPLICIT instructions to *not* put normal batteries in the charger, someone put a new 9v Duracell battery in there. I discovered this the next morning when I found the bottom of the battery blown out (didn't know that all those tiny tubes were in there) and battery acid spewed all over the desk. Yes, this is an isolated case, but illustrates what will/should *not* happen with NiMH batteries.

Take that for what it's worth, but alkalines will never be put in my chargers for any reason.......

yea only rayovac had rechargable alkalines. but you could maybe only charge then 10 times? i forget, or was it 5, it was single digits. and it depended on you charging them far before they were dead, the longer you went without charging, the less life the things would have, and thats just not convenient at all. doesn't match the usage pattern for alkalines which is to shove them into things like smoke detectors, stuff with low very long term drain.

 

[yhelothar]

I've met up with the top guy at MAHA before from trying to hook up with them as a reseller for my company.
He told me that they use the same OEM cells from Japan as Energizer and Duracell. So I'd get the cheapest of the three brands as they are identical rebadges.
Thomas is definitely the best place to get maha batteries. They are basically in bed together.

 

[jiwq]

If you plan on buying in bulk, you can get 32 2650mAH Duracell NiMH's for about $45 shipped at Amazon. That's around $1.40 each. However, it's ymmv, as some have reported to have gotten only 2500mAH batteries. I got the 2650's.

Just add 2 of them to your cart and use the coupon code on the page.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FKJO9I/102-1590191-8344111?n=3760901