Which AA battery brand is best?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Best being 1) cheapest per usable energy? or 2) best as in longest lasting money not matter?

1) probably any private label on sale (amazon basic, Ikea, etc)
2) probably Panasonic
 
Originally Posted by Shannow
Duracell are the only ones that I've had leak through all sorts of devices, and explode if recharged even once.

Varta are my go to...get 3-4 charges out of them before the charger faults...never a leak...and after that, they go OK in solar powered yard lights for another year.


Varta was our preferred brand in our store, good power and reasonable cost. Long time ago and never see them anywhere.

So you recharge normal alkaline batteries? I always heeded the warning not to and have never tried.
 
Originally Posted by kschachn
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Batteries are not equal. In digital cameras by all means use lithium batteries. Yeah more expensive but last way longer and they're designed to hold the voltage up and die very quickly rather than the voltage steadily dropping . Dollar store batteries are junk. Rechargeables used to be designed to be 1.2 volts instead of 1.5 so they wouldn't overcharge and smoke your electronics. Don't know if that's still the case or not but they don't last long in things that need a minimum voltage to work. BITD I sold cameras and kept up on batteries, not so much now. The video confirmed what most know, you usually get what you pay for.

Battery voltage is determined by the chemistry of the battery, not "designed" in order to protect your electronics. The rechargeable batteries that have 1.2v open cell voltage get that way through the specific chemistry of the battery, just as most lithium based cells have a higher voltage due to the chemistry. The 1.5v lithium cells (actually 1.8v) have a much different chemistry than the 3v button cells and isn't exclusively "lithium". Rechargeable cells have considerations that other cells do not such as a repeatedly reversible reaction and this dictates the chemistry used more so than in a single use battery.

As an aside this is a really good overview of the 1.5v lithium batteries and illustrates how the "best" is highly dependent on the operating conditions of the battery:

http://data.energizer.com/pdfs/lithiuml91l92_appman.pdf


Sorry for not getting the details correct. Must have been sales speak BITD, we were told that about rechargeables being 1.2v so they wouldn't overcharge to 1.9v or whatever and fry things.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Varta was our preferred brand in our store, good power and reasonable cost. Long time ago and never see them anywhere.
FYI, VARTA consumer battery division was sold to Rayovac in 2002, and soon to become part of Energizer.
 
At work, we use only Duracell Procell batteries in battery-powered gear. We do not use rechargeables for reliability and safety concerns. The Procells exceed Coppertops' performance and are available only in bulk. Privately, I use Procells and if I want rechargeables I use Sanyo Eneloop Black.
 
Value for buck=Harbor Freight -24 for $4.99 when they have their sales. I have yet to have one leak after several years of using them. No direct comparison but they seem to outlast the Costco batts I used to use and they don't quit in the cold.
 
Originally Posted by vavavroom
At work, we use only Duracell Procell batteries in battery-powered gear. We do not use rechargeables for reliability and safety concerns. The Procells exceed Coppertops' performance and are available only in bulk. Privately, I use Procells and if I want rechargeables I use Sanyo Eneloop Black.


+1

Same here, Procells good value and just work. I've used Rayovacs in the past when on sale at HD/Lowes and their performance was okay... though some AAA leaked.
 
Originally Posted by pkunk
Value for buck=Harbor Freight -24 for $4.99 when they have their sales. I have yet to have one leak after several years of using them. No direct comparison but they seem to outlast the Costco batts I used to use and they don't quit in the cold.


Maybe on a cost per cell basis... but not on how much energy they contain or last.
 
I don't use anything but Energizer Lithium. The outside thermometer transmitters stop working when cold weather sets in unless we use lithium batteries.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Batteries are not equal. In digital cameras by all means use lithium batteries. Yeah more expensive but last way longer and they're designed to hold the voltage up and die very quickly rather than the voltage steadily dropping . Dollar store batteries are junk. Rechargeables used to be designed to be 1.2 volts instead of 1.5 so they wouldn't overcharge and smoke your electronics. Don't know if that's still the case or not but they don't last long in things that need a minimum voltage to work. BITD I sold cameras and kept up on batteries, not so much now. The video confirmed what most know, you usually get what you pay for.


Cameras aren't necessarily a great comparison to general purpose uses.

Of course most digitals these days use Li-Ions. Back in the days of cameras designed for primary cells, you often didn't have a choice on chemistry with the exception of cameras designed to use AAs. Autofocus film SLRs often used CR123As, which are lithium primary cells(the Nikon F6, which is the only AF 35mm SLR still in production to my knowledge, uses these unless you have the optional battery grip). In cameras that use AAs, you have a lot of considerations that go into cell selection beyond just the cell life-often times pro-quality cameras can run a half frame per second or more faster using Ni-Cds or NiMHs due to the lower internal resistance. Lithiums work at lower temperatures than most other chemistries. The internal resistance thing is also big in flashes, as most rechargeable chemistry gives faster recycle times than alkaline primary cells. Of course, there's also the solution of just tossing more cells at it-my Nikon SB-800 came with a battery door that allows you to fit a 5th cell(normal is 4) to shorten recycle time, and I often run it with a Nikon-made external pack that holds 6 AA-sized cells-even using plain alkalines, with that external pack plus 4 or 5 cells in flash, it will recycle from a full dump in well under a second(normally 3-5 seconds with alkalines in the 4-cell configuration). Then, if you really want to go nuts on flash recycle time, there are always sealed lead acid options-I use a Metz 60 CT-4 with my Hasselbad that runs on a 3-cell sealed lead acid pack that is mounted in a shoulder pack. For more conventional shoe mount flashes, Quantum still does a decent business selling the nice little belt packs that have three Cyclone SLAs(about the size of a D cell battery) in them.

Then you get into older stuff where the battery chemistry is extremely important. A decent number of cameras were designed to use mercury cells with a stable 1.35V for the meter. Alkaline cells have too high of a voltage and too unstable of a discharge curve to reliably use in these applications-many folks will either recalibrate for silver oxide(1.55V and stable) or use a diode to drop silver cells down to 1.35V. I use zinc-air hearing aid batteries, which have the same stable 1.35V but don't last that long(they're cheap, though). For many other cameras that only need the battery to power the meter, or otherwise have minimal reliance on the battery, but aren't picky about voltage I tend to select chemistries that will last the longest(and are less likely to leak) since the batteries will probably die from age before they are discharged. That usually means silver where I need an LR44(the Nikon F2, F3, FM, and FE series) or lithium where I need a PX-28(the only Nikons of note here are the EL and EL2, although I've had plenty of other cameras that used them).
 
Most important thing i learned about batteries is that alkalines leak and will ruin all the cool gadgets that you put them into.

I never use them anymore.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top