Sanyo eneloop rechargeable batteries

Has anyone used these? Or otherwise have an opinion?

They're great. Highly recommended. They're the only brand I use now. I have three sets of four I cycle in two Nikon speed lights and then another 8 I use for miscellaneous devices.

Is there some technical difference between them and other NiMH batteries, or are they just "better" somehow?

They're low self discharge NiMHs but as for differences between Eneloops and other LSD NiMHs I have no idea. I've got a couple packs of them here and they work fine.

Very pleased with Eneloops. Perhaps the most underrated feature is the fact that you have AAAs, AAs, and that's it -- Cs and Ds are just adaptors for the AAs. So, no worrying about having the right balance of Cs and Ds available -- just load up on AAs and keep enough AAAs around.

Totally worth the price.

Any reason you can't put other brands of AA batteries in the adapters?

Also, what do you have that still takes C and D batteries that doesn't consume so much power as to make rechargeables useless?

The difference is, they hold their charge for a very long time (a year or longer), as opposed to the month or so that ordinary NiMH batteries offer.

As already pointed out, other brands of LSD batteries are fine, too. I have some "eNiTIME" ones from dealextreme that work very well.

Cheers

Does that imply that some of the reason that "normal" NiMH batteries don't last a long time in use is because they're leaking their charge, not because they've been legitimately drained?

That is, is it possible (or known, I suppose) that these batteries last longer in constant low-power use than non-LSD NiMH batteries with the same Ah rating?

Yes, they should, since with traditional NiMH you'll have self discharge on top of the power consumed by the device itself. Especially if the device takes a month or longer to drain the batteries. The use cases I have experience with myself, primarily involve extremely low power consumption when the devices are not being used. Then some with no power consumption when not being used (because they can be turned off):

Remote controls
Electronic motorized deadbolt lock
Electronic lock mechanism on a safe
Radios
Flashlights (can be turned off completely)
Wireless keyboards and mice (can be turned off completely)

As to why Sanyo are better? They've historically been top-level manufacturers of quality rechargeable cells and the Eneloops seem to be no different in that respect. Back in the 80's and early 90's people I knew into serious competitive radio control cars swore by Sanyo NiCads.

I've had other brand NiMH go bad after only a few charge cycles. Many manufacturers also over-claim their battery capacities. I won't buy anything but Sanyo or Maha anymore.

This is exactly why we stopped putting normal NiMH in things like video projector remotes in conference rooms. They discharge too quickly under no-load use -- and we were always getting calls that the remotes/projectors didn't work. We've switched to eneloops at work and that is all I use now for almost anything I have. Great life through vacations in a 4-AA Canon camera and 2-AA Garmin eTrex.

I claim complete ignorance in regards to rechargeable batteries. I haven't tried them for years, since the last ones I got never seemed to charge right and would deplete twice as fast as regular alkalines.

Could someone explain why these are better/worse than the Energizer/Duracell alternatives? My friend has the Energizer, I believe, and can charge them in 15 minutes. He's getting into amateur/pro photography, and he swears by the Energizers for his remote flashes, mostly because he can charge them so quickly on the way out the door.

I don't buy Energizer and Duracell alkaline batteries, so I won't try their NiMH either. They're both in the business of selling disposable products and massively misrepresenting them, so I doubt their claims of quality and longevity of their rechargeable tech is much different in that respect.

Sanyo are pioneers in rechargeable battery technology and currently still the world's number one producer. I've also been using Maha cells since around 2000 when NiMH AA were first becoming popular. I currently still use a Maha charger with my Eneloops and plan to buy a newer model with capacity to handle 8 cells at once. Great chargers - which have been able to rescue (recondition) a few inferior cells that wouldn't do anything with other chargers.

I prefer Eneloops for my speed lights because I know that even if I haven't used them in a few months, I can simply pick them up and start firing. The batteries lose only a minimal amount of charge. Regular NiMH cells would be almost dead by comparison. Especially important to have slow discharge on your backup sets. Unless of course you want to keep topping up your cells weekly - I'm not that diligent.

How long for a full charge from dead?

*edit*
And have you noticed any decrease in the amount of time the batteries can charge a device versus regular batteries? Approximately how much?

Years and years. Versus anywhere from a day to a few weeks.

And less toxic waste for the planet.

Mark was talking about the charging longevity of the batteries of course. It takes much less than years to actually charge them.

For standard NiMH cells, charging rate depends entirely on the charger and the total time depends on how depleted the "dead" battery actually is. If the charger does any type of conditioning it might add some time.

My charger takes up to a few hours (3 or 4) to charge a nearly empty cell to full capacity. I do mean full. Some other charger may not get as much energy into the batteries. The newer Maha chargers can do it in an hour for a normal charge or two hours for a soft charge. Super fast (high current) charging decreases the life of the battery as far as I know.

Would I trust the Energizer 15 minute charger with my cells? No. Rayovac, the first guys to offer a 15 minute charger I believe, had special batteries for use with that charging rate.

But that's the thing, Energizer does too.

I don't necessarily mind a charge time of a few hours, as long as I keep some extras on hand.

Oh, interesting. I'd read that Energizer's charger was for use with standard NiMH cells.

IME/IMO, one would do best (in terms of cell condition and longevity) with Maha chargers. For standard NiMH cells, their PowerEx brand are really good and deliver real-world capacity to match their rated spec. For slow-self discharge (which I pretty much use universally now), I recommend Sanyo (readily available at Costco if you have one in your area) and I've also heard good things about Maha's brand, Imedion.

The new Maha 8-cell charger can even handle C and D cells if you want to buy any of those now or in the future - they take a bit longer to charge, as they have much higher capacity than AA cells. If you have kids, you know that D cells are still in fairly wide use. C cells not so much I suppose. A AA in an adapter also works, but won't last anywhere as long as a real D.

I haven't tried putting other brands in the adapters.

My Roomba lighthouse takes two C batteries. I haven't tried the D adapters yet.

Aha! I was trying to remember what I had that took C's.


Um...not so much. Perhaps they have them in your stores, but unfortunately not in mine. I should have called in advance, but I drove out instead and they do not sell them in the store. The lady at the info desk said that they'd actually been deleted from the system, indicating that they once sold them in the store, but no longer do.

They sell them on their website, though. But there's zero price advantage to getting them from Costco. If anything, they cost a few cents more than Amazon. Amazon sells a AAA 4-pack for something like $9.95, whereas Costco sells a AAA 12-pack for $29.99. I'm frequently disappointed by Costco price comparisons. The only advantage in this case was that I could have gotten them immediately. But at least they're eligible for Prime, so I'll get them in a few days.

Looks like I'll be adding them to the shopping list.
Thanks all.

Oops, sorry about that. I hope you didn't drive there specifically for the batteries.

The last time I purchased some here, it was around $16 for 6 AA and 2 AAA I believe. That was, at the time, the cheapest I've ever seen around here. Amazon Canada doesn't have them and ordering from Amazon US is only convenient when I'm planning a trip to my US mailbox and shipping is combined with something else - or free. I'll definitely try and remember for the next time I go down however, since I think I should grab a few more.

Yeah, I went for them, but sadly I can usually find something I need at Costco. This time it was work out shorts and t-shirts.

I'm perfectly happy with that Amazon price. I'll probably go ahead and get some. The only problem will be that I have to burn through my alkalines first, and I have a Costco pack of those! That's okay, though, because my Tivo Series 3 glow-remote goes through batteries like crazy.

Side note: could someone explain something for me? For a couple years, I'd go through the batteries in my Tivo remote fairly regularly. I'd say that every 2-3 months I'd notice performance on the remote decreasing substantially, so I'd replace the [four!] AAA batteries inside. Well, eventually I ordered a battery tester from Amazon. The next time I took the batteries out of the Tivo remote I tested all of them and was shocked: three of the batteries were at nearly full capacity, and only one of them was completely dead.

Is this normal? It just seems weird to me. And it's been the case every single time since then. The interval has remained the same, but thankfully now I know I only have to replace one battery each time, essentially quadrupling the life of batteries in that remote.

I turned off the glow on mine. Makes the batteries last way longer.

Dignan, you may have just discovered the secret battery conspiracy.

I've seen that from time to time as well, but I've almost totally switched to rechargeables, so it doesn't really make a lot of difference.

How do you do that ?

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/276

That's probably a good idea. I really don't need that as the Tivo remote is so well designed I know where every button is by feel. I suppose I leave it on for other people to use.

Oh, and it looks neat

Yeah, I quickly realized the only time I ever remotely (NPI) needed it was to orient myself on the remote immediately after I picked it up, and it won't light up until you start pressing buttons, so it was useless for that purpose.

True, orientation has always been the one difficult thing about Tivo remotes. However, I felt that the glow remotes specifically had this problem the least, as I know that when I'm holding the remote correctly, the back of it (over the battery compartment) has those ridges that are pretty easy to feel immediately. With the other Tivo remotes I've just felt for the concave part of the back and I knew that was the sensor end.

Regardless, you're correct that the glow is what most sucks the batteries. However, try testing them the next time you swap them out like I did, and you might not have to replace as many as you thought

Thanks !

I only use the Glo in the bedroom where it is dark so the light is on all the time and I don't need it. Maybe the rechargeable battery for the RF remote extender will last longer.

Some good info on Eneloops on this thread on Candlepower flashlight forums, also other threads on that site have a lot of rechargeable battery and charger info.

It appears as if Eneloop AAs will run at a 10A discharge for nearly 10 minutes if I am reading the data correctly in the thread linked above, not bad, not bad at all!

I recently bought a Maha C9000 charger and some AA Imedions, also some AA Eneloops, it is too early to say which batteries are better but both types charge close to their rated capacity and both have a good reputation.

IME the ratings on non-LSD NiMH cells are somewhat exaggerated compared to their actual capacities.

Engadget test of Eneloop (they liked them).

Though to be fair, they liked all of them, and ended up with nearly identical results and prices for the three brands tested

I like the charging status for those Energizers, but I'll probably end up with the Sanyo type anyway. Oddly enough, even though they'll spend all their time inside my devices, I like the look of the Eneloops the best.

The Engadget "review" doesn't really provide any facts and they didn't run exhaustive tests on any of the batteries.

I do like the PowerGenix NiZn from the perspective of the higher voltage. Should work better in some finicky devices that monitor the voltage and turn off when it low enough. NiMH are 1.2v and I can tell you they don't work well in my old Garmin eTrex for instance.