Your thoughts on Battery quality (AAA & AA)

Is there an appreciable difference in manufacturers? What are the advantaged/disadvantages of Alkaline? I use a Garmin GPS60 which in the set-up has the choice of alkaline or not battery set up. which would give the longest life please?

Reply to
Broadback
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Why not try it yourself and find out as it came be difficult to guess when it depends on the amount of use something gets and how it's used. Even the durecell ads say that with the drumming bunnies.

Reply to
whisky-dave

It all depends how you use it, how often and peak current drawn.

I find NiCad powered kit is invariably flat whenever I need it and the same with early NiMH cells but the new low self discharge are OK.

Rechargeables invariably have lower energy density and somewhat higher self discharge rates than single use batteries.

Li-ion batteries are a lot better but may self immolate if provoked and are no good as replacements for normal AA/AAA batteries (wrong voltage).

Alkaline cells are good for higher currents and classic zinc carbon batteries are OK for non-critical loads at lower currents. Fine for clocks and the like. My desk phone LCD display will only work well if I use 2x zinc carbon AAA's and fades out in days on rechargeables :(

Duracell seems to be pretty good for heavy use (although that said I have had genuine ones leak on me) and there are convincing fakes about.

For anything non-critical I tend to use Wilko's or Poundshops worst if I don't have any charged NiMH available and need it immediately.

Reply to
Martin Brown

Duracell are careful to say in the small print they are comparing their cells to zinc carbon. Which you'd have to search to find these days.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

How long is a bit of string time then. I don't know the consumption of a modern sat nave etc, but do you actually need one if you have a modern smart phone? Alkaline seem to have good power density for quite high current drain and their end voltage does drop off a bit. Rechargeable, of the good kind not the cheap ones, seem to be almost as good as little self discharge occurs with the good kind. Obviously whether one is cost effective depends on whether you can find good offers on cheap Duuracells that are genuine. I don't think the other brands except Panasonic Alkaline are quite as good. I t now tend to use rechargeable myself for most things but I'd hate to be half way to somewhere with a sat nave and it needs new batteries. I'm surprised that in a car it cannot use the car electronics supply. End of problem. Of course if you are hiking across Dartmoor there are not many places to charge batteries there. I'd rule outall normal dry batteries as they are worse than useless for most things except electric clocks! Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

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These guys did a big comparison a few years ago. Looked like a fairly good methodology, although their "low drain" test used 200mA which seems quite high to me.

Reply to
Caecilius
O

Though rare, some carbon-zinc have the advantage of being totally non-magnetic. Important if you have a digital compass with an AAA cell.

Reply to
therustyone

That brings back memories of some current meters (sea currents) where the alkaline battery pack was an expensive item only available from the meter manufacturer.

Someone tried to save money by making packs up with normal cells, not realising that the special cells were non steel-cased so as not to affect the compass (rotating magnet with optical encoder disc).

Cheers

Reply to
Clive Arthur

Reply to
Tim Streater

Between the cheap chinese supplied with kit and "known brands" most certainly. Weight can be a bit of give away, cheap chinese weigh almost nothing.

Alkaline have a higher energy density than zinc carbon and most rechargables,

That probably switches the "low battery" indication between alkaline and rechargeable types. Alkaline and zinc/carbon are a nominal 1.5 V and rechargeables 1.2 V.

Guessing on the basis that a GPS is likely to be a moderate load and alkaline have the higher capacity, alkaline. But are single use...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

They may also have a longer life in very low drain apps like some clocks. Assuming you can find fresh ones, of course.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Last time I looked at that, Ikea's AA and AAA seemed to be the best value. They weren't the highest spec., although not far down, but were reated as the best value. Usually long-dated as well.

Reply to
PeterC

Eneloop Pro (2.8Ah(?)), low self-discharge and same size as alkalines (not all are - I had an Aldidl NiMH stuck in something. It went in but...).

Reply to
PeterC

On the back of that site I've always gone for the Kodak Extralife alkaline from Poundland. I only really use primary cells for torches but had good life and no leaks out of them.

Reply to
Scott M

Alkaline or rechargeable setup affects only the display of the battery capacity remaining, not the drain on the battery.

Keep the backlight off, or low, and not continually on, and the batteries will last longer.

IKEA AA are good value for money, and the Garmin also runs happily on rechargeable Eneloops.

Thomas Prufer

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

Yes, they're good as well and I buy them if I need some in a hurry (Ikea is a long way). Last time I got some, Kodak were £1 for 4 (or 6?) and Ikea were £1.50 for

10.
Reply to
PeterC

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