Best rechargable batteries

Hi Steven, could you tell me what would be the best brand of rechargeable household batteries would be? Also the charger to go with them. I am looking at buying AA batteries and would like to get rechargeable. Thanks!

I'm not Steven Harris, but eneloop AA's are widely considered the best.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEWEST-VERSION-Eneloop-AA-NiMH-2000mAh-Batteries-MIN-1900-8-Pack-/400472328112?pt=US_Rechargeable_Batteries&hash=item5d3e02c7b0

That's just the first ebay listing that came up. I have no experience with that seller.




The LaCross charger gets very favorable reviews, and it's the one I have used for several years:

http://battery-charger-review.toptenreviews.com/alpha-power-battery-charger-review.html


The eneloops are better for two reasons:

1. Very low self discharge rate. These retain 70% of their charge after 5 years, not 2-4 months like normal rechargeables.

2. You will get the advertised number of charge/discharge cycles in real life. In the past you were lucky to get 150-200 charges out of the normal brands. With eneloops you can expect 1500-2000 charge cycles with a decent charger.

I've heard Steven mention in many podcasts with Jack Spirko that the Sanyo NiMH eneloop batteries are the best to use. He knows the details about their ampere hours and all that good stuff.

the lacros charger is for geeks, its way to complicated for someone who just wants to drop in a battery and charge it and know when its done. I have a great 8 bay AA charger from powerex on Solar1234.com as well as the famous sanyo enloope batteries, which, are now owned by panasonic and are now 4th generation NiMH batteries with up to 2100 charges where as the 3rd gen sanyo's were only 1500, which is still about 1000 more charges than most AA nimh batteries that will only do 500 charges (2nd generation batteries).

http://www.Solar1234.com and listen to my class on How To Power Your House from Your Car because I cover AA batteries in there in detail, because with your car and the chargers I suggest you basically have an unlimited amount of AA batteries in a disaster. AAA batteries as well.

Here is the link to the charger
http://tinyurl.com/q9vx592

Here is the link to the panasonic AA Eneloop batteries.
http://tinyurl.com/n8x4d5l

stay away from the eneloop charger, stay away from t he eneloop XX black batteries.

Steve

p.s. The lacross charger mentioned
http://tinyurl.com/qxluula is for extreme geeks only. You have to read the manual to use it for one, second, it will do very fancy stuff like if you put in 4 batteries, it will charge them ALL the way up, then drain them all the way down, then charge them all the way back up and tell you exactly what the maH of each batteries. Truly this is one of the few ways to really tell if you have a problem with a battery or not. This is not widely discussed, because many don't know it, but dropping NiMH batteries onto a hard surface can damage them and rupture the case, and then you have a non-performing battery. So don't drop your NiMH batteries.

Steven,
This is news to me, to stay away from the eneloop charger! I bought several of the Costco packs with AA and AAA and the charger. I have only had to use the charger once, but your saying not to? Can you explain why? Is it just a dummy charger that can end up decreasing the life of the eneloop batteries?

it takes 8 hour or more to charge the batteries, the charger I have up there takes 2 hours to charge 8 batteries, there is even a 1 hour version of the same charger (see www.Solar1234.com) but I think 2 hours for 8 batteries is good enough. 8 hours for 4 batteries is way to long... plus it does not tell you the state of charge of the batteries and you have to charge them in pairs, its just a dumb cheap battery charger.

Steve

Definitely agree - eneloop batteries are awesome (I've been using them for years) but the charger is crap. It will charge your batteries but as Steve says it takes 8 hours, and the lack of indication whether they are charged or not sucks.
That said, if you're hesitant to spend much money you can just grab the eneloop battery & charger package quite cheap and still get by, just a bit painful.

Thanks Steven!