Batteries

[Dottie]

In poundland today to pick up some AA batteries and they had all the major advertised batteries as well as some less known. How can you tell from the pack, which will last longer than the other, other than the advertising saying it lasts longer. I'm on about like for like batteries, which all said 1.5V. So all same strenghth, but how do we know it's the best, rather than being brain washed by adverts? I did ask instore and several customers, but no one knew why. Not good enough for me, so I decided to not buy until I'd done a bit of research and thought there was likely to be some folk on here who would know the facts.

[Florence Fennel]

I usually buy Duracell, so I can't compare Dottie, sorry!

[Dottie]

Yep I've bought those in the past too and they were in the poundshop, but I suddenly wanted to know why rather than just brand buying because one advert is better than the next. Cooking a batch of homemade pizza at the mo, but looks like I might need to go online. Not keen, as likely to be too much info and I just want basic facts for me to select via the spec on back of packs.

[Hilary B]

We mostly buy rechargeables these day, big advantage (well apart from rechargeability) is they say how many amp hours the batteries hold (usually milliamp hours, varies from 1200 to 2500 or so). Duracell and Eveready are long lasting, but most Alkaline types are pretty good. We use a lot of AA and AAA batteries, and most of the 'never heard of that' ones are not very good.

[Florence Fennel]

I think you can get some batteries that indicate how much life they have left in them Dottie, that would be useful. Good luck in your search.

[Two_Sheds]

We always use rechargeables, I get them on eBay from Hong Kong and they're fab. We have AAs in all the remote controls, digital radio, clocks etc. They come in different colours so we can easily see which go with which - and I keep a stash charged and ready to go

I use a lot of AAAs in my bike lights and they are rechargeys too

[grannymem]

Are rechargeable 'greener' than non-rechargeable?
And do they all come from the Far East (air miles!) or are some manufactured closer to home?
Maybe I need tostart using rechargeable...

[Two_Sheds]

Are rechargeable 'greener' than non-rechargeable?
And do they all come from the Far East .

Of course they are, they can be charged up to 1000 times ... that means one set instead of 1000 sets of batts. We haven't bought normal batts for oh, about 5 years

As far as I know, all batteries (indeed, all goods) are produced in East Asia

[grannymem]

Of course they are, they can be charged up to 1000 times ... that means one set instead of 1000 sets of batts.

OOPs, I feel slapped wrists for that question, sorry!!

[Flummery]

I use rechargies too - except that my charger doesn't do AAA which I recently bought (in the pound shop!) for my new head torch - for chicken keeping purposes. Discovered how hard it is to put a chicken in the house with a torch in one hand! Might need to get another charger!

[danmon_81]

some of the best you can get are called Eneloops..... I bought some from amazon (7dayshop) for buttons (2900mah) really good for holding charge and lasting ages!(Ni-Mh)...i use a lot of batteries for my flash and was sick of buying duracell

[Dottie]

Of course they are, they can be charged up to 1000 times ... that means one set instead of 1000 sets of batts. We haven't bought normal batts for oh, about 5 years

Able to recharge a 1000 times, that is impressive and I had no idea they lasted so long. Poundland did have rechargeable batteries too, the helpful woman on the till pointed them out and also said that at the moment they had USB rechargeable units, that you plug into your laptop. The USB units could charge 2 batteries at a time, but would the laptop still be able to run as normal, while it's recharging the batteries? Mind you, it would be best to recharge at cheap rate E7, so would thee laptop need to be left on all night or could the USB unit still charge with the laptop switched off?

A quick look last night on the web showed that I'm not the only person asking such questions, but folk have had to set up home tests for results, rather than an easy answer popping up.

However it seems that Energizer and duracell come out tops.

[Dottie]

I use rechargies too - except that my charger doesn't do AAA which I recently bought (in the pound shop!) Might need to get another charger!

Is it the poundland USB charger? The one I saw recharged 2 AA batteries at a time.

[scarey55]

some of the best you can get are called Eneloops..... I bought some from amazon (7dayshop) for buttons (2900mah) really good for holding charge and lasting ages!(Ni-Mh)...i use a lot of batteries for my flash and was sick of buying duracell

Thank you for this Danmon I am frequently frustrated with rechargeable batteries especially in my camera. They lose their charge so quickly that when I go to use the camera, I have to re charge the batteries every time I can get them here on Amazon France fairly cheaply so, I think I'm going to order some. Thank you again, I had never heard of them before.

[Dottie]

Thank you for this Danmon I am frequently frustrated with rechargeable batteries especially in my camera. They lose their charge so quickly that when I go to use the camera, I have to re charge the batteries every time I can get them here on Amazon France fairly cheaply so, I think I'm going to order some. Thank you again, I had never heard of them before.

So now I need to also consider how long a rechargeable battery holds it's charge!