[ILUG] Re: Batteries: Was [Q] broken mouse work-arounds / replacements

[Michael Watterson]

Josh Glover wrote:
> 2009/5/30 Michael Watterson <watty at eircom.net>:
>
>   
>> The four pack of Aldi AA NiMH batteries is under  4.70 Eur and work very
>> well. The Eneloop are about 10 Eur on Amazon and certainly you can pay more
>> than that in the High Street for dubious  batteries.
>>     
>
> Given all of this, would you think that the Eneloop AAs are twice as
> good as the Aldi ones? I'm suspecting not, but as I've never used the
> Aldis, and (I assume--correct me if I'm wrong) you've never used the
> Eneloops, it is hard for us to compare experiences.
>   
Unlikely. It depends how you define "twice". Number of charge cycles * 
mAH capacity? Capacity per charge? Self Discharge at 13 deg, 20 deg and 
25 deg. (probably exponential curve)? In some applications you would pay 
more than x2 to have 50% "better", i.e. CPU clock speed :-)
If you use the camera for only a few shots every 3 -6 months,  then 
Alkaline may be best.
If you use the camera more than fortnightly, then the Aldi batteries may 
be fine.
If you use the camera heavily but erratically, maybe the Eneloop might 
be better.
Hot weather won't help.
> All I can say is that the Eneloops seem to hold a charge for well over
> a month, and most of a charge for at least three months, based on my
> experiences loading my digital camera with them.
Some sets I got from Maplin (Own brand maybe, not Uniross) self 
discharged in only a week or so. The Aldi ones seem pretty good after a 
month or two. It would be interesting to compare. Of course a single set 
is not representative. You would need to test hundreds of each, possibly 
for different batches.
>   
>   
> You seem to know more about battery technology than most, and
> certainly more than I, so I'm trusting your recommendation here.
>
>   
No warranty  sorry, I don't make them.  You pay your money and hope you 
don't get duds. Even good makers produce some duds.

-- 
Mike