What battery charger do you use?

[CakeBoy]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

It's a smashing little charger, so good it does a round of the family every so often to do the refreshing,
It's been one of my best buys, would really recommend.

At that price, I'm tempted to get one. We have a couple of items that use six batteries and they only have 'one set' of rechargeables each (unlike the camera flash ). It would be nice to have the facility available to charge all six simultaneously rather than in two batches

[CakeBoy]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

An update on the Vapex Instant AAA 850mAh batteries. The first packet (we bought two) tested at 845, 847, 831 & 849mAh respectively. Not a bad result overall? Only one battery any distance under the advertised capacity. It will be interesting to see how long the retain the charge compared to Enerloop equivalents. Further update to follow when the other packet finishes the test

Update: And the second packet: 864, 813, 821 & 836mAh respectively. Not bad again, and one had the best capacity of all eight, though the other three were defiately below the average.

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

I've just spent the weekend testing 16 Vapex 2700 AA batteries. Eight had between 1886mAh and 2070 mAh (70 - 75% of claimed capacity), while one had 480 mAh and seven didn't even make 100 mAh!!. Admittedly they're a couple of years old but they've had very little use - some have probably only ever been in the charger, which happens to also be a Vapex. More results (from Vapex and other makes) to follow.

[CakeBoy]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

That is not good at all So it looks perhaps as though the lower capacity versions (AAA) are reasonably close to the stated capacity, though the AAs may not be so?

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

That is not good at all So it looks perhaps as though the lower capacity versions (AAA) are reasonably close to the stated capacity, though the AAs may not be so?

It looks that way - but I have a lot more to work through yet, including AAAs. But I can tell you now that I know my 550 Zennox AAAs last a lot longer than my 800 Vapex AAAs. Watch this space

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

It looks that way - but I have a lot more to work through yet, including AAAs. But I can tell you now that I know my 550 Zennox AAAs last a lot longer than my 800 Vapex AAAs. Watch this space

That's 550 mAh and 800 mAh - I don't have that many batteries

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

I have tested lots of batteries now (still a few more to do) with the following results:

Make Size Claimed Capacity Actual Capacity

Vapex AA 2700 1886, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2070, 1988, 1959, 2020 plus another
eight binned for seriously poor results.

Vapex AA 2600 2050, 1824, 2040

Zennox AA 2000 1854, 1767, 1878, 1810

Vapex AAA 800 639, 639, 625, 611

Zennox AAA 550 602, 617, 616, 544

Duracell AAA 1000 1030, 1015, 1001, 1032

What I've also learned (apart from the fact I obviously have far too many batteries) from both the fact the Zennox AAAs last far longer than the Vapex AAAs despite having less actual capacity, and the fact that all the Vapex took much longer to charge, is that the Vapex (AA and AAA) do not hold their charge - either in storage or between uses - though I am unable to quantify this.

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

I have tested lots of batteries now (still a few more to do) with the following results:

Make Size Claimed Capacity Actual Capacity

Vapex AA 2700 1886, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2070, 1988, 1959, 2020 plus another
eight binned for seriously poor results.

Vapex AA 2600 2050, 1824, 2040

Zennox AA 2000 1854, 1767, 1878, 1810

Vapex AAA 800 639, 639, 625, 611

Zennox AAA 550 602, 617, 616, 544

Duracell AAA 1000 1030, 1015, 1001, 1032

What I've also learned (apart from the fact I obviously have far too many batteries) from both the fact the Zennox AAAs last far longer than the Vapex AAAs despite having less actual capacity, and the fact that all the Vapex took much longer to charge, is that the Vapex (AA and AAA) do not hold their charge - either in storage or between uses - though I am unable to quantify this.

I had this all formatted with headings before I posted it! The first figure after the size (AA or AAA) is the claimed capacity - the following figures are the actuals). My apologies.

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

I've done the final batch now - 16 Vapex 2900 batteries about a year old but never used except for charging up. Results:

2480, 2470, 2550, 2570, 2580, 2570, 2640, 2590, 2690, 2490, 2520, 2530, 2550, 2400, 2480, 2520

Slightly better percentage wise than the other Vapex but still not good. In fact the only make that reached it's claimed capacity (and in fact exceeded it) was Duracell.

I also this week bought some Uniross LSD 2100 mAh batteries and have tested four of them:

1858, 1917, 2000, 1903

I think I'll be checking out the prices of Duracell in future

[Jim Ford]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

None of the NiMh cells I've tested have been their rated capacity. I wonder how accurate the numbers shown by the chargers are - there's no way of telling.

Jim

[meach]

Re: What battery charger do you use?

None of the NiMh cells I've tested have been their rated capacity. I wonder how accurate the numbers shown by the chargers are - there's no way of telling.

Jim

That's true - but I think they'll at least be consistent so even if the capacity they show is wrong we can still compare different brands against each other. For example all my Duracell AAAs were at or slightly over their claimed capacity - a much higher percentage than the other two brands