Which type of rechargable battery is the best?

[coolred]

My 3 month old son has a bunch of things that go through batteries like crazy, and I can only see it getting worse as he gets older. So I was thinking of going with rechargable batteries. I noticed there are 3 or more differant kinds. The ones I see the most are akaline, NIMH, and NiCD. I was wondering which were the best, meaning most amount of recharges, getting a full charge every time, stuff like that. From what I understand the NiCD and the NIMH are generally the longest lasting, but I just want to make sure before I buy

 

[poppasp1ce]

NiMH gives you the most capacity without the 'memory effect' of NiCD bats. Meaning, if you recharge a NiCD bat before it has fully discharged then its charge life with be reduced to the point in which you started charging it to it's initial full capacity. NiHM will give you approximately 1000 recharges. I believe Lithium Ion is the best, although I am not sure if they make rechargables of LiON yet, anyone?

 

[JasonG]

NiMH are the best for rechargables! Li-Ion are very good but they are not available in standard battery form (at least as rechargables).

Get a good rapid charger and some high capacity NiMH batteries and never have to worry about buying batteries for a long time!

Thomas Distributing

This site has alot of information and a very good selection of batteries.

Jason

 

[S0me1X]

NiMH batteries are best, but rechargable alkalines are cheaper, decent alternatives for portable cd players.

 

[coolred]

Thanks for the link, I will give it look. LIke I said, these will mostly be used for my kids toys and stuff, and I guess anything else around the house, maybe remotes and what not. I found a NiMH and NiCD recharger at radio shack. It can charge AA, AAA, C, D and 9V, which is good. It says it has a discharge button for the NiCD so that you don't get the memory effect, but since it works for both NiCD and NiMH then I can just use the NiMH if you say those are better. I think it said it could charge AA in under an hour and a half, but it was labeled as a 4 hour charger, but I am not to worried about the time it takes to charge. It was selling for 27.99 is this a decent charger?

 

[poppasp1ce]

I bought a NiMH/NiCD charger at Radioshack. It charges 4 AA or AAA. It's really small, the whole unit plugs into the wall and hangs there. It was 20$ and came with 4 AA NiMH bats. I'm still using the charger to this day, although I have replaced the RadioShack bats with Energizer ACCU NiMH.

 

[MWink]

I have had a lot of experience with rechargeable batteries and I am NOT convinced that NIMH is always better than NICD. In general NIMH batteries have a much greater capacity (usually 2X that of a NICD) but their total life span does not seem to be anywhere near as long. I have some 10+ year old NICD batteries that still take a charge while I have found some NIMH batteries that can't be 5 years old that hold absolutely no charge whatsoever. Also, NICD batteries do not weigh as much as NIMH, which may be important for some portable devices.

I currently have This battery charger and I think it is pretty good. I do have one complaint about it. When charging some AA batteries (not AAA, not C, not D, just AA) they get extremely hot. Not just warm but in one case so hot the label became discolored. :Q

OnlyBatteries.com seems to have a very good selection of batteries. You may want to check them out. I don't know how good they are as I have yet to buy from them. Hope this helps.

 

[pm]

There are differences in NiMH batteries. The capacity of the battery is listed as mAh. The higher the number, the longer the battery will last between charges.
I would recommend any AA battery with a capactiry above 1400mAh. Depending on the application, it may be worth a little bit more money to get a more costly AA battery with a higher capacity.

 

[Damage]

Not to sound like an advertisment, but you should check hobby shops like Tower or Hobby shack for batteries. They usually have a quarantee, and they always list the mAh on the betteries. That said, most RC Glider folk run NiMH because they last longer and are more stable. (We hate crashing a $3000 carbon fiber plane because of control failure...) You can get Li-Ion batteries, but you will pay more for them.

 

[igowerf]

<< I bought a NiMH/NiCD charger at Radioshack. It charges 4 AA or AAA. It's really small, the whole unit plugs into the wall and hangs there. It was 20$ and came with 4 AA NiMH bats. I'm still using the charger to this day, although I have replaced the RadioShack bats with Energizer ACCU NiMH. >>



I got this one too. So far I like it a lot.

 

[Yzzim]

<<

<< I bought a NiMH/NiCD charger at Radioshack. It charges 4 AA or AAA. It's really small, the whole unit plugs into the wall and hangs there. It was 20$ and came with 4 AA NiMH bats. I'm still using the charger to this day, although I have replaced the RadioShack bats with Energizer ACCU NiMH. >>



I got this one too. So far I like it a lot. >>


I got it as well. Mine only came with 2 batteries though....I had to buy another 2 for my digicam.

 

[Mark R]

Li-ion is an excellent battery technology, but can never be used as a direct 'dop-in' replacement for non-rechargeable batteries. It features exceptional capacity and low weight (ounce for ounce, a Li-ion battery stores as much energy as dynamite), but its voltage is completely incompatible with standard batteries - Li-ion batteries are also extremely delicate electrically (overcharging or excessively deep discharge will destroy them promptly) meaning that they microprocessor controlled chargers (sometimes with the microprocessor embedded in the battery) are virtually required.

NiMH offers much more capacity than NiCd but does have a few drawbacks: the batteries are more easily damaged by incorrect charging, they are more expensive, are more fragile (dropping a NiMH from 3-4 feet onto a hard surface may well destroy it), and are not as good at supplying very heavy loads (e.g. radio controlled cars). Beware, however, getting very high capacity batteries - there are compromises - most notably in overcharge tolerance and physical stability - 1600 mAh batteries are less tolerant to overcharging and more susceptible to physical shock than say 1300 mAh because in order to obtain a higher surface area of the active surfaces, the structure must be finer.

NiCd does have the 'memory' effect, but much of this problem is caused by overcharging with cheap chargers, rather than charging the battery before it has discharged.

Overall, where a rechargeable battery is appropriate, NiMH is likely to be the best choice.

Charging has a huge amount to do with the lifespan of the batteries. If you only ever charge at the 16 hour rate, and ensure that the batteries are never 'overdischarged' then both NiCd and NiMH should easily achieve 1000 charges - NiCd could probably manage 2000 without significant problems. Fast charging with cheap chargers will wreck batteries very quickly - most have no overcharge protection - they just deliver current at the 3 hour charge rate, and have a timer which cuts off the charge after 3 hours. If the battery is not fully discharged, then it will be damaged and its capacity will decline. Even many 'intelligent' chargers only offer overheat protection - they cut off the charge if the battery is overheating (a sign of damage in progress) - but don't actually meaure charge in and out, or battery voltage (which are essential for ensuring safe and reliable fast charging).