Thread: Battery brands and life expectancy.

I buy packs of Varta from the red and green shop starting with B. My lastest car battery is also a Varta.

Yep for 90% of things I use the blue and yellow Vartas from Bunnings, they're cheap as chips and are comparable with Duracell and Energiser. For stuff that blows through juice quicker I use Eneloop rechargeables and have been very happy with them.

I use Eneloop AA batteries in my Camera's flash unit, very impressed with them. Check the Eveready batteries, there is a fair chance they have a 'leak proof guarantee' or some such wording. Could be worth following up with the retailer you bought the batteries from, or making direct enquiries with Eveready.
You were lucky there was no corrosion on the radio's terminals.

Alan...

Get the rechargeable batteries from Aldi, 5 bux for 4. Rechargeables don't leak because they are dry inside.

Eveready "Heavy Duty" are old fashioned acid batteries; best used as soon as they're bought until they run out of juice. Duracell, Energiser and Varta blue & gold are alkali batteries; these don't have the "oomph" of an acid battery but will last much longer and take a couple of years to deteriorate to the point where they leak. The new lithium batteries have an amazingly long life; the ones in my smoke alarms have a guaranteed life of 10 years!

Rechargeables have two problems; first they're only 1.2V not 1.5 like a traditional battery and they self discharge. The voltage drop is only really apparent in things with motors or lights; it won't affect a radio. However; if you keep a set of rechargeables for emergency stock you'll find that when the lights have gone out Sod's Law dictates that they will be flat. So unless you are really anal about regularly refreshing the charge in them I wouldn't bother.

My personal opinion would be to purchase a set of Energiser Ultimate (lithium) specifically for the radio. They will last for years.

My AEG 18V cordless drill kit came with a radio; and with 14Ah worth of batteries kicking around I fear no blackouts

Originally Posted by justonething

Get the rechargeable batteries from Aldi, 5 bux for 4. Rechargeables don't leak because they are dry inside.

I did a bit of Googling on this and several articles say they are gel filled???

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Eveready "Heavy Duty" are old fashioned acid batteries; best used as soon as they're bought until they run out of juice. Duracell, Energiser and Varta blue & gold are alkali batteries; these don't have the "oomph" of an acid battery but will last much longer and take a couple of years to deteriorate to the point where they leak. The new lithium batteries have an amazingly long life; the ones in my smoke alarms have a guaranteed life of 10 years!

Rechargeables have two problems; first they're only 1.2V not 1.5 like a traditional battery and they self discharge. The voltage drop is only really apparent in things with motors or lights; it won't affect a radio. However; if you keep a set of rechargeables for emergency stock you'll find that when the lights have gone out Sod's Law dictates that they will be flat. So unless you are really anal about regularly refreshing the charge in them I wouldn't bother.

My personal opinion would be to purchase a set of Energiser Ultimate (lithium) specifically for the radio. They will last for years.

My AEG 18V cordless drill kit came with a radio; and with 14Ah worth of batteries kicking around I fear no blackouts

thanks for all of this Chief, i will go shopping,
Rgds,
Crocy.

As far as I know Nickel metal hydrides are dry cells see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cell
Also the Aldi's brand of rechargeables are known as Low self discharge (LSD) batteries and they will keep their charge on the shelf for over 12 months.
The 1.5V vs 1.2V comparsion is a bit of deception because they are comparing voltages without load. The useful comparsion is when batteries are under load, NiMh performs very well under load as the voltage curve basically stays flat under wide range of load or current while alkalines drop right down quite readily and thats whey almost nobody uses Alkaline batteries for a flash in a camera.
Cost wise the throw away Lithium is the dearest and Aldi NiMh has to be the cheapest.
The following links should give you some more information:

• https://stephenstuff.wordpress.com/2...eloop-killers/
• Aldi 'Activ Energy' LSD batteries. There are a lot of discussions about batteries in this forum.

Just re-reading your post. When it's on AC, you shouldn't put batteries in there as well. For some of the radios, they don't have a switch over circuit so the AC is slowly cooking your batteries. Use either one or the other but not both.

I also vote for rechageables, buying cheap batteries and throwing soon to be precious resources away is pretty crazy.

If you can find Sanyo Eneloop batteries kicking around as old stock they are great, the new Panasonic ones aren't as good. I have always found Sanyo AA cells to be super reliable and seem to last longer than cheapies with the same rating.

I just buy Aldi ones now as the price is so good and the quality seems fine, I managed to pick up a charger on clearance a few weeks ago for just $8. It is awesome as it cycles batteries and charges cells individually, most cheapies charge in pairs and I have loads of things with three batteries.

You worried about your pace maker battery Old Croc

Originally Posted by justonething

Get the rechargeable batteries from Aldi, 5 bux for 4. Rechargeables don't leak because they are dry inside.

I had a Nicad rechargeable pack leak in my plane radio control transmitter. Ate the terminals. Nasty green mess.
It was the original pack that came with the transmitter which sat for 3 months unused and unfortunately I didn't remove the battery lack.

Originally Posted by justonething

Just re-reading your post. When it's on AC, you shouldn't put batteries in there as well. For some of the radios, they don't have a switch over circuit so the AC is slowly cooking your batteries. Use either one or the other but not both.

As usual, cant find the manual, but it wont work without the batteries.

Originally Posted by Ubernoob

I also vote for rechageables, buying cheap batteries and throwing soon to be precious resources away is pretty crazy.

If you can find Sanyo Eneloop batteries kicking around as old stock they are great, the new Panasonic ones aren't as good. I have always found Sanyo AA cells to be super reliable and seem to last longer than cheapies with the same rating.

I just buy Aldi ones now as the price is so good and the quality seems fine, I managed to pick up a charger on clearance a few weeks ago for just $8. It is awesome as it cycles batteries and charges cells individually, most cheapies charge in pairs and I have loads of things with three batteries.

I priced rechargables and Lithium batteries, both about $40, so I will have to wait till I am in Brissie soon and find an Aldi store. They wont open up stoires here in the north.

Originally Posted by Lappa

I had a Nicad rechargeable pack leak in my plane radio control transmitter. Ate the terminals. Nasty green mess.
It was the original pack that came with the transmitter which sat for 3 months unused and unfortunately I didn't remove the battery lack.

That has happened to me thats why I started the thread. But in hindsight they were Nicad, so maybe NiMh dont leak.
Thanks everyone for your help.
Rgds,
Crocy.

Ni-Mh do leak something if you leave them flat for long enough, it doesn't seem to be contagious like the stuff from an Alkaline battery though, that stuff is pretty evil. I got car battery acid on my a couple of weeks ago, that makes all the little cable tie cuts and spanner slip wounds come to life, hahaha!

R0248669.jpg

Eveready "Black", and "Red", are old fashioned carbon zinc dry cells, with manganese dioxide electrolyte as a gel.
They are relatively poor performers compared with other modern cells.
I am amazed these types are still on the market, but it must come down to the production dollar.
All cells can leak when past end of life, and particularly with other factors such as age, heat, inadvertent trickle charge, and small manufacturing defects.

As someone else has pointed out, it is best to remove cells in any device under mains charge, unless the cells are designed for it.

I too use Varta alkaline; these cells are (mostly) made in Germany.
They celldom leak, and are a good compromise of all factors.