best rechargeable batteries and recharging stations

sanbrafyffe

hi all

im buying a new product(head light) and it doesnt come with rechargeable batteries and station.its a quiet a dear headlight so i want to buy a good decent set of rechargeables for it

im based in mayo but dont mind going further for quality.im not sure if its 3xAAA,1.5v or 3xAA,1.5v batteries it takes but definetily one of them

can anyone help me,,,dont mind paying a bit for them either aslong as they are of good quality and long lasting

cheers b(mods if its in the wrong place move it)

stimpson

Best batteries are Eneloop LSD Ni-MH. They have a very flat discharge curve so they put out full voltage until they are neatly completely empty

One of the best chargers is Technoline BC700 (or higher model number). I have one and its awesome. It will discharge the batteries fully before charging. It will condition the battery by repeatedly discharging and charging until it reaches max capacity. It also has 4 seperate channels so you can o different functions on different batteries at the same time. Cost about €50 but its well worth it.

Candlepowerforums.com is a great place to get info on rechargeables.

sanbrafyffe

thanks for your reply,,,did you buy all of yours on candlepowerforums

stimpson wrote: »

Best batteries are Eneloop LSD Ni-MH. They have a very flat discharge curve so they put out full voltage until they are neatly completely empty

One of the best chargers is Technoline BC700 (or higher model number). I have one and its awesome. It will discharge the batteries fully before charging. It will condition the battery by repeatedly discharging and charging until it reaches max capacity. It also has 4 seperate channels so you can o different functions on different batteries at the same time. Cost about €50 but its well worth it.

Candlepowerforums.com is a great place to get info on rechargeables.

coylemj

If you need 3 batteries, you will need to buy four as they come in sets of two (AA) and four (AA and AAA). Current high capacity for AAA would be c. 1,000 mAh and for AA, 2,850 mAh or greater, the capacity is always printed on the side of the battery. Be warned that there is a huge range of capacities and some shops still sell the older Ni-Cd technology which you need to avoid, only buy Ni-Mh.

If buying AA batteries, only buy a single set of four in one package, don't buy two separate pairs as they may be from different manufacturing batches.

When you get them and have them fully charged, measure the voltage of each one with a multimeter, you will often find than one of the four is a semi-dud and has a different voltage. Park that battery and use the other three, use them and charge them together and never break them up as a set (e.g. never use two of them in another appliance), that way you will get the maximum overall life (number of charge/discharges) out of them.

I currently like the purple Lenmar AA batteries, I got a couple of sets of the grey ones a couple of years ago and they were total crap. Not sure if you can buy them in Europe, I got them brought back from the US.

dahamsta

Maplin rechargeables have been a Which? Best Buy for quite some time. I've a ton of them, they're expensive but very good. Their all-in-one charger is pretty good too. They're a lot cheaper in the UK, so I asked my sister to bring a bust of them over with her, and buy the odd pack over here to top up. (You can never have enough batteries with a house full of smallies and gadget addicts.)

stimpson

sanbrafyffe wrote: »

thanks for your reply,,,did you buy all of yours on candlepowerforums

I buy my eneloops from this guy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00319WH30/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?redirect=true&ref_=wms_ohs_product

Free delivery on orders over £25

I got my Technoline from him too but he's out of stock it seems. It only cost me £25 rather than 50 too.

One thing to note if you get a fast charger like the Technoline is that it's better for the battery to be charged at a faster rate (higher current). This is because there is a bigger drop in voltage when the battery is full and it's easier for the charger to detect.

If you are buying multiple sets, mark each battery with a number. Run them through a reconditioning cycle on the charger and make a note of the actual capacity of each battery. Then organise them into sets where each battery in a set is closely grouped by capacity. This way, each battery in a set gets exhausted at the same time and they all get a full recharge. I'm amazed how much longer my batteries last since I started doing this.

coylemj

stimpson wrote: »

If you are buying multiple sets, mark each battery with a number. Run them through a reconditioning cycle on the charger and make a note of the actual capacity of each battery. Then organise them into sets where each battery in a set is closely grouped by capacity. This way, each battery in a set gets exhausted at the same time and they all get a full recharge. I'm amazed how much longer my batteries last since I started doing this.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

No wait, maybe I did...

coylemj wrote: »

When you get them and have them fully charged, measure the voltage of each one with a multimeter, you will often find than one of the four is a semi-dud and has a different voltage. Park that battery and use the other three, use them and charge them together and never break them up as a set (e.g. never use two of them in another appliance), that way you will get the maximum overall life (number of charge/discharges) out of them.

Same message, makes a huge difference.

stimpson

coylemj wrote: »

Couldn't have said it better myself.

No wait, maybe I did...



Same message, makes a huge difference.

You get a far more accurate measurement from the capacity opposed to the voltage. All 4 batteries in a set could be within .01 of a volt but capacity could be off by 100mAh

coylemj

stimpson wrote: »

You get a far more accurate measurement from the capacity opposed to the voltage. All 4 batteries in a set could be within .01 of a volt but capacity could be off by 100mAh

How do you measure the capacity of a battery?

stimpson

coylemj wrote: »

How do you measure the capacity of a battery?

The charger above will do it by discharging it over a known load. It measures the time taken to empty the battery and from that it can calculate the capacity.

coylemj

stimpson wrote: »

The charger above will do it by discharging it over a known load. It measures the time taken to empty the battery and from that it can calculate the capacity.

What I'm asking is: how does the user determine the capacity? Does the charger display the capacity on an LCD screen for each battery?

I check the voltage when batteries are fully charged and discharged, I regard it as a good indicator that I have a set of similar capacity batteries, it has to do me cause I have an old Ever Ready charger which does Ni-Cd and Ni-Nh (there's a selector switch) and it takes about 16 hours to charge the Ni-Mh AA batteries.

stimpson

coylemj wrote: »

What I'm asking is: how does the user determine the capacity? Does the charger display the capacity on an LCD screen for each battery?

Yeah - it shows the mAh so you'd see something like this under the batteries after completing a refresh cycle:

2108 2085 2088 2120

So you could pair off 2108/2120 and 2085/2088

I have 24 eneloops and a spreadsheet to track them (nerd!) so most of my battery sets are very close in capacity.

coylemj

stimpson wrote: »

Yeah - it shows the mAh so you'd see something like this under the batteries after completing a refresh cycle:

2108 2085 2088 2120

So you could pair off 2108/2120 and 2085/2088

I have 24 eneloops and a spreadsheet to track them (nerd!) so most of my battery sets are very close in capacity.

You've taken it to a degree higher than me but that's what technology is for!

Would this be the current version of your charger?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Technoline-Intelligent-battery-charger-Version/dp/B003S4JQS2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359570576&sr=1-1

stimpson

coylemj wrote: »

You've taken it to a degree higher than me but that's what technology is for!

Would this be the current version of your charger?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Technoline-Intelligent-battery-charger-Version/dp/B003S4JQS2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359570576&sr=1-1

That's just how I roll.

That's the one. The 700 means it can charge at 700mA , so a 2100 mAh cell will charge in 3 hours. There is a 1000 model too but I didn't see the point in paying the extra.

coylemj

stimpson wrote: »

That's just how I roll.

That's the one. The 700 means it can charge at 700mA , so a 2100 mAh cell will charge in 3 hours. There is a 1000 model too but I didn't see the point in paying the extra.

Can't find an Amazon reseller who'll ship that item to ROI, might have to sign up for Parcel Motel.