Posted by Sir Four at 11:44am Oct 19 '09As the number of battery-needing things in my house has increased, it only made sense to go to rechargeables. Last year I bought a combo set including a "smart" charger plus 8 AAA, 8 AA, 4 C, 4 D and 2 9V batteries. This cost a little over $100 at all-battery.com. I've since ordered another 8 AA and 4 9V (the latter for smoke, CO detectors). I'll be needing even more now due to all the baby stuff that takes batteries.
If anyone wants recommendations, I'll tell you I'm happy with the above site as well as the quality of the batteries. The brand I have is Tenergy, and they are pretty high-quality NiMH batteries. The NiMHs are great because you can recharge them 1,000 times, meaning they are going to last for years. They also don't suffer as much from the "memory effect" problem that happens to other types of batteries.
When buying rechargeables, you have to check their charge capacities. For example, cheap AA rechargeables are rated as low as 1000 mAh which will give terrible performance. The Tenergy batteries are 2600 mAh. This is a real concern, BTW, when buying C or D batteries. Some brands sell you basically a AA in a C or D casing. D's should be rated at or near 10,000 mAh or else they may not even provide enough juice at all for your device to work. C's should be 5,000 mAh. Don't get ripped off on these!
Anyway, I'm quite happy now having made the up-front investment on dozens of batteries since now all I have to do is charge them up rather than run to the store to buy more. The smaller batteries take just a few hours to charge. The D batteries are pigs, though.. those suckers take all day to charge.
I just checked the site, and they don't have the exact same combo package I bought anymore, but they have a similar one: T6278 Universal Smart Fast Charger with 22-cell package (8AA/8AAA/2C/2D/2 9V) for $74.99
If anyone wants recommendations, I'll tell you I'm happy with the above site as well as the quality of the batteries. The brand I have is Tenergy, and they are pretty high-quality NiMH batteries. The NiMHs are great because you can recharge them 1,000 times, meaning they are going to last for years. They also don't suffer as much from the "memory effect" problem that happens to other types of batteries.
When buying rechargeables, you have to check their charge capacities. For example, cheap AA rechargeables are rated as low as 1000 mAh which will give terrible performance. The Tenergy batteries are 2600 mAh. This is a real concern, BTW, when buying C or D batteries. Some brands sell you basically a AA in a C or D casing. D's should be rated at or near 10,000 mAh or else they may not even provide enough juice at all for your device to work. C's should be 5,000 mAh. Don't get ripped off on these!
Anyway, I'm quite happy now having made the up-front investment on dozens of batteries since now all I have to do is charge them up rather than run to the store to buy more. The smaller batteries take just a few hours to charge. The D batteries are pigs, though.. those suckers take all day to charge.
I just checked the site, and they don't have the exact same combo package I bought anymore, but they have a similar one: T6278 Universal Smart Fast Charger with 22-cell package (8AA/8AAA/2C/2D/2 9V) for $74.99
Who Uses Rechargeable Batteries? - Sir Four