I needed several sets of new AA batteries for the flash and for children's toys, because the ones I bought five years ago are almost exhausted, and it is too expensive to feed the flash with batteries.

After spending a couple of weeks studying reviews and reading specialized forums, I still managed to choose good and not too expensive batteries, get them and test them. And I decided to compact the collected information in an article, it may come in handy.

In this review, I will tell you about all the types I know (including the most exotic ones) produced in China and sold in Chinese stores, AA and AAA batteries. It is worth ordering them in Chinese stores, because the price in Russia for them is overstated by 3-5, and sometimes even 10 times. And sometimes you need a lot of batteries, because batteries will continue to rise in price.

When choosing batteries, also look for good chargers that will just charge and not spoil fairly expensive batteries. About the features of the choice of chargers in this article.

Perfect option

A proven option for years is the Eneloop batteries from Sanyo-Panasonic. Modern NiMH batteries with very low self-discharge (LSD - Low Self Discharge). A fully charged similar battery after lying for a year without use will be discharged only by 5-10% (batteries of the old type will completely lose their charge during this time). The advantages are high capacity, long service life, fast charging with a high current, and a huge discharge current, which is very good for powerful loads, such as flashlights. Of the minuses, perhaps, only the price: about 350 rubles. a piece. It is not recommended to buy on AliExpress - there are too many fakes. If only in an official store, where they are more expensive than the average in Russia. Please note that there are two types of Eneloop Pro (black) and simply Eneloop (white). The black ones are distinguished by their increased capacity, but they pay for it with a shorter service life. White, respectively - on the contrary. Decide for yourself what is more important to you.

A good choice

I think everyone has heard about Xiaomi phones. But the company also produces a lot of different electronics, including good finger batteries, which seem to be in no way inferior to Eneloop, but are much cheaper. Unfortunately, they are rarely found on AliExpress and at an inadequate price, but they are found in other Chinese stores, the cheapest are usually at GearBest.com, but they do not appear on sale often. You will see - immediately register and order, the store is reliable, proven. Sometimes they appear in Pleer.ru, too, at a very reasonable price. But at official dealers in Russia they are many times more expensive.

Optimal choice

The original Chinese brand PKCell produces very decent and not expensive batteries using the same LSD technology - batteries with low self-discharge without masking or counterfeiting famous manufacturers. The parameters are the same as for the above batteries, but perhaps a slightly shorter service life (or maybe not, nevertheless modern NiMh batteries can withstand thousands of recharge cycles and it is rather difficult to check this) while PKCell has thousands of satisfied customers and I am now one of them.

Limited fit

Batteries of old types NiMH (these are exactly what we sell in any store and underpass). Their shortcomings are widely described, but for some reason few people are known: high self-discharge (that is, the battery is quickly discharged even just lying in the box) short service life and high internal resistance due to which they cannot deliver a strong current and heat up significantly when charging large currents. You can buy them, but only if they are very cheap.

Bad choice

On AliExpress, there is a lot of cheap junk masquerading as batteries, which is not even worth the spent penny, because it is useless. It is quite easy to identify it: attractive price, technological packaging in a heat-shrinkable tube and prohibitively high performance. As a result, the buyer simply receives production waste, which, if charged, shows only a couple of hundred mAh capacity. Here's a good example of what not to buy:

Exotic Batteries

There are, of course, even more modern and better-performing batteries (about which below), but they will also require new chargers, which are relatively expensive and their purchase should be justified. Almost everyone has a charger for NiMH batteries.

Li-ion 3.7 Volts

Lithium battery in the size of a regular AA battery but with a voltage of 3.7 volts (usually labeled "type 14500"). Must be equipped with protective electronics and are often sold paired with a dummy (read descriptions carefully) to replace two regular AA batteries.

Advantages: high charge density, huge current output and low weight (about three times lighter than a conventional NiMH battery, and a pair with a dummy will be five times lighter than a pair of standard batteries). Disadvantages: price, need for special charging and a large number of fakes.

It justifies itself if the main requirement is lightness (powerful lights, aircraft models, wearable electronics with a lot of batteries)

LiFePO4 - 3.2 Volts

The lithium iron phosphate battery is a type that few people have ever heard of. Meanwhile, it has a lot of advantages over its competitors. And most importantly - good frost resistance, calmly tolerates temperatures down to -30 ° C, while ordinary Li-ion and Li-pol do not like temperatures even around 0 ° C, and at -10 ° C they already refuse to work. Also, these batteries have a very stable discharge voltage, the output will be 3.2 Volts until the charge is completely depleted. In addition, they are much safer than Li-ion, which rarely, but still ignite spontaneously. Also, this type is a champion in the number of recharge cycles: it calmly transfers several thousand cycles and at the same time allows charging with high currents up to 1 Ampere. Lithium-polymer batteries are inferior only in charge density, i.e. LiFePO4 of the same volume can store about a third less energy. This type is especially often used in powerful lanterns. The only disadvantage is the need for special charging. Can be used in place of conventional AA batteries in a pair with the "dummy" that usually comes with the kit.

Ni-Zn batteries

A less popular type of battery. Main advantage: high voltage: 1.6 V (not all devices, especially old ones, agree to work with NiMH batteries with their voltage of 1.2 V). On the positive side, there is also a high capacity and a high discharge current. The main drawback is very significant: short service life, only a couple of hundred charge cycles. Also, this type requires a special charger.

USB rechargeable NiMH batteries

The same NiMH battery, but with USB charging. The pros are clear - no separate charger required. They are also disadvantages, it will be problematic to quickly charge four batteries. The capacity is also not great - after all, half of the volume of the case is occupied by the USB connector. Suitable for low-power devices that do not need to be charged too often.

Li-pol batteries with USB charging

Quite a fresh invention and a pretty good purchase for those who want to buy USB rechargeable batteries. Compared to the type described above, Li-pol batteries have a higher capacity, shorter charging time and an output voltage of 1.5V! And the number of charge cycles for this type of battery is several times higher. The set also includes a splitter cable for charging four batteries at once - this is convenient. The only drawback is the price.

And some useful extras

Tester

The simplest, but very convenient device for measuring the voltage of all types of batteries. Yes, everyone, and I also have a normal tester, but climbing after it every time to check the battery's validity is rather tedious. And this device lives well right in the box with batteries and accumulators.

Large Battery Adapters

I have a couple of instruments that need to be fueled with large batteries. These batteries cost a lot, and it is not easy to find them on sale. A solution has been found - inexpensive battery adapters.

And the next important article on this topic:

By the way, since buying a set of batteries and a charger is not the cheapest, I recommend getting a cashback - you will save a couple of hundred rubles. Don't know what cashback is?

As you can see from the test results, the maximum capacity of AA batteries is 2550 mAh. All batteries with beautiful numbers of 2600, 2700, 2800 and 2850 mAh are just the fruit of the activities of marketers. Their real capacity is sometimes even less than that of the batteries of the same manufacturers with more modest numbers. On some batteries with the indicated large capacity values, the minimum capacity is indicated in small print (for example, Ansmann 2700, Panasonic 2700, Maha Powerex 2700 have a minimum capacity of 2500 mAh and their real capacity is close to this value).
But with AAA everything is fair. The maximum indicated capacity is 1100 mAh and the actual capacity is close to this value.

Duracell 1300 batteries showed very poor results after the first charge-discharge cycle, but after several charge-discharge cycles they showed the results that I take into account.
One of the four Turnigy 2400 LSD batteries had a capacity 30% less than the others. I guess it's a marriage. Its result is not taken into account.
Two Camelion 2800 batteries had a capacity of 2270 mAh and 2610 mAh (a difference of 13%). Although the best of the pair turned out to be the most capacious of all AA batteries, I have to use the data of the worst specimen, because no one knows which specimens may still be caught when buying.
Chinese batteries BTY AA 3000 and BTY AAA 1350 have such a low capacity that they should only be in the trash heap and I will not mention them in further tests.

Unlike batteries, batteries cannot be categorized as good / bad simply by their capacity, because there are batteries of different nominal capacities on sale. Let's see how the capacity of the tested batteries corresponds to the declared ones. If the battery shows not only the nominal, but also the minimum capacity, I will proceed from it. For comparison, the data obtained during the discharge with an average current of 500/200 mA are used.

The quality of the batteries can be judged by how different the specimens are.

For most batteries, the copies differ by no more than 5%.

Unlike batteries, rechargeable batteries almost do not lose their capacity at high discharge currents. I compared the capacity at 2500 mA and 500 ma discharge currents for AA batteries with a capacity of 1500 mAh and 1000/200 mA for AAA batteries and AA batteries with a capacity of less than 1500 mAh.

Some batteries with high currents are capable of giving even more energy than with small ones (in such batteries, the difference between the capacity at high and low currents is more than 100%).

Half of all batteries tested are made using LSD (Low Self-Discharge) technology. These batteries are sold pre-charged. I measured their capacity right after unpacking without pre-charging.

On average, LSD batteries were 70% charged. Of course, the level of their charge depended not only on the quality of the batteries, but also on the time and conditions of their storage, and the date of manufacture is only on some batteries.

I tested all batteries one week and one month after charging. The results in a week can be viewed in the general table, but the results in a month.

Surprisingly, the Navigator 2100 AA and GP 1000 AAA non-LSD batteries turned out to be among the best in terms of battery retention throughout the month. Most batteries (both LSD and non-LSD) retain 90% of their charge after one month.

I will give the prices for batteries as of 11/01/2015. Wholesale - wholesale price at Source Betteris, RRTs - recommended retail price, Mag - minimum prices in stores and online stores (mostly balances purchased at a lower exchange rate), $ and € - prices in dollars and euros in foreign online stores, rubles - prices in terms of the current exchange rate ($ 1 = 64 rubles, 1 € = 70.5 rubles). In hobbyking.com and ru.nkon.nl stores, delivery is paid, the cost of the cheapest delivery for the purchase of 12 batteries is included in the price in the table.

The first comparison is at the cost of 1000 mAh based on the RRP and prices in online stores, if batteries are not sold in regular stores.

IKEA batteries are in the lead, followed by batteries from foreign online stores PKCELL and Turnigy. The most expensive, based on MSRP, was the Panasonic Eneloop.

Many people buy batteries in foreign online stores, so I made the second comparison at the prices of foreign online stores and the lowest prices that I could find in Russian stores.

IKEA is ahead of everyone here too, Panasonic Eneloop turns out to be not at all so expensive if you buy them over the Internet, and Fujitsu, produced at the same plant using the same technology, are even cheaper.

For most batteries, manufacturers indicate 1000 charge-discharge cycles, some manufacturers do not indicate the number of cycles at all (Camelion, Turnigy, GP, Varta). Some batteries only have 500 guaranteed cycles (IKEA LADDA 2000 LSD, Energizer PreCharged 2400, Panasonic Eneloop Pro 2450 LSD, Fujitsu 2550 LSD, IKEA LADDA 750 LSD, Energizer PreCharged 800, Panasonic 750 LSD, Fujitsu 900 LSD, Panasonic Eneloop Pro 900 LSD) ...
For AA Panasonic Eneloop 1900 LSD, AAA Panasonic Eneloop 750 LSD, AA Fujitsu 1900 LSD, AAA Fujitsu 800 LSD manufacturers guarantee 2100 cycles.
The maximum number of cycles - 3000 is guaranteed for AA Panasonic Eneloop Lite 950 LSD and AAA Panasonic Eneloop Lite 550 LSD batteries.

1. The maximum attainable capacity for NiMh AA batteries is 2550 mAh, for AAA - 1060 mAh. All batteries, on which 2600, 2700, 2800 mAh and more are written, in reality have a lower capacity.
2. All AA batteries of well-known manufacturers from 950 mAh to 2450 mAh have a real capacity of at least 97% of the indicated one, all AAA batteries of well-known manufacturers from 550 mAh to 1100 mAh have a real capacity of at least 94% of the indicated one.
3. NiMh accumulators, unlike batteries, almost do not reduce the amount of energy delivered at high discharge currents.
4. During a month of storage, both conventional and LSD batteries lose 4-20% of their charge.
5. New LSD batteries are usually 70% charged.

All information about tested batteries can be found in the excel file: nadezhin.ru/lj/ljfiles/accu_ammo1.xls. It contains data on testing all battery samples, capacity in watt-hours, weight and initial voltage, barcodes, wholesale and retail prices in rubles, prices in dollars and euros, countries of origin, the results of all tests, including capacity after a week and a month of storage.

Photos of packages of all batteries can be downloaded in one archive: nadezhin.ru/lj/ljfiles/accu.rar

Batteries for testing are provided by manufacturers and stores:

Ansmann, Duracell, Energizer, Varta, Robiton, GP, Panasonic - by the wholesale company Source Battars www.istochnik.ru
Camelion, Duracell, Energizer - wholesale company Power Systems and Technologies e-s-t.ru
Ikea - by Ikea www.ikea.ru
Navigator, Panasonic, Varta by Battery Team batteryteam.com
Cosmos - by the group of companies "Cosmos" kosmos.ru
Fujitsu - the Russian representative office of Fujitsu fujitsu-battery.ru
Maha Powerex, IMEDION, Fujitsu, Panasonic Eneloop - online store ru.nkon.nl
Turnigy - HobbyKing Online Store www.hobbyking.com

I spent four months testing and three days writing this article. Hope you find this useful.

© 2015, Alexey Nadyozhin

Good and bad AA and AAA batteries

AA and AAA size batteries are divided into three categories, "branded", "Chinese" and LSD(low self – discharge). The first two categories can be combined into one called "junk". You shouldn't look at the big name like Duracell or Energizer and the numbers 3000Mah - these are all batteries, let's call it, of instant use. I charged it, immediately inserted it into the device, snapped it off (or flashed it), put it back into the memory. These batteries self-discharge very quickly, even without load (up to 20% on the first day and up to 50% in the first week), do not know how to deliver high current and die very quickly (one hundred charge-discharge cycles and into the trash), and the worst thing is that for batteries from one box, the characteristics may differ by half.

LSD batteries have low self-discharge and high current output. They are more expensive, they have two times less numbers written on them than on the samples from the first category, but these are honest numbers and more than 1000 charge-discharge cycles. LSD batteries are also good because they can be used in low-power or rarely used devices (watches, remotes, flashlights, etc.) - self-discharge is only 10% per year. The best of the second category batteries are Eneloop batteries.

An interesting fact: in the chargers of the company SkyRC, which, as you know, produces the coolest chargers, there is a separate program for charging Eneloop batteries. In fact, this is the same program as for charging conventional NiMH batteries, but it involves charging b O with higher currents. The Eneloop 2100mAh battery will easily charge in an hour with a current of 2A, from which ordinary nickel batteries will simply boil.

AA / AAA battery chargers

They are divided into three categories: "branded", "Chinese" and good. We combine the first two categories into one. Charges from Durasel, Warta, Energizer, etc. - this is the same consumer goods as, only five times more expensive. Even four-channel ones do not know how to do anything except charge. What else do you need? Control. As I said above, for bad batteries already out of the box, the characteristics may differ by half. But even good ones (remember, these are LSD batteries) characteristics begin to jump after some time of use, for example, a year or two. Imagine that you put 4 batteries into the flash, about which you know only one thing for certain: they are fully charged. But the trouble is, three batteries have a nominal capacity, and you once accidentally dropped the fourth and its capacity dropped by half. You insert it into the flash, and it stops turning on after 20 shots. The end of the batteries, you think, and you throw the whole set in the trash, although you could have bought one battery and use the set for many more years.

So, good memory they know how to show how discharged each battery is, how much it was "poured" into each battery during charging, calculate the capacity of each battery, and the best ones can even restore it. The best of the inexpensive chargers today are (aka Zeepin) and (aka Colaier). Chargers of the early 2000s of development, like La Crosse (aka Technoline) and MAHA Powerex, I would venture to call outdated ideologically.

There are more versatile chargers. For example, SkyRC iMAX B6, original or copy (copy is much worse in measurement accuracy, firmware and software capabilities). Its plus is the ability to charge anything and how you want, from charging batteries for radio-controlled models to lead-acid car batteries and lithium batteries for cameras and mobile phones. The downside is that excessive versatility greatly complicates the device, and in general, for full use, a basic understanding of the basics of electrical engineering is required, and you need to buy additional wires with connectors and sockets for each battery size.

The king of chargers for batteries of all (generally all) standard sizes today is one that can charge batteries of the types NiCd, Ni-MH, LiIon, LiFePO4, NiZn in cans of sizes C, D, AA, AAA, 18650, 14500, 16340, 32650, 14650, 17670, 10440, 18700, 18350, RCR123, AAAA, 18500, 18490, 25500, 13500, 13450, 16650, 22650, 17500, 10340, 17650, 10500, 26500, 12340, 12500, 12650, 14350, 14430, 16500, 17350, 20700, 21700, 22500, 32600, Sub-C. In addition, the MC3000 has a Bluetooth interface and can display battery status directly on your smartphone. The only negative is the price. On the other hand, two separate chargers for nickel and lithium cost almost as much.

My review about batteries and chargers

I have been using Warta, Durasells and GPs and various China for many years, and switched to Eneloop back in 2013, immediately after buying a Lacrosse charge instead of the deceased "cool four-channel" from Duracell. With the help of La Crosse, I saw the mess that my "branded" batteries were after Duraselov charging - a range of capacity from 600 to 2200 mAh and a loss of 30% charge during the first day.

The only batteries that were (surprisingly) at par with the nominal capacity and that held a charge normally were purchased at a 2010 sale at Gsyuasa Enitime Households. Googling, I found out that they are made according to the LSD standard and in some way are clones of the Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG. Googling a little more, I found that there are already HR-3UTGA and HR-3UTGB, which hold the charge even better. In general, there was money, so I switched to the latter, judging that the original is always better than the clone. Three years have passed - the flight is normal, the parameters have not changed. By the way, Gs Yuasa Enitime continues to serve (for the eighth year already) without any complaints, out of 12 pieces only one has lost its capacity.

1. Out of competition in February this year Panasonic Eneloop - in the Panasonic brand store on Aliexpress.
2. From inexpensive, first of all, it is PKCELL's green. Holds two amperes, which, together with a small self-discharge, allows them to be classified as LSD.
3. Of course, "branded" manufacturers also have LSD-batteries. For example, Varta Longlife Ready2Use, Duracell StayCharged or GP ReCyko +. But, although they are prohibitively expensive (more expensive than the same enelups), their characteristics are not better. The same applies to "simple", not LSD batteries - some green ones are no worse than Duracell 2650, which are much more expensive (three sets of Soshine and Duracell were bought at the same time, served for two years and were sent for recycling). According to my feelings, Soshine and Duracell batteries are generally made at the same factory, they are so similar in characteristics.
4. Eneloop Pro is a high capacity battery. Like simple Eneloop, they can hold high currents and work normally in frost, but they live 4 times less: 500 cycles versus 2100 for Panasonic BK-3MCCE. And they self-discharge faster (-15% per year for the Eneloop Pro versus -30% for 10 years for the fourth generation white Eneloop).

And finally, advice. The basic rule when switching to good batteries is to choose some one and buy several sets of them at once, since the use of batteries from different manufacturers (albeit of the same capacity) is ineffective due to different characteristics.
Say, all of them, when discharged from the nominal to 0.9V (this is considered a full discharge), give 2000 mAh, but some batteries are discharged faster in the range of 1.2-1.1 V, and others in the range of 1.1-1.0 V. Or they heat up differently under load. When installed in one set, due to different discharge curves, a situation may arise when one battery is discharged to zero and the rest of the cells begin to charge it in the opposite direction, which will lead to instant battery failure. Today you have four 2000mAh batteries, and tomorrow only three.

In 2013, I bought the first La Crosse BC 700 smart charger and Sanyo batteries, then, for lithium batteries - a universal charger, I immediately felt the difference. Since then, I regularly test chargers and batteries from other manufacturers, I constantly update the battery park and follow the new products, so I can talk about batteries not just speculatively, but on the basis of their use in the field.

Batteries and chargers from China, relevant for 2018

This article is already 4 years old, but I am constantly updating it, so the above remains true for 2017. I just want to add that the production of Sanyo batteries was bought out by Matsushita and now the same batteries are sold under the Panasonic Eneloop and Fujitsu Eneloop brands. The very same ones, they can even be safely used together with the old ones in one device.

Second point: Chinese universal chargers that I purchased in 2015 turned out to be very high quality, this is for $ 14.99, which can charge 3.7V / 1.2V AA / AAA 18650/26650/16340/14500/10440/18500 batteries, and the best in terms of price / quality ratio super wagon. In version 2.2, it is completely free from childhood illnesses and is by far the best device. Occasionally found on sale under the Zeepin brand with the same mark. A big plus of the Opus 3100, in addition to the ability to simultaneously charge lithium and nickel batteries (a switch is provided for charging Li-FeO4 and other exotic 4.2V / 4.35V / 3.7V), is forced cooling during charging, which reduces the likelihood of overheating of the cans (and this miracle is able to charge them with currents up to 2 amperes, which implies significant heating). The second plus is the possibility of using this charger in a car with direct power supply from the 12 volt on-board network. Well, everything else is also at a high level - training, measuring internal resistance, DC charging for lithium and -ΔV for nickel batteries.

Liitokala repeats the functionality of Nitecore D4, since it does not know how to train batteries in automatic mode, but it charges perfectly and is cheaper.

A few words about chargers for 8 or more AA / AAA batteries

With rare exceptions, chargers for 8 batteries are either one four-channel charger (two batteries per channel), or two separate four-channel chargers in one case.

For example, for $ 8 (like its noname brother called the C808W for $ 7), it charges batteries in pairs (i.e., it has 4 double 2.4 volt slots instead of 8 slots of 1.2 volts). And despite the 8 slots, the charge current for AA batteries is only 200 mA, which is five times less than that of normal chargers. Thus, while the TangsPower T - 808C charges two sets of batteries, Opus has time to charge five sets. Another limitation: you cannot charge one battery, the minimum amount is two. Moreover, if you want to use the batteries longer, they must be equally discharged. Otherwise, the one with more charge will be recharged. This is rubbish, I mentioned it to demonstrate that more is not always better.

For $ 45 it can charge lithium! This, in fact, is all of its dignity. From intelligence in it - the name, and 8 separate channels of 650 mA. It doesn't even have a screen that will show you that the charging has correctly understood the type of battery. It stands, like three Liitokalas, but does not even have a small screen to show the voltage and magnitude of the flooded current, not to mention a large screen, testing internal resistance, training batteries, etc.

And finally, the champion of eight-cell chargers,. Price $ 63, excellent informative screen, the ability to charge Ni-MH 1.5V, LiFePO4 3.6V, Li-ion 4.2 V / 4.3 V / 4.35 V batteries in almost all sizes. Charge current 1A for each slot, the ability to set the charging mode for each slot separately. And you can even use it like a Powerbank. It costs like two Opus. But he does not know how to train and test batteries, because, first of all, this is a device for charging lithium batteries in the field (from the vehicle's on-board network), which, as an option, added the ability to charge nickel.

Accordingly, there is no positive effect from increasing the number of slots. In the first case, the device will charge the batteries in pairs (there is no question of any intelligence of such a device), in the second and third, it is more efficient and cheaper to buy two separate chargers. For example, as it was before with me: one only for nickel AA / AAA, with the ability to restore batteries (and train them every six months), and the second without such an opportunity, but with the support of lithium batteries. The advantages of this scheme:

• you can quickly charge eight NiMH batteries at the same time (the keyword "fast", since the charge current in eight-cell chargers is usually lower);
• if necessary, train them (in free time, 4 at a time);
• charge lithium batteries with a second charger (lithium does not need training)
• cost savings and the ability to buy one device first, and then buy a second one.

Good and bad AA and AAA batteries

AA and AAA size batteries are divided into three categories, "branded", "Chinese" and LSD(low self – discharge). The first two categories can be combined into one called "junk". You shouldn't look at the big name like Duracell or Energizer and the numbers 3000Mah - these are all batteries, let's call it, of instant use. I charged it, immediately inserted it into the device, snapped it off (or flashed it), put it back into the memory. These batteries self-discharge very quickly, even without load (up to 20% on the first day and up to 50% in the first week), do not know how to deliver high current and die very quickly (one hundred charge-discharge cycles and into the trash), and the worst thing is that for batteries from one box, the characteristics may differ by half.

LSD batteries have low self-discharge and high current output. They are more expensive, they have two times less numbers written on them than on the samples from the first category, but these are honest numbers and more than 1000 charge-discharge cycles. LSD batteries are also good because they can be used in low-power or rarely used devices (watches, remotes, flashlights, etc.) - self-discharge is only 10% per year. The best of the second category batteries are Eneloop batteries.

An interesting fact: in the chargers of the company SkyRC, which, as you know, produces the coolest chargers, there is a separate program for charging Eneloop batteries. In fact, this is the same program as for charging conventional NiMH batteries, but it involves charging b O with higher currents. The Eneloop 2100mAh battery will easily charge in an hour with a current of 2A, from which ordinary nickel batteries will simply boil.

AA / AAA battery chargers

They are divided into three categories: "branded", "Chinese" and good. We combine the first two categories into one. Charges from Durasel, Warta, Energizer, etc. - this is the same consumer goods as, only five times more expensive. Even four-channel ones do not know how to do anything except charge. What else do you need? Control. As I said above, for bad batteries already out of the box, the characteristics may differ by half. But even good ones (remember, these are LSD batteries) characteristics begin to jump after some time of use, for example, a year or two. Imagine that you put 4 batteries into the flash, about which you know only one thing for certain: they are fully charged. But the trouble is, three batteries have a nominal capacity, and you once accidentally dropped the fourth and its capacity dropped by half. You insert it into the flash, and it stops turning on after 20 shots. The end of the batteries, you think, and you throw the whole set in the trash, although you could have bought one battery and use the set for many more years.

So, good memory they know how to show how discharged each battery is, how much it was "poured" into each battery during charging, calculate the capacity of each battery, and the best ones can even restore it. The best of the inexpensive chargers today are (aka Zeepin) and (aka Colaier). Chargers of the early 2000s of development, like La Crosse (aka Technoline) and MAHA Powerex, I would venture to call outdated ideologically.

There are more versatile chargers. For example, SkyRC iMAX B6, original or copy (copy is much worse in measurement accuracy, firmware and software capabilities). Its plus is the ability to charge anything and how you want, from charging batteries for radio-controlled models to lead-acid car batteries and lithium batteries for cameras and mobile phones. The downside is that excessive versatility greatly complicates the device, and in general, for full use, a basic understanding of the basics of electrical engineering is required, and you need to buy additional wires with connectors and sockets for each battery size.

The king of chargers for batteries of all (generally all) standard sizes today is one that can charge batteries of the types NiCd, Ni-MH, LiIon, LiFePO4, NiZn in cans of sizes C, D, AA, AAA, 18650, 14500, 16340, 32650, 14650, 17670, 10440, 18700, 18350, RCR123, AAAA, 18500, 18490, 25500, 13500, 13450, 16650, 22650, 17500, 10340, 17650, 10500, 26500, 12340, 12500, 12650, 14350, 14430, 16500, 17350, 20700, 21700, 22500, 32600, Sub-C. In addition, the MC3000 has a Bluetooth interface and can display battery status directly on your smartphone. The only negative is the price. On the other hand, two separate chargers for nickel and lithium cost almost as much.

My review about batteries and chargers

I have been using Warta, Durasells and GPs and various China for many years, and switched to Eneloop back in 2013, immediately after buying a Lacrosse charge instead of the deceased "cool four-channel" from Duracell. With the help of La Crosse, I saw the mess that my "branded" batteries were after Duraselov charging - a range of capacity from 600 to 2200 mAh and a loss of 30% charge during the first day.

The only batteries that were (surprisingly) at par with the nominal capacity and that held a charge normally were purchased at a 2010 sale at Gsyuasa Enitime Households. Googling, I found out that they are made according to the LSD standard and in some way are clones of the Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG. Googling a little more, I found that there are already HR-3UTGA and HR-3UTGB, which hold the charge even better. In general, there was money, so I switched to the latter, judging that the original is always better than the clone. Three years have passed - the flight is normal, the parameters have not changed. By the way, Gs Yuasa Enitime continues to serve (for the eighth year already) without any complaints, out of 12 pieces only one has lost its capacity.

1. Out of competition in February this year Panasonic Eneloop - in the Panasonic brand store on Aliexpress.
2. From inexpensive, first of all, it is PKCELL's green. Holds two amperes, which, together with a small self-discharge, allows them to be classified as LSD.
3. Of course, "branded" manufacturers also have LSD-batteries. For example, Varta Longlife Ready2Use, Duracell StayCharged or GP ReCyko +. But, although they are prohibitively expensive (more expensive than the same enelups), their characteristics are not better. The same applies to "simple", not LSD batteries - some green ones are no worse than Duracell 2650, which are much more expensive (three sets of Soshine and Duracell were bought at the same time, served for two years and were sent for recycling). According to my feelings, Soshine and Duracell batteries are generally made at the same factory, they are so similar in characteristics.
4. Eneloop Pro is a high capacity battery. Like simple Eneloop, they can hold high currents and work normally in frost, but they live 4 times less: 500 cycles versus 2100 for Panasonic BK-3MCCE. And they self-discharge faster (-15% per year for the Eneloop Pro versus -30% for 10 years for the fourth generation white Eneloop).

And finally, advice. The basic rule when switching to good batteries is to choose some one and buy several sets of them at once, since the use of batteries from different manufacturers (albeit of the same capacity) is ineffective due to different characteristics.
Say, all of them, when discharged from the nominal to 0.9V (this is considered a full discharge), give 2000 mAh, but some batteries are discharged faster in the range of 1.2-1.1 V, and others in the range of 1.1-1.0 V. Or they heat up differently under load. When installed in one set, due to different discharge curves, a situation may arise when one battery is discharged to zero and the rest of the cells begin to charge it in the opposite direction, which will lead to instant battery failure. Today you have four 2000mAh batteries, and tomorrow only three.

In 2013, I bought the first La Crosse BC 700 smart charger and Sanyo batteries, then, for lithium batteries - a universal charger, I immediately felt the difference. Since then, I regularly test chargers and batteries from other manufacturers, I constantly update the battery park and follow the new products, so I can talk about batteries not just speculatively, but on the basis of their use in the field.

Batteries and chargers from China, relevant for 2018

This article is already 4 years old, but I am constantly updating it, so the above remains true for 2017. I just want to add that the production of Sanyo batteries was bought out by Matsushita and now the same batteries are sold under the Panasonic Eneloop and Fujitsu Eneloop brands. The very same ones, they can even be safely used together with the old ones in one device.

Second point: Chinese universal chargers that I purchased in 2015 turned out to be very high quality, this is for $ 14.99, which can charge 3.7V / 1.2V AA / AAA 18650/26650/16340/14500/10440/18500 batteries, and the best in terms of price / quality ratio super wagon. In version 2.2, it is completely free from childhood illnesses and is by far the best device. Occasionally found on sale under the Zeepin brand with the same mark. A big plus of the Opus 3100, in addition to the ability to simultaneously charge lithium and nickel batteries (a switch is provided for charging Li-FeO4 and other exotic 4.2V / 4.35V / 3.7V), is forced cooling during charging, which reduces the likelihood of overheating of the cans (and this miracle is able to charge them with currents up to 2 amperes, which implies significant heating). The second plus is the possibility of using this charger in a car with direct power supply from the 12 volt on-board network. Well, everything else is also at a high level - training, measuring internal resistance, DC charging for lithium and -ΔV for nickel batteries.

Liitokala repeats the functionality of Nitecore D4, since it does not know how to train batteries in automatic mode, but it charges perfectly and is cheaper.

A few words about chargers for 8 or more AA / AAA batteries

With rare exceptions, chargers for 8 batteries are either one four-channel charger (two batteries per channel), or two separate four-channel chargers in one case.

For example, for $ 8 (like its noname brother called the C808W for $ 7), it charges batteries in pairs (i.e., it has 4 double 2.4 volt slots instead of 8 slots of 1.2 volts). And despite the 8 slots, the charge current for AA batteries is only 200 mA, which is five times less than that of normal chargers. Thus, while the TangsPower T - 808C charges two sets of batteries, Opus has time to charge five sets. Another limitation: you cannot charge one battery, the minimum amount is two. Moreover, if you want to use the batteries longer, they must be equally discharged. Otherwise, the one with more charge will be recharged. This is rubbish, I mentioned it to demonstrate that more is not always better.

For $ 45 it can charge lithium! This, in fact, is all of its dignity. From intelligence in it - the name, and 8 separate channels of 650 mA. It doesn't even have a screen that will show you that the charging has correctly understood the type of battery. It stands, like three Liitokalas, but does not even have a small screen to show the voltage and magnitude of the flooded current, not to mention a large screen, testing internal resistance, training batteries, etc.

And finally, the champion of eight-cell chargers,. Price $ 63, excellent informative screen, the ability to charge Ni-MH 1.5V, LiFePO4 3.6V, Li-ion 4.2 V / 4.3 V / 4.35 V batteries in almost all sizes. Charge current 1A for each slot, the ability to set the charging mode for each slot separately. And you can even use it like a Powerbank. It costs like two Opus. But he does not know how to train and test batteries, because, first of all, this is a device for charging lithium batteries in the field (from the vehicle's on-board network), which, as an option, added the ability to charge nickel.

Accordingly, there is no positive effect from increasing the number of slots. In the first case, the device will charge the batteries in pairs (there is no question of any intelligence of such a device), in the second and third, it is more efficient and cheaper to buy two separate chargers. For example, as it was before with me: one only for nickel AA / AAA, with the ability to restore batteries (and train them every six months), and the second without such an opportunity, but with the support of lithium batteries. The advantages of this scheme:

• you can quickly charge eight NiMH batteries at the same time (the keyword "fast", since the charge current in eight-cell chargers is usually lower);
• if necessary, train them (in free time, 4 at a time);
• charge lithium batteries with a second charger (lithium does not need training)
• cost savings and the ability to buy one device first, and then buy a second one.

I am glad to welcome you again, dear reader. We are in touch with you, Timur Mustaev. We talked a lot about the device of the camera, touched upon many theoretical aspects. But earlier it was not possible to consider batteries in cameras and accessories, and after all, 8 out of 10 photographers suffer from the problem of batteries that have sat down at the wrong time. The moment has come when I will tell you about the main types of batteries and their features.

Today we will talk about which are the best AA batteries to choose.

Alkaline batteries or Alcaine

This is one of the most common types of batteries. You can buy these in any store, which makes them so popular. What is the reason for this? With ease of use and no need to charge them. But there are a number of disadvantages, the main of which is the "disposability" of such batteries.

They also give out a sufficiently weak current to successfully and effectively use them for a camera or flash, although some of the first electronic cameras were powered by just such batteries. Their recoil is not enough for modern cameras, as well as for flashes. Their place is in wall clocks, remotes, alarm clocks and similar gadgets.

Interestingly, it is worth noting that some people call alkaline batteries alcaine. In principle, this is true, but illiterate, since Alcaine is translated as "alkaline". As for the capacity - it differs between models, affects the duration of the mechanism.

Therefore, we are interested in buying a battery with a larger capacity, as it will obviously last longer.

Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) Batteries

This is a relatively young type of battery with a number of advantages over alkaline.

• The first and most important thing is "reusability". These batteries can be recharged more than once.
• The second plus follows from the first - durability. Such a power source will serve you for a long time, it will not become part of the junk collection after the first use.

Of course, such items are not sold without capacity designations. It is determined in milliampere-hours (mAh). This figure may differ between models of the same size and weight, it all depends on the technology used. However, you shouldn't choose the option with the largest capacity figure. Why?

It's all about the properties of the material: nickel-metal hydride batteries with a high capacity, standard dimensions have a fairly high density of elements inside, thin walls of insulators. This can cause self-discharge, which is not very pleasant, you must agree. That is why they should be charged only before direct use, otherwise, the charge may dry out at the most inopportune moment.

But not only this problem is inherent in Ni-MH-batteries. Many users of such a solution reported about the memory effect of such batteries. What is it? For example, if you discharge it by half and then recharge it again, after a while it will start falsely reporting by 50% that the charge is running out. Because of this, many photographers recommend discharging them to zero.

Some manufacturers have decided to fight this state of affairs. The most effective today is recognized as a new "gadget" for this type of batteries - a decrease in the level of self-discharge.

This is realized through the use of better materials when creating the battery. Thanks to this, it can hold the charge at the same level for up to several years, provided that it will not be used. Surprisingly, most of these power supplies are sold pre-charged, so you don't have to look for an outlet immediately after purchase.

In addition, Ni-MH power supplies are great friends with photographic equipment. They deliver a high enough voltage to recharge the flash and get the brightest possible beam of light. In addition, they are enough for more than 300 shots, which is good news.

Almost all batteries of this type are sold with a charger, but you can additionally purchase a more capacious and powerful adapter.

Li-ion and Li-polymer batteries

But we are interested in batteries used only in cameras, since it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to find them for flashes. In the AA and AAA form factors, such batteries are not produced, because lithium-ion (Li-Ion) compounds can ignite if you do not use a special controller.

For everything else, batteries are better suited than the previous two types. The main advantage is the lack of self-discharge as such, which allows you to constantly keep them charged. For a camera, this is definitely the best solution. Also, lithium-ion power supplies allow you to use all 100% of their charge to the last drop, which is why they have become very popular.

But it's worth remembering that you need to keep a few percent of the charge in reserve so that the battery will listen as long as possible. This is due to the capacity loss factor. If you discharge it to zero, then along with the current charge, several milliamperes of the maximum will go away. This fact has been proven by numerous smartphone tests.

Lithium-polymer (Li-Po) batteries are somewhat less common. Their production is much more expensive, and the main advantage is the complete absence of capacity losses under any conditions. They will undoubtedly replace lithium-ion batteries in the future. Now they are used primarily in Tesla electric vehicles.

It is because of the lithium polymer batteries that the Model S and Model X are so expensive. With lithium-ion batteries, they would definitely cost several thousand dollars less.

conclusions

Good rechargeable AA batteries are Ni-MH cells if we choose it for flash. They can be recharged, and the voltage is sufficient for the normal operation of the accessory.

A lithium-ion or lithium-polymer power supply is perfect for your camera. This option is reliable, durable and does not lose charge during long-term storage. Alkaline batteries are best left at home for use in an alarm clock, remote control, or wall clock.

Hope the article was interesting. In any case, you now know more about the types of batteries and their properties. If you liked the article - tell your friends about it, and if you want to learn more about the camera device, as well as read articles about composition, light and other subtleties of photography - subscribe to our blog, there are many interesting things ahead of us.

All the best to you, Timur Mustaev.