I went from having nothing but a portable radio and a remote with batteries to now also having a digital camera and three Wii-motes.
I need batteries!
Luckily they all take AA - 14 in all.
What do you guys recommend as a brand of battery, and a decent recharger that can hold …14? 12? I don’t even know how many I’ll need to have in there at once.
I am kinda lazy so if there’s chargers that will stop charging when the batteries are full instead of me having to monitor them - I’ll take it!
I recommend using NiMH batteries. I buy mine from Thomas Distributing. They have several chargers which handle from four to eight cells. All the chargers switch to a standby mode after the battery is charged. The instructions state you can leave batteries in the charger indefinitely. Do get a charger specifically designed for NiMH batteries.
The important parameter is capacity measured in mA-h. The best AA are now >2700 mA-h. If you are using the batteries in something with a low current draw (like a remote), it would be best to use Ultra Low Discharge NiMH even if they are lower capacity. Normal NiMH batteries have significant leakage and will completely discharge in a few months even if not used. The Ultra Low Discharge versions will last much longer even though they are lower capacity.
You might want to look or ask for info over at Candlepower Forums.
This is my experience too, but a few additional points.
–Remotes use so little current it might not even be worth the effort to use rechargeable batteries. Remember that they’re something like four or five times the price of regular batteries. I’ve never in my life had a regular battery die in a remote.
–The charge of rechargeables doesn’t last very long, and they don’t die slowly, they die all of a sudden. So if you’re out exercising or something, bring regular batteries as back-ups so you can continue to use whatever your using when it dies.
–Rechargeables will quickly lose their charge even if they’re not being used. So if you want to use them as back-ups, keep them in the recharger.
AA batteries, rechargeable, arn’t extremely expensive anymore. The ones I use (Kodak AA NiMH) are in the 8 dollar range. I have three sets (though one of them is the 13 dollar set of four, I got it because it was the only one available at the store that visit, apparently they last much longer but I havn’t seen much of a difference). I do see your point on the remotes, though, they won’t take a lot of draw so might as well just use some regular AAs.
And for me, I keep one set in my camera (a high power draw device, to put it mildly) and I put the other two in one of these. I highly recommend it to anyone that has the need to keep batteries on hand. I can’t just leave them at home when I’m out taking pictures and keeping them loose in an inside pocket or something is a mess, you always end up losing them. I’ve bought three and given them to other photographer friends of mine besides the one I use.
This isn’t all that true anymore, from what I’ve read. The newest NiMH are decent, sometime within the first couple days of non-use 10% or so of the charge is lost but after that its a pittance, a percent every few days. I don’t know why this is, though, but I did read it around in several places online before I got into using them.
Are the rechargable batteries labeled for digital cameras better for that purpose than those that aren’t? I have a set of rechargable batteries that are just run of the mill ones and they lose a charge quickly in my camera even after being charged all day. I can’t figure out if it’s because they’re not “meant” for cameras, or because they’re just not very good.
a good place to start. You can also buy 3200 mAh batteries on ebay.
I had an older set of batteries that are rechargeable, Duracell brand. They definitely didn’t hold a charge as well, even though they were NiMH, just like my others. I was given them by a friend before getting two other sets of the other kind that I already had. If its due to their age or due to not being listed as “meant” for cameras or if they’re just some 5 years or so behind current technology… I couldn’t tell ya. The ones I use now, though, I have no complaints on whatsoever.
Rechargables are a pretty good deal, but most are a PITA because they lose a certain percentage of their charge every month. And the months go by faster than you might think.
Sanyo Eneloop batteries are a hybrid between rechargable and alkaline batteries. They won’t lose their charge nearly as fast as NiMH rechargables. This is a link to a starter kit with a charger: http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargable-Batteries/dp/B000IV0REA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230586631&sr=8-2
Thanks, all!
I didn’t know about the losing charge bit, or the rates at which they lose charge. So I’ll have to consider all of the stuff I’ll be powering and make the right choice. Very good info!
Well, that’s (good) news to me.
You know, for my last lap top, I ordered an extra battery, just in case I would need more than a couple of hours without an electrical socket. But that rarely happened, and the extra battery just went unused for at least two years.
Then, when I tried to use it after all that time, the thing wouldn’t even charge. It was completely dead, and was used probably about three times.
That’s the thing about most batteries, letting them sit uncharged kills them. You gotta keep them charged. That goes for car batteries too.
A site I found once was testing Lithium Ion batteries (like laptops use), and found that storing them with about (IIRC) 40% charge is best. They also found that the biggest correlation with loss of capacity was time, not usage, so it doesn’t make sense to buy a spare until you need it.