I use AAs and Cs, for TV remotes and radios respectively. I don’t like tossing spent batteries into our landfills, or wherever household hazardous wastes go. I’m thinking of getting rechargeables. But do they work well or do they get fatigued over time and only last, effectively, too few cycles to make them not only not cost effective but also not practical?
If I do go with rechargeables, what kind are best? Nicads?
Also if I go with rechargeables, what kind of rotation do I set up? Do I get 3x battery sets, so that 1 set is in the device while 2 sets are charging? Or 2x battery sets?
They were really good when the kids were little and we went through a lot of batteries. These days, my battery needs are greatly reduced and I don’t find the rechargeable to be economical useful and they do have some issues.
Alkaline batteries tend to get weaker slowly. Rechargeables tend to go very suddenly and it is often an inconvenience. Especially with remotes.
One reason I use to use rechargeables is greatly reduced also. Batteries had a high mercury content, that is thankfully been reduced to very little now.
So to best answer your question, it depends on your battery usage.
I use lots of rechargeable AA and AAA for remotes, video game controllers, and kids toys.
I swear by the Eneloop brand. They are slightly more expensive than average but hold their charge on the shelf much better. I have some that are over a decade old and still working.
We keep enough to have batteries in every device plus an extra 4 of each type, since that’s how many the device that uses the most takes, and you don’t want to have to charge them before being able to use.
Third Eneloop. For some applications, they are actually better and longer lasting than alkalines. (Stuff like camera flashes which are a high drain device. They last much longer and recycle, i.e. charge up the flash capacitor, faster.) Eneloop Pros are my favorite, but regular Eneloops (the white ones) are fine. Hell, the Amazon Basic High Capacity are also very good.
And they are NiMH (nickel metalhydride) mostly these days. I’m not sure I’ve used a NiCad in a couple decades.
We have used them for years since the kids were little and they had lots of toys requiring batteries. Like @What_Exit our needs have greatly reduced, but we still use the legacy batteries we already have.
They do hold a charge for a good amount of time (NiCD), but it is noticeably less than a new alkaline battery, likely due to their age. However, we have enough of them (AA and AAA) that we always have some freshly charged ones on-hand. We just keep a couple of small plastic baskets: one for ‘Dead’ and the other for ‘Charged’. When the Dead basket starts to fill we just charge a few and put into the Charged basket. Some of them will eventually refuse to charge and those get recycled, but I estimate we have saved hundreds of disposable batteries over the years from the trash or having to be recycled.
My experience is almost identical to @snowthx down to the labeled bins. Ours go into the house thermostat, remotes (barely used), my portable razor that goes in my gym bag and cat toys. It’s the last one that draws the most use, because the house panthers require tribute and entertainment. Considering how costly some AA/AAA batteries are, paying something like 50-100% more per battery for a rechargeable option pays for itself pretty fast, even including the charger cost - and that leaves out the landfill issue.
That said, I generally still keep some spare alkaline batteries around for emergency use. Thankfully I have a cousin-in-law that works for a medical facility, and some of their equipment uses AA that have to be replaced per policy on a set timeframe regardless of actual use. So about twice a year get a small bucket of AA that have 2/3 to 3/4 charge left on them spread out over the extended family.
I bought Eneloop batteries to replace the rechargeable ones in the cordless handsets for my landline telephone. I think that’s the only place I use rechargeable batteries.
It wouldn’t occur to me to use rechargeable batteries in TV remotes, because they last so long that either I or the TV will die before I go through enough regular batteries to equal the cost of rechargeables.
Another vote for Eneloop - and a quality charger which will allow you to test a battery’s mAh capacity individually. A problem with rechargeable seemed to be related to self discharge (in the device and in storage), and a second problem attributed to unreliability (one would just lose a good amount of capacity). They above mentioned combo solves both. This way you can recharge them and put them in the battery draw, don’t leave them ‘cooking’ on the charger.
I would suggest getting the AA’s and also AA to C adapters, and not get C cells. This way you are rotating through one battery type which is better than multiple. Also get some disposables for things that take a long time to go through batteries (like 6 months to a year or more).
Prepandemic, we had the grands over a lot and they liked to pay a video game (yes, it’s older) that I have attached to my basement TV set. The remotes require AA batteries and those are rechargables. Otherwise it would cost a small fortune for batteries.
as it’s just Mrs Mallard and me living here we use “normal” Duracell’s for our other uses.
Same here. Using rechargeables really depends on the device. My tv remote batteries last probably a couple years before needing to be replaced. My son’s xbox controllers only a couple days.
I mostly use rechargeable NiMH (mostly Eneloop brand) AA and AAA batteries (it’s been a fairly long time since I’ve seen NiCad AA/AAA batteries). I have a “smart” charger that automatically stops charging each battery as it’s full, so I always have a fully charged supply. In my experience, the current generation of NiMH rechargeables lasts through quite a few cycles and holds charge almost as well as an alkaline one-shot.
I don’t know if Eneloop still offers them, but I got “sleeves” with mine. Basically you could drop the AA size into a tube to make it physically larger in diameter…and use it as a D or C size. My assumption was that they would work great for a short period of time (fewer milliamp hours from a smaller battery?), but I could never get them to work at all.
Yes, this would also be my answer to the OP’s question as well. If a device seems to be eating batteries like M&Ms, it would be a good candidate for rechargeables. But if regular batteries last for years anyway (as with TV remotes), then I wouldn’t bother.
I have rechargeable AAs in an electric shaver I use a couple of times a week—I shudder to think how much I would have spent on batteries for that thing by now.
I’ve been using Tenergy Ni-MH batteries for several years now. They’ve lasted me long enough to pay for themselves and then some. There’s a low self-discharge version that allegedly retains 90% charge after a year of storage, at the cost of slightly less capacity than the standard ones. I use those in things like remotes. Often by the time alkalines stop working for me, they’ve already started leaking. I’ll check out Enerloop next time I need batteries, I only bought the Tenergys because my local Fry’s had them in stock.
I use rechargeables heavily because of my profession (photographer), and a set of batteries will last me several years before I really notice them starting to lose their charge. We’re talking 500 full cycles maybe? The cost savings with that heavy use is astronomical plus, like I said before, with a high discharge device, NiMHs perform better than alkalines (about 150%-200% more flash discharges vs. alkalines and quicker recharge time. Same with using NiMHs in my [older] camera bodies that accept AAs. They last far longer than alkalines.) For stuff like remotes, clocks, smoke detectors. etc. that are slow drain, alkalines are better.
Conventional wisdom is among us ham radio ops and other hobbyists is to use alkaline for very load drain devices like clocks, smoke detectors garage door controls &, yes, TV or stereo remotes. Rechargeables have a higher self discharge than primary chemistries. It’s not perhaps cheaper but considered justified verses the hassle of dead clocks and nagging low battery beeps.
I’ve not heard of the Eneloop brand until today; I should look into it.
Meanwhile, since about 1995, I’ve been a fan of rechargeable NiMH batteries. Seems they have become the go-to rechargeable for a long time, offering a balance of performance, safety and price. But they’re not all the same.
Capacity: Maybe this isn’t an issue so much these days, but I used to check out the batteries before I buy them, trying to get the highest capacity, so the batteries would be able to provide more power. I have both high power and low power applications in my home: remotes, GPS receivers, handheld comm radios and remote controllers (for RC cars and drones).
Quality: Perhaps this is largely determined by brand, but generally speaking, I find these NiMH batteries to fail after a few years. I know this because my charger won’t accept the battery anymore. So if the battery fails soon, that to me is a sign of lesser quality.
Another quality marker might as well be longevity of charge (slower self-discharge). I’m hearing good things about the Eneloops brand, so as I said I’m glad to hear about them and will look into it.
Meanwhile, let me put in the good word for Duracell rechargeables. They’re NiMH, 2500 mAh capacity, and had a phenomenally slow self-discharge. I charged mine up a few cycles and used them normally last spring and summer. Midsummer, about the time I last charged them, I had an issue with my back that had me lie low for months. Finally back on my feet, I fired up my GPS receiver (for hiking) after these Duracell NiMH’s had been in there for 9+ months, and they were still almost fully charged. That’s the best performance I’ve seen in a NiMH ever. Wow!
Ours go into the house thermostat, remotes (barely used), my portable razor that goes in my gym bag and cat toys. It’s the last one that draws the most use, because the house panthers require tribute and entertainment. Considering how costly some AA/AAA batteries are, paying something like 50-100% more per battery for a rechargeable option pays for itself pretty fast, even including the charger cost - and that leaves out the landfill issue.