Can someone point me in the direction of a free online report that rates AA batteries? I remember reading the definitive answer (if, indeed, there is one) some time ago, writing the winner down, fully planning to buy that brand from now on, then losing the paper.
Best for what application?
If it means anything to you, I saw one report that reviewed batteries and found that there was not statistically significant difference in performance–except for the ones labeled “Heavy Duty.” Those didn’t last as long.
However, this was on TV, and you know strange things can happen. . .
Oh, the usual. Discman, remote control (despite popular opinon, I lead a fairly uneventful life). The “winner” was one of the big name brands.
Go to your local library and look up Consumer Reports of Jan 2001 or Dec 2002. They have reports on alkaline batteries.
Regarding uses, the separation seems to be between sudden, high-drain uses (like camera flashs, etc.) and steady moderate- drain uses (flashlights, portable electronics, etc.). These 2 uses need different kinds of batteries. The low-drain uses (clocks, wristwatches, smoke detectors, etc.) use so little that almost any kind of battery will work fine in them.
For me, the battery that works best in the one on sale.
BUT, I’ve had really good luck with the gold radio shack batteries.
AFAICT (As Far As I Can Tell), batteries are all the same. I haven’t noticed any significant difference in life among any brand I’ve tried, and I’ve tried both Big Brands and smaller store brands. My main usage is my portable CD player and my walkman, two devices that exert a steady, midlevel drain on their power supply.
(Ok, the CD player can jump up a bit to a steady highlevel drain when I’m listening to one of my punk CDs. :D)
It is difficult to give a factual answer to a question where the definition of “best” is not clear. Do you mean only performance, regardless of price ? Do you mean best in terms of return of investment ? etc.
Unless you qualify your question with exact parameters, such questions belong in IMHO. I’ll move it for you.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I also have seen an online review (where, I can’t remember), and took away from it that though there are small differences between brands, the truly top brand (whatever it was) was way to expensive to justify the minimal difference in performance. The main point of this article/review was to say to make sure that you buy alkaline batteries, which of course most of them are.
That being said, my husband and I have saved tons of money using rechargeable NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries. They don’t develop a memory like NiCad batteries. We originally purchased them for our digital camera and were so impressed by the cost savings that we installed them in everything needing batteries. BTW, we use a Rayovac model PS4 charger, which was about $30. It’s a 1-hour charger and works for AA, AAA and 9-volt batteries, both NiMH and NiCad.
NOTE: I just checked Consumer Reports. They basically said that in most applications, store alkaline batteries will do as well as the brand names.