[Project Farm] has a video in which a wide variety of AA cells are analyzed and compared in terms of capacity, internal resistance, ability to deliver voltage under load, and ability to perform in sub-freezing temperatures. Alkaline, lithium, and even some mature rechargeable cells with a couple thousand cycles under their belt were all compared. There are a few interesting results that will can help you get the most from your money the next time you’re battery shopping.
The video embedded below demonstrates a set of tests that we recommend you check out, but the short version is that more expensive (non-rechargeable) lithium cells outperform their alkaline peers, especially when it comes to overall longevity, ability to perform under high-drain conditions, and low temperatures. Lithium cells also cost more, but they’re the right choice for some applications.
As for how different brands stack up against one another, many of them are more or less in the same ballpark when it comes to performance. Certainly there are better and worse performers, but outside of a couple of stinkers the rest measure up reasonably well. Another interesting finding was that among rechargeable cells that were all several years (and roughly 2,200 charge-discharge cycles) old, a good number of them still performed like new.
Probably the single most striking difference among the different cells is cost — and we’re not just talking about whether lithium versus alkaline AAs are more cost-effective in the long run. Some brands simply cost twice as much (or more!) than others with comparable performance. If you’re in a hurry, jump to [Project Farm] presenting the final ranked results at 19:45 in.
Relying on brand recognition may save you from buying complete junk, but it’s clearly not the most cost-effective way to go about buying batteries. These findings are similar to an earlier effort at wide-scale battery testing which also determined that factoring in price-per-cell was too significant to ignore.
18650’s are even more variable… Probably more outright fakes as well..
There’s a few valid reasons for this:
A) packing the last say 20% of possible capacity into a cell costs more, so there’s some cheaper cells that just don’t.
B) there’s a tradeoff between rated current (which effectively means isr) and capacity. For example, compare samsung 35e to 30q: 35e is 3500mah 8A, while 30Q is 3000mah 15A. They’re the same price most places.
Some high output current power tool cells are more like 2500 mah.
There are a lot of fakes on the market, but they’re mostly on certain parts of the market. I.e. Amazon, aliexpress, ebay, etc. I’ve never had problems buying cells from places that specialize in lithium batteries (there’s a few sites that do). This is 100% a case where there’s a known market price and a known max capacity; if it’s more than 3500 (maybe 3600?) then it’s a fake. Dito for per cell prices below about 3$, unless you’re working with surplus or used cells. Some low spec but still legit cells might be as low as 2$ new.
Your random ultrafire 4500mah 2$ 18650 is a garenteed fake.
All UltraFire batteries have a minimum capacity of 990,000mAh.
4500mAh? Pfft, obviously fake, bro!
You just have to buy from a reputable store. If they don’t have datasheets, don’t buy from them.
Sites like amazon and aliexpress are full of low quality, no name and sometimes counterfeit cells.
yep, I’ve tested quite a few of them. The trouble in Aus is that there aren’t many ‘reputable’ stores selling them, and some that do are also selling garbage..
There is a large list of reputable stores in the pinned post on r/18650masterrace. Some of them will ship internationally, but the shipping cost likely isn’t worth it unless you’re buying in bulk.
I’m glad we don’t have to put up with those miserable NiCd rechargeable batteries of the 1980’s!
NiCads: You my not remember using them, but they do!
They’re not the only ones with memory effect, I do too cleaning up corrosion!
NiCd have lower charging current. You can still buy them at Homedepot. Usually labeled “For Solar…”
I’ve had a lot of name-brand NiMH AA cells that won’t hold a charge after fewer than 10 cycles. Cheap NiCd cells do much better.
NiCd’s will basically work forever. I came across a 30+ year old electric screwdriver that had somehow fallen inside the wall of my shop and been there for ages baking in the Arizona sun every summer. The plastic was trashed but I pulled the batteries out because they were right there and hadn’t exploded or anything.
Out of the 6 batteries 4 took a charge right away, the other 2 worked after a quick shock from my welder. I’ve yet to come across a NiCd that couldn’t be revived that way.
A flooded cell NiCD battery is pretty much the “forever battery” if you just keep topping it up with water. It will keep running for 20-30-40 years until something inside the cells physically breaks.
But that’s about the only good thing about it.
That, low internal resistance, fast charging, it was the winner out of all the battery technology of the time and it still doesn’t explode into an almost inextinguishable blaze if you abuse it.
We must keep in mind that NiCD had an advantage at the time: they could in principle be charged without proper charging electronic.
Some simpler circuits did take advantage of this.
Early satellites (ham sats) had NiCDs connected to the solar cells without a charger circuit, I recall.
Though of course, using a proper charger circuit was recommended – even with NiCD.
I was especially shocked how bad those German made cells were. All types were so close I guess they all come from Varta as it is to my knowledge the only German factory left. And they’re struggling…
I’m annoyed that his wrapup table at the end is by rank, not raw numbers. By doing this, he ignores just how much better or worse something is.
If you’re specifically looking for disposable batteries and don’t care about how often you have to replace them or cold-weather performance, the Varta and Thunderbolt Magnum are dramatically better than other options, at 92 mAh/uspenny. This is four times more electrons per penny than the best of all the lithium primary cells and one-eighth the cost so twice the bang-for-buck.
If you’re looking for cold-weather performance, or having to replace batteries the fewest total number of times, you’ll be happy with any of the non-premium lithium primary cells.
If you’re looking for lowest total amount of money out-of-pocket, one of the modern NiMH rechargables.
Make sure one has a good charger to deal with all that.
I was more annoyed that it was just a “what voltage at 1.5A” rather than capacity.
The cheap batteries do great at low draw, but their capacity collapses at higher draw. Some lithiums more than make up for the cost in those cases.
There are also rechargeable lithiums in AA factor now too.
Coast ZITHION-X AA Rechargeable Lithium Batteries sold at Costco now.
It’s always been Eneloop NiMh rechargable, and Energiner Max or Lithium. There have been candlepowerforums threads on it for decades. Most people just use a OPUS BT-C3400 to test AA, AAA, C, 18650..
I started switching to Eneloop in 2005 and most of the first batch of cells I bought are still working just fine.
I am missing the most important here, battery leakage. The reason why there is almost no battery worse than the Duracell alkaline is because of its tendency to LEAK and DESTROY your equipment. There is a tradeoff between capacity and the tendency to leak. This is because the cathode material (outside of the cell in the battery) is consumed during discharging. While Duracell alkalines perform quite well they are also champions in destroying your equipment. I do not want Duracell alkalines in my house ever again for that reason. This tendency to leak I first noticed around 2000 but it hasn’t changed since. So I don’t care about the last 5-10% capacity, I about my equipment.
HA! You’ve clearly never used Kirkland corroders, I mean “batteries”. However I’ve stumbled upon a cleaner product that seems to work https://corrosiongone.com
I found it (of all places) at American Science and Surplus https://sciplus.com/
It’s been said that Kirkland batteries are just relabels of Duracells. I’ve not verified this, though.
Those were purportedly manufactured by Duracell (or whoever makes them for them) at some point and might still be. Whoever makes them, I have seen some leak badly.
My worst leak experience was a set of working batteries in a remote where the remote suddenly showed a weak battery indicator. I said to myself that I will change them tomorrow and went to bed
Next morning, there was a small puddle of battery juice under the remote.
Those were local pharmacy branded AA alkalines and had been working fine for weeks before that. The remote was fine once cleaned, save for some damaged paint.
Can confirm, pretty much every time I’ve used Kirkland AA and AAA I’ve had to strip stuff down and clean up leakage. Have not had that experience with Duracell but I tend not to buy them often because they’re poor value.
I quite like (UK here) GP and Procell cells, dirt cheap, good capacity and I’ve not had one leak yet.
I’ve had some of the kirkland batteries leak while still in the package and less than a year old. I will never buy them or duracells ever again.
Here in the US, I used to always buy Duracell batteries from Costco. (Haven’t used the Kirkland brand ones.). Absolutely horrible leakage rates. I’ll never get them again. (Again, in the US) you can get bulk packs of energizer max alkalines and energizer lithiums from Amazon for a reasonable price and my rate of leaks has gone to zero. (Of course, I’m also being really careful to only buy directly from Amazon, not some weird third-party seller.)
All of these are “AA” cells I’ll mention.
For me it’s was Ray-o-vac (primary cells) having the worst leakage issues.
Haven’t allowed them in my house for years. So no idea if they ever improved.
Duracells just seemed to lose their output & life span some years back (mercury removal?).
Eneloops have been pretty good, but haven’t bought any new ones in a few years.
Currently trying some NiZ rechargeable “piscell”(sp?) AA’s in flashlights (Seem ok so far) and a Canon point&shoot that eats AA’s like candy (bit early to say for sure)
Also bought some nicad “EBL” brand. Lasted pretty decent in house carry light used for pantry and closest prowling type of short usages, long as cheapest primary cells did.
Seemed to last as well as most primary cells in the Canon camera (sx-160).
“and a Canon point&shoot that eats AA’s like candy”
I had that problem too, with two Canon cameras. It wasn’t that they drained the batteries so fast, but that they wouldn’t use the batteries unless they were almost new. When the cameras would warn that the batteries were too low and turn themselves off, I’d take them out and measure the voltage, and unloaded they’d be like 1.49V. Both cameras gradually got worse and worse until they would do that even with brand-new alkaline batteries. And Canon would not service them, even though they were still pretty new, just because the models had been replaced and they want you to buy a new one. Sorry, Canon, I’ve learned my lesson. No more buying from Canon.
I’ve used NiZn batteries extensively for about 8 years, for wireless microphone transmitters.
These are my findings:
– NiZn stay at 1.6 V until they’re empty, then the voltage drops off a cliff. This makes the battery indicators on those mics useless: they indicate the battery is full until the end.
– When a NiZn battery is discharged completely, it’s likely to break. Even new cells with 1-2 cycles can become impossible to recharge, or lose half their rated capacity when they’ve been completely discharged once.
– Capacity drops rapidly. After ~ 2 years of use at 2 hours per week, they’re at half their original capacity, and can power a microphone (Sennheiser EW100 G3) for 4 hours instead of the original 10.
I like the high voltage: at 1.6 V, you can power things that won’t accept a 1.2 V NiMH cell.
But they need rigorous charging discipline, because if you wait until the device fails from lack of power, your batteries are likely to be scrap.
Interesting.
I mostly avoid having things that consume only replaceable batteries; for the few devices I do have, I get packs of the name-brand akalines on sale. I keep most stored new batteries in the freezer.
Most of the time I look for devices and projects that I can power with the ubiquitous USB battery banks (which often go on sale), or 18650 cells, thanks to the readily-available charger/discharge modules.
HF AA edge batteries work well [great!] in Canon SX 160 camera.
HF AAA Edge batteries installed in Sony voice recorder. Voice recorder software malfunctioned.
HF thunderbolt and Amazon alkaline batters caused the Sony to recover.
Amazon thermometer/hygrometer suffer a similar issue. Clock reset until HF Edge batteries replaced by ‘normal’ alkaline batteries.
I came across another AA comparison of 13 different batteries. See https://youtu.be/EWanywybTmI
I wonder, why weren’t the primary cells/accus being measured with load, too?
Since lithium types may electronics for regulation/protection,
measuring the voltage drop/amp draw under load might be interesting.
A solar motor or a wall clock already runs with about 1,5v and would be a small load.
An electro magnetc from a construction kit might draw more power, by contrast.
The ultimate test would be measuring Gameboy play time, maybe.
The original DMG-01 ate a whole pack of 4 Mignon cells! 😁