General-purpose (device) batteries ... all lithium, all the time?

[50ShadesOfDirt]

I'm looking to cut the cord(s) to the following:

• alkaline (AAA/AA/C/D ... non-rechargeables): purchasing is a problem (either too much for two batteries in a convenience pack, or buying in 55-gal drum packs at big box), disposal is problematic (we used to recycle these, now everyone says "throw them in the garbage"), leakiness
• NI-CD, NI-MH (rechargeables): somewhat expensive, recharge cycles vary, power and other limitations exist (in terms of replacing the alkalines), too many "charging systems" piling up.

So, the house battery bank is LFP, the homestead (ryobi) powertool-line is Lithium battery packs (powers numerous tools, chainsaws, etc., and very portable). The last holdout is the alkaline and such "device" batteries.

I'm thinking I need to jettison the older tech of alkaline, NI-whatever, and so on, and move all the devices (tech-refresh) to Lithium form-factors. This is based upon seeing "lithium" AAA/AA/C/D form factors on Amazon, and which seem to match up to 1.5v output and such; they seem to have similar discharge (very flat) curves, cycle-life comparable to house battery bank LFPs (1000+ cycles), and so on.

• older devices are either dying out (planned obselescense), or if still kicking, can use these lithium form-factor batteries.
• newer devices coming in seem to be showing up more often with lithium batteries (flat packs & such).

I live in a somewhat cold region, southern rockies at elevation, but all our outbuildings are heated, so no problems with lithium charging that I can see.

From what I know so far, I think this will succeed; I'd be extremely happy if we never purchased another alkaline again. Are others looking to move entirely to lithium, throughout the battery environment?

 

[Lt.Dan]

How often are you running through AAs and such? I seem to buy a 50 pack or so on Amazon once every few years it seems...

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

We go through them in droves ... my wife runs a tight ship on resupply as we live a few hours from SAMS ... something gets used, it makes the reorder list. I don't think they come any cheaper than from SAMS or such.

Various smoke alarms throughout the house, display on our weather station has 6 AA slots (for backup, even though we have it on AC as well), various kids' toys, lots of personal flashlights for everyone, tools (testers for this and that, most of which have probably leaked by now). Hmm ... I've barely scratched the surface.

I was trying to replace a lot of that with NI-MH, leading to a mini-proliferation of charging stations ... yet another chemistry ... another charger (or two, or three, while trying to choose wisely).

 

[Substrate]

The biggest problem with nimh AA is the clown-show of consumer marketing, mating cheap cells with cheap chargers. It's been like this for ages.

If you want to stop the pain, get Panasonic Eneloop. BUT, don't shoot yourself in the foot by getting a cheap-ass charger from the grocery store.

The chargers that Panasonic makes are fine for initial use. But if you want to get serious, there is only one brand - Maha Powerex. They actually worked with Sanyo/Panasonic engineers to get it right.

Easily available online. They are actually made in the FDK factory, so those are good too.

The problem is that if you want good results, you're going to pay for it. If you cheap out, or follow other recommendations steering you to something else that's "just as good", or "a simple rebrand" etc etc... well just don't bother.

Another problem is end-user mix-n-match. Ideally, you should *dedicate* cells to a device, and keep track, mark, or ID them like a "pack" and not just a bunch of loose cells. Use them as a pack - if they are discharged, don't mix-n-match! Buy enough to make "packs" (cells dedicated to a singular device) for swapout when needed.

Ie, one shouldn't start pulling cells from remotes, wall-clocks, toys, and put them into another device and complain about poor performance.

In fact, if you do this with loose li-ion cells you want to upgrade to, you'll find the same problem. And some from very sketchy li-ion manufacturers and their crap chargers.

Enelooops, when properly treated, are basically the pinnacle of consumer AA nimh. I have several gen-1 packs still going strong from 2006. Costco or Sam's Club cells? Even with GOOD chargers? Yeah not so much. There's a reason they simply aren't Eneloops and never will be.

Like going from lead-acid to LifeP04, going to decent NIMH, means skipping the crap with the least upfront cost, and looking at things long-term and doing it right. Sanyo / Panasonic / FDK / Maha Powerex. End-user dedicates cells to devices, and doesn't pull randoms from other stuff. Heaven.

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

Looked into Maha Powerex ... NI-MH, so would need (probably their) charger. 1.2v, so devices may or may not have trouble with less voltage. Does this get worse if device has more slots, like 6 or 8 AA slots?

Both Maha and Panasonic Eneloop seem limited to AA/AAA (or use a spacer scheme)? Need D's and 9v's, or the replacement strategy takes a hit. Charge cycles, form factors, something less than 1.5v ... not sure where this leads me.

At this point, it's time to get something in hand and start kicking the tires. Ordering a mess of (EBL) lithiums in various form factors, no charger needed (other than my existing usb stuff). Maha/Eneloop is taking some reading, but already have EBL ni-mh on hand ...

Move to Lithium, or move to Eneloop ... either way, maybe the alkaline cord is the first thing to cut.

 

[Substrate]

Yep - definitely move on from alkaleaks. The only decent 9v charger that isn't just a simple trickle-cooker, but is actually smart is the Maha Powerex MH-C490F, or the larger MH-C1090F. The problem are the batteries. Here too, Maha Powerex makes a line of "lsd" Imedions that are 8.4v. One has to be careful since some batteries and applications are 8.4 / 9.6v, so don't choose a higher voltage "9V battery" and burn up your wireless mics for example.

You'll notice - at least in my area over the last decade or so, even grocery stores stopped carrying rechargeables and chargers.

If I put on my tinfoil conspiracy hat, it was an attempt to convince the public to stop using rechargeables by way of selling absolutely junk AA rechargeables, along with horrid chargers - forcing most to quickly going back to buying 64-packs of alkalines instead.

These days, about the only thing 9v that I use are for my multimeters that run with them. I don't want Alkalines leaking into my Flukes! Here I only use the lower-voltage 8.4v versions.

But whatever floats your boat and fits your needs the best is the way to go..

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

EBL Lithiums came in, with AAA, AA, D, and 9v formats. All come with a hydra usb type-b cable, and all are charging via my standard USB device charger (no special battery charger needed). All (except 9v) are 1.5v exactly, so I don't expect power issues in devices, when swapping out the alkalines.

Built-in charging leds on each battery, which starts out red when charging, flips to blue when done.

Theoretically 1000 cycles ... starting cycle # ... 001 ... (you may not want to hang around for all 1000).