17
votes
Lithium and alkaline AA batteries tested by Project farm
Link information
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- Title
- Finally! A Battery That’s Better Than Energizer and Duracell!
- Authors
- Project Farm
- Duration
- 20:46
- Published
- Dec 15 2024
TL;DR lithium batteries outperform alkaline, but alkaline still win on price per mA hour. There are a lot of cheaper high performing options lithium options that are cheaper than the name brands.
And dead alkaline batteries bounce higher than charges one - weird!
I think the killer feature of the lithium batteries for me might be the "no leaking and corroding everything". I've lost far too many good flashlights, etc., to alkaline battery leaks over the years despite my best efforts to remember to remove the batteries for storage.
Would like to have seen voltage drop over time. I have two wireless trackballs, both are sensitive to voltage drops and I've had to switch back to alkaline batteries because the rechargeables (NiCad and Li) are good for maybe 6-8 weeks at a time before they very suddenly stop working while alkalines have both a slower drop off (so that I don't get stranded with a dead trackball mid-meeting, and last 6 months at a time.
Blink doorbells pretty much only take "Energizer Ultimate Lithium" single use batteries for this reason. They start at 1.8V and drop more gradually than alkaline, ending up at 1.4V. Regular alkaline batteries read as half dead almost immediately and don't last very long overall.
I have a Blink "package cam" that uses them, so I'm familiar. Haven't tried them in the trackball just yet as I have a large number of alkaline on hand.
I also have a solar panel setup that plugs into the camera, charges an 18650 cell, and that powers the cam, just haven't found a good place for it at the new house just yet.
I like that idea, though unfortunately mine are in areas that are probably too shaded (and being in an apartment complex there are limited options).
I'm kind of contemplating looking for alternative cameras at this point though, because I feel like they're deliberately making the experience progressively worse if you record to the base station instead of using their cloud subscription...
Yeah, if I needed them for actual security I'd have long since replaced them. I just have the one up now (versus five back in Texas where they were more necessary) as I just want something to let me know when something gets dropped off.
Glad I got them cheap, won't be disappointed when I have to replace them.
Just to clarify, in your experience the rechargeable lithium last only as long as the rechargeable Nickle batteries? That really surprises me because lithium should have much higher energy density and retain a higher voltage than Nickle chemistries. Is there a chance you had a bad batch of rechargeables?
I also think you probably mean Nickle Metal Hydride (NiMH) instead of NiCad which has become a much more popular Nickle chemistry.
Correct. The two brands of rechargeable lithium AA batteries I've tried were no better than the NiMH (also correct on my incorrect chemistry). Perhaps things have improved as my order history is showing those Li attempts were 3.5 years ago now, but am hesitant to attempt as by the time I can confirm they do/don't work for my needs the return window has well past and I don't need another set of useless-to-me batteries in the junk drawer.
My Logitech M570s live with eneloops in them and have never given me troubles. What brand of trackballs that you have are so sensitive? My Kensington has been living off the original alkalines for quite some time and I haven't heard of voltage sensitivity like that before.
Did see it in a Logitech gaming mouse though...
Fellow trackball/superior pointing device enthusiast!
Elecom Deft Pro and Elecom Huge are the two. The Huge being more sensitive in my experience.
Yes, my impression of the Lithium replacement AA form factor batteries was always that their use case was shelf stability for extremely low/intermittent drain applications, where an alkaline would passively drain faster.
This link says it's a Project Farm video, we're going to test that!
Project Farm is always an essential stop before buying a product in my opinion. Has anyone found similar channels that do thorough product testing without a heavy bias? I haven't found anything remotely as good as Project Farm.
I’ve had a good experience with rechargeable lithium batteries (I get the EBL brand). They are more expensive but I hate throwing away batteries and have so many devices that use them, so I figure it’s cheaper in the long run. I also have several eneloop rechargeables that are holding on after probably 10 years of use; they don’t do as well for high drain devices but work fine for remotes or kids toys.
Project Farm has been a reliable, trustworthy informer of the public on where they should, and should not, spend their hard-earned money to the best return.
Todd Osgood is a treasure, one of the few who has found a fairly unique niche, pursued it with passion, and found democratic crowd-funded success in a business model that just keeps providing honest value to everyone.
Some of his reviews involve waiting for literal years to finish gathering data on a set of products before publishing the related video. True dedication there.