Rechargeable Batteries

What are the capacity rechargeable batteries that come with the 436? I am investigating the possibility of getting some Panasonic Enerloops to have on hand and am debating between the Pro Enerloop to the standard capacity-wise. I'd still like to primarily rely on standard non-rechargeable batteries, however, the last time I used them was a good 15 years ago and it appears the technology has changed considerably since then.

srpawski said:

What are the capacity rechargeable batteries that come with the 436? I am investigating the possibility of getting some Panasonic Enerloops to have on hand and am debating between the Pro Enerloop to the standard capacity-wise. I'd still like to primarily rely on standard non-rechargeable batteries, however, the last time I used them was a good 15 years ago and it appears the technology has changed considerably since then.

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I switched to enerloop pro shortly after Getty my 436. Which I got shortly after it came out

Have you compared the Pros to the standard enerloops? Are they worth the extra money for the 500 mah capacity and shorter life span?

I've switched to the standard Eneloop cells for all of my battery powered devices with the exception of clocks. For service in my TV remotes, they seem to last almost as long as alkaline cells. But don't believe the hype, they will not meet their claimed capacity. A 2000 mah cell will only deliever about 1800 mah. But that fact is true for all rechargeable cells regardless of its chemistry. I recently bought 4 Powerex AAA cells to try. They are rated at 1000 mah but test out at only 850 mah. But they do save me a lot of money.

If you're interested in saving a little bit of money I would recommend the Amazon basics high-capacity rechargeable batteries.

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics...r=8-1&keywords=Amazon+basics+AA+high+capacity

I have been using them for two years and they have performed excellently. I have tested them against the Eneloop Pro batteries and found the results to be identical. Both gave me 12 hours of use in my 436 and 8 hours of use in my 325. Either one of these is definitely an improvement over the batteries that come in the box.

This is timely, since I recently discovered my NiMH cells in my BC246T will no longer hold a charge. I've been debating replacing them with NiMH, or switching to rechargeable alkaline or even li-ions. Is there a broad consensus about what gives the best bang for the buck for hand-helds?

I've had the opposite experience with the Amazon Basics batteries, won't be buying them again. Charge 'em, put 'em on the shelf, come back in 90 days and they'll be useless. Eneloops can go six months without any big loss.

One set of the Basics were so bad, went dead so quickly, that I sent them back and Amazon apparently is aware of the issue because it was well past return time and they still gave no argument.

Could be they've changed manufacturers but I'd guess these are "lowest Chinese bidder of the year".

Rred said:

I've had the opposite experience with the Amazon Basics batteries, won't be buying them again. Charge 'em, put 'em on the shelf, come back in 90 days and they'll be useless. Eneloops can go six months without any big loss.

One set of the Basics were so bad, went dead so quickly, that I sent them back and Amazon apparently is aware of the issue because it was well past return time and they still gave no argument.

Could be they've changed manufacturers but I'd guess these are "lowest Chinese bidder of the year".

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I think you're correct about a possible change in suppliers.

The first batch of Basics I got had no issue, but later ones have, as you noted, declined tremendously in quality & serviceability.

That's a shame about the Amazon batteries. The ones I have are about 17 months old and are going strong. Looking at the link I sent you they have definitely changed the wrapper on the outside of the battery so a vendor change maybe possible. That is indeed a bummer.