Eneloop Batteries failing ?

[exxos]

I have been using the AA and AAA batteries for a couple of years easily now. I've also purchased the pro batteries more recently.

However I have noticed over the past few weeks something which seems odd. In that the battery voltage just literally drops to zero for no apparent reason.

The first time this happened was actually with a Duracell AA this today and a couple of weeks ago. My battery charger would not register there was a battery inserted. So I " jumpstarted" it from my bench power supply for a few minutes to get a bit of voltage and then eat apparently charged up fine.

However I have also had this happen to the eneloop batteries. One of them seemingly has died in our TV remote. has not had many charges at all. Though when I measured it it was zero. Same as the Duracell the charge would not register it. So I again jumpstarted it of the power supply and now it is charging in normal charger again. But now it is getting rather hot and the voltage has not shifted from 1.32V for the past couple of hours. So I think this battery is dead. My power supply only registered something like 20mA during my "jumpstart" from my power supply. So it is not like it was totally short-circuited.

The other battery which was in the remote charged up fine and is now doing a discharge test to verify the capacities correct etc. I don't think there will be any problems with that one.

The AAA battery is eneloop Panasonic / Sanyo 750mA Ni-Mh. I only charge them up on 200mA, even the higher capacity batteries such as the pro 930mA etc. they have all had a very light duty life. In particular the TV remote batteries, I cannot even remember last time they were charged up. Certainly I doubt they have had more than 5 charges in their life.

Ordinarily I would have just blamed the eneloop batteries for being "bad". But as this is also happened to a Duracell, at least where the voltage has dropped to zero. It is some problem with the charger or just some inherent fault for bad Ni-Mh Batteries ? It is possible that the Duracell could have literally gone flat because it is used in a torch. So it could be a red herring in this case. As all the batteries are mixed up I don't know which one it was now. I will definitely keep a closer eye on this problem from now on.

In any case I wonder if anyone has witnessed this sort of problem with any batteries in particular eneloop ?

[PeckPeekPoke]

Hi Exxos 8-)
I use EBL Ni-mh 9v, aa, aaa, & d batteries. I love them because they have survived many recharges in adverse conditions. The EBL charger displays the charge for each cell. When I put them in for a recharge, they don't seem to have discharged equally while in the same device. Some are empty and others nearly full.

[Tomswork]

I use these batteries in photography and the last batch I purchased were not as good as the older ones

Tom

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[rubber_jonnie]

I used to use rechargeables all the time, something that harked back to my days of radio controlled models, but now I just use disposables for things like remotes and Xbox controllers (Yes I know it's bad) but I got tired of the poor lifespan and having to recharge so often.

[PeckPeekPoke]

You should try EBL. The AAA are 1100mAh: They're cheap and they last a long time between charges. I use them in remote controls, a headlamp, a torch, a multimeter, the ionic electric dog brush, and they even survive freezing temperatures in the hen-house.
After the investment for the charger, I think you'll save money in the long run.

[exxos]

More failures. A couple of AAA & AA batteries failed again.

enloop.jpg

My charger can do a charge discharge test and these two AA batteries, I forget what one of them was, but the other was 140mA capacity! They are supposed to be more like 2,000mA. So I am going through all my batteries again because I seem to be forever charging some of them up and they only last a day before needing charging again.

I started buying Duracell instead and so far none of them have failed tests. It's not like they are under heavy usage either. Most only use the AA's for my little torches.

Also pretty rubbish that the stickers seem to be disintegrating as well.

So I don't really get what's up with these batteries. For whatever reason they seem inherently bad and unreliable.

[Steve]

Perhaps you inadvertently bought counterfeits?

[stephen_usher]

I just use Energizer now as Duracell aren't the company they once were. (My old Maplin ones have finally died.)

[exxos]

Perhaps you inadvertently bought counterfeits?

I wondered that. Got them from various suppliers on eBay. Though in the past fake batteries are generally turned out to be NiCad rebadged as Ni-mh. There must be something pretty meatly to hit 2,000mA current on most of them. So I don't know... They are either very badly manufactured batteries or they are counterfeit.

[exxos]

I just use Energizer now as Duracell aren't the company they once were. (My old Maplin ones have finally died.)

I'm getting Energizer for the phone batteries tomorrow.