£1.99 rechargeable batteries available in Lidl stores

Little_Davel

Mine have been fine so far - been using that solar powered charger from Maplins......

quoia

chunter wrote: »

Well done on an amazingly informative discussion. Slightly worried why so many people know so much about rechargable batteries, but you've made one person a great deal wiser on the subject.

..but I wouldn't start this conversation in the pub on a Friday night...

Well here is another bit of info which is probably the most important when choosing or comparing makes & capacities and if it is fit for purpose etc

AHAR wrote: »

I hope the information on the packaging of my Lidl AAs is correct when it says the capacity will increase over the first 5 charges - I put them in my portable radio and they've only lasted a few days with the same level of usage which the previous 1600mah set would keep going for months!

robrymond wrote: »

Same, put them in the camera and they lasted less than an hour...

As with just about anything & everthing, you usually do get what you pay for to some extent.

The charge / discharge life and the charge speed and life span is usually "compromised" to some extent in the cheaper versions.

I have bought some in the past (not the cheapest but far from the top end of the market) with a 2 year (750 charge / discharge cycle) exchange warranty ( ie a charge and discharge per day - every day for 2 years ) and, if in this period the cell's capacity has dropped below 85% of its original specification (eg. A 2000mAh battery drops below 1700mAh actual usage) it would be replaced.

These would probably not come anywhere near this resilient.

Secondly and worse still .....

The Voltage that people claim to be usable is VERY VERY important as some manufactures extend the overall mAh but a larger percentage of this value is at 0.96 V (what they claim to be usable) which when used in digital cameras is useless as these operate at 1.05 V per cell. A fully charged cell being 1.2 volts.

A simple test of this "usable capacity" is take the cells out of a high drain device (digi camera) when it stops working correctly and then see how long they keep a bulb alight in a torch.
The longer the time the more sneaky the manufactures have been using a lingering death to increase the mAh claimed.

geniusmum wrote: »

No-one seems to have mentioned it but:

mAH = milliamps per hour

gromituk wrote: »

No, it means milliamp-hours - milliamps multiplied by hours, not divided by them.

This probably doesn't help anyone understand what it means.

If you put a 2500mAh battery in a device (say a digital camera) that uses a lot of power (current) and it consumes 2.5 amps (2500 milliamps) when in use, then it will work for 1 hour before the battery will be empty.

If the item is a small electronic device that only uses 1 milliamp when turned on, then the same 2500mAh battery will allow it to function for 2500 hours (104 days) or thereabouts.

smokieUK

Desoite all the technical whatnots these batteries are great for things like remote comtrols, and as they are cheap I do not expect them to be great performers. They have actually been better than I expected for the money.

borgman

Sounds like a lot of you guys know a fair bit about batteries.
I have some solar garden lights i bought from comet last year and they take NiCad batteries can i use the NiMah ones from lidl or not?
regards

simate

borgman wrote: »

Sounds like a lot of you guys know a fair bit about batteries.
I have some solar garden lights i bought from comet last year and they take NiCad batteries can i use the NiMah ones from lidl or not?
regards

Mine had nicads in them when I got them about 2 years ago but they were useless so I put nimh one's in them and they were much better.

borgman

simate wrote: »

Mine had nicads in them when I got them about 2 years ago but they were useless so I put nimh one's in them and they were much better.

Thanks for that

Keen_Saver

The Lidl one's are very good, got some last time for my digital camera, went to Cornwall last week on a family holiday and took hundreds of photos and dozens of movies and filled two 256MB XD Cards and the two AA's are still going.

tryin2elp

i recently found a 4 pack of rechargable aa batteries in the pound shop

Little_Davel

Have people found these Lidl batteries ok as time goes on ? Bought several packs and some perform better than others. I havent charged them up 5 times yet - but equivalent 7dayshop versions seem to last for ever !

Hopefully Lidl battery performance will improve !

Crabman

Little_Davel wrote: »

Have people found these Lidl batteries ok as time goes on ? Bought several packs and some perform better than others. I havent charged them up 5 times yet - but equivalent 7dayshop versions seem to last for ever !

Hopefully Lidl battery performance will improve !

I'm running some AAA's from LIDL in my digital camera, it's lasting as long as my other rechargables :beer: