AA Power

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AA NiMH Hi-Capacity (2500+ mah): 250 cycle life span. Temp range: 20F or higher
AA NiMH Standard (1800-2100 mah): 500 cycle life span. Temp range: 20F or higher.
AA NiMH Low Self Discharge (2000-2100 mah): 500 cycle life span. Temp range -10F or higher.
AA NiCD Hi-Capacity (800-1000 mah): 700 cycle life span. Temp range -20F or higher.
AA NiCD Standard (500-700 mah): 2000 cycle life span. Temp range -20F or higher.
AA Heavy Duty: 1 time use. Temp range: 32F or higher.
AA Alkaline: 1 time use. Temp range: 32F or higher.
AA Lithium: 1 time use. Temp range: -40F or higher.

Relative performance in flashlights (taken from http://www.light-reviews.com/aa_shootout/ ):

Sanyo NiMH 2700mAh

02:00

2010

30g 1.06oz

High capacity NiMH. When new they are very good batteries, but they wear out quickly with cycles and do not hold a charge over time well. Not the best value overall, but when you *need* lithium like performance at a lower cost, it is a good avenue.

Cost around $2.50-$3 on internet vendors

Sanyo Eneloop 2000mAh

01:35

1920

26.3g 0.93oz

Low Self Discharge NiMH. This is the best value in convenient portable power. Long self life, good charge retention, long cycle life, good capacity, and improved cold weather performance over regular NiMH. There are several brands of LSD cells, but eleloop is the best brand that is widely recognized to have the best feature set.

Because of the exelent charge retention of eneloops, it is no longer necessary to store one time use cells for emergencies and their use can probably be deprecated completely.

Cost around $2.5-$3 on internet vendors. Also available at Costco.

Eveready Super Heavy Duty

00:15

1600

18.0g 0.63oz

Super Heavy Duty. Very poor performance, one time use. Not recommended for storage or use. Comes with cheap devices to shave pennies off production over including an alkaline. I would use 'em up and throw them away.

GP Ultra Alkaline	01:06	1970	22.8g 0.80oz
Panasonic Alkaline	00:49	2140	23.1g 0.81oz

Duracell Alkaline	00:57	1910	23.9g 0.84oz
Energizer Alkaline	00:43	1960	23.5g 0.83oz
Energizer e² Alkaline	01:19	2040	23.4g 0.82oz

Alkalines perform more respectably than Heavy Duty, but still only one time use. There is a wide margine of performance between brands and types. The best value is the Kirkland AA battery from Costco, which are rebadged duracells and sell for approximately $0.22 ea last I checked. Poor cold weather performance can effect winter use, but in a pinch this can be mitigated by putting the device in your pocket or otherwise warming up cells.

The advantage of Alkalines are the long shelf life, and good charge retention over time. Until you install them in a high drain device, once used slightly in this manner it's like opening a can of food. It will go bad soon if you use it or not. For most uses this is not a problem. This is a good short emergency backup for a low cost.

Energizer e² Lithium

02:26

2200

14.6g 0.51oz

Lithium is a high performance one time use cell. It has the longest shelf life, the best cold weather performance of all cells. It also has a price to match. The best place to puchase is at Sam's Club, the price will run about $20 for 12 cells or $1.67 ea. Energizer recently released a lower tier Lithium. The "Ultimate" has the blue label, the "Advanced" has the yellow label. The Advanced is generally the better deal, you get about 10% less power for about 30% less cost, while retaining all the advantages of the Lithium chemistry. Sam's is probably the best place to buy, I believe they are $14 for 12 or $1.17 ea.

This is a good short term emergency backup that performs well in extreme conditions.


I recommend Eneloops for general regular use and an emergency use battery. If you do not have a means of charging cells in a grid down senario, some one-use cells are advisable to extend your usable power beyond your eneloop supply's capacity without the expense of buying more eneloops. Some few Lithiums are in order if you expect extreme cold or can afford the better primary/one time use cells.

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"Duraloops" (Internet slang for rebadged eneloop cells sold as duracell pre-charged rechargeables) are available at Costco. 18.50 for 10 (8xAA, 2xAAA) last I checked. They are also found at some other locations for cheaper than Eneloop branded Sanyo LSD cells. I wouldn't go for the version with a charger...

There is a catch though, some of the batteries badged as pre-charged duracells are really china made... You can find either or at your local Costco (usually all one or the other).



If you notice, the two duracells on the top of this image. The black ring is the china cell, the white is the Japanese. This can also be verified on the cell label, the white will say "Made in Japan" and the black will say "Made in China", ignore the wrapper which always seems to say "Made in Japan". I would seek the Japanese version (eneloop) unless you get a great discount and can only find Chinese cells.

This is a good deal if you have a membership. Hopefully they do another sale like they had in November, they had a $5 off coupon that made them cheaper than I've ever seen Eneloops from anywhere: $13.50 for 10 cells (8AA/2AAA).