Rechargeable batteries versus regular batteries

[Yesitisdakid]

When I lived in the states years ago I used rechargeable batteries with pretty good luck it did save a bit of money and they seem to be okay. When I came over here batteries were so cheap I would just buy Panasonic or Duracell original batteries. Now those have gone up to around 130 or 140 for a pack of four. I guess that's not crazy expensive but a friend turned me on to these over a year ago. So I bought four of them along with the charger for less than a hundred baht. 

Last night my TV remote started going Goofy so I looked to see when I had replaced the batteries with the rechargeable and it had been 13 months. I was very surprised they lasted that long. I now use these exclusively they claim to have a life of 500 charges I'm not sure about that but I do know I got a lot of use out of the ones I've been using I've been very happy.  I have them in my air conditioning remote my two TV remotes along with other things and brilliant of late. Tough to beat the price. 

You can still get four AA or Triple-A batteries and the charging unit for around 100 baht.

[forcebwithu]

I bought the eneloop rechargeable package deal 8 years ago. They're still going strong. I rarely have to recharge the ones in my remotes, keyboard or mouse.

[fygjam]

5 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

I bought the eneloop rechargeable package deal 8 years ago. They're still going strong. I rarely have to recharge the ones in my remotes, keyboard or mouse.

But you only get 2100mAH from an AA battery, dakid's batteries are 3800mAH (perhaps they are Chinese mAH).

Yes, I use both eneloop and eneloop pro (2550 mAH for an AA cell).

Cost a bomb but maybe 20mAH difference in capacity across all cells when charging a 4 pack compared to the 500mAH difference across elcheapo supermarket batteries. You get what you payz for.

I use a SKYRC M3000 charger. Tells me how many mAH I have pumped into each battery.

 

[fygjam]

PS. The secret sauce is (drum roll please)

 

Common salt.

 

You take a pinch of it when looking at some battery capacity figures.

Like the 9,000mAH lithium 18650 batteries from AliExpress, Banggood or ebay when the tier 1 manufacturers can only stuff 3500mAH into theirs (depending upon chemistry).

 

[Yesitisdakid]

18 minutes ago, fygjam said:

PS. The secret sauce is (drum roll please)

 

Common salt.

 

You take a pinch of it when looking at some battery capacity figures.

Like the 9,000mAH lithium 18650 batteries from AliExpress, Banggood or ebay when the tier 1 manufacturers can only stuff 3500mAH into theirs (depending upon chemistry).

 

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the rechargeable batteries that I posted and purchased and use are no way is powerful as their advertised. For God's sake it's Lazada right haha. I never really paid attention to the numbers in the output I saw cheap yes I saw cheap but in this case and maybe I'm an exception or maybe I just got lucky everything I've purchased has really had a good long life. That said they'll probably all stop at once tomorrow 😂

[john luke]

In U.K. I have bought and used Eneloop rechargeable batteries successfully.  I have had no problems at all.  
 

When buying batteries rechargeable or not, in Thailand I have found numerous ones of established manufacturers are copies; that said it has been a luck of the draw situation.  Some great, some mediocre and some poor.

For tv remotes I now buy non rechargeable as they are so cheap.

A lot of the photography related stuff is now appearing and has built in USB rechargeable Lion batteries.  I do not think it will be long before tv remotes have their own built in rechargeable batteries .

[Yessongs]

This is what I use.....this Sony set up is second to none....my Canon flashes can take up to 176 pictures when these Sony batteries are fully charged.....good investment. 

[forcebwithu]

24 minutes ago, Yessongs said:

This is what I use.....this Sony set up is second to none....my Canon flashes can take up to 176 pictures when these Sony batteries are fully charged.....good investment. 

The tower power strips are a good space saver. I need to do something about the rats nest of USB charging cables though.

[Mrmango]

I just read somewhere that a TV manufacture announced a remote that was solar charged. 

A lot of problems solved.

[fygjam]

32 minutes ago, Mrmango said:

I just read somewhere that a TV manufacture announced a remote that was solar charged. 

A lot of problems solved.

A wind powered one would be just as useful.

 

[Trip]

1 hour ago, Mrmango said:

I just read somewhere that a TV manufacture announced a remote that was solar charged. 

A lot of problems solved.

Now if we can just get them to install a tracker so we can find the damn thing after we forget where we put it down.

[KWA]

3 minutes ago, Trip said:

Now if we can just get them to install a tracker so we can find the damn thing after we forget where we put it down.

A bit of tape or superglue and this:

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i5789339924-s24650397281.html

 

[fygjam]

1 hour ago, Trip said:

Now if we can just get them to install a tracker so we can find the damn thing after we forget where we put it down.

Always check your butt first.

 

[forcebwithu]

On 12/14/2025 at 10:07 AM, fygjam said:

...
I use a SKYRC M3000 charger. Tells me how many mAH I have pumped into each battery.

I like the idea of being able to see how far along a charge is, but at $115 USD for the charger you mentioned it seemed a bit pricey for my needs. Instead I ordered an el cheapo one from Lazada that just arrived. Just plugged it in and popped in a couple of batteries and it seems to be doing the job.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i420482896-s802198219.html

[fygjam]

31 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

I like the idea of being able to see how far along a charge is, but at $115 USD for the charger you mentioned it seemed a bit pricey for my needs. Instead I ordered an el cheapo one from Lazada that just arrived. Just plugged it in and popped in a couple of batteries and it seems to be doing the job.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i420482896-s802198219.html

Wow. I just checked Australian prices. More than double what I paid for mine but that was a few years ago.

A feature that sold me was the reconditioning program. Charge-> discharge->charge. It has a little fan to keep the discharge load cool. I haven't used it much but at the time, comments on various forums said you could bring NiMH batteries back to full capacity with a couple of cycles.