Best Batteries for your Money

[Toddie]

So i'm looking into stocking up with some batteries - only 50 or so - which got me curious about how the cheap Kodak batteries you get from Poundland preform.

While looking into this i found this link which shows how they fair in terms of cost and such, now i'm not exactly technically minded electronically, but as it says on the page, the best way to go is Ikea's own alkaline batteries.

Give the link a look and next time you're in Ikea, stock up:

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/results-hi.html

[fapplan]

Great info on that link, especially for people like me who know very little about batteries. I always buy the Procell ones off of Amazon and I've always wondered whether they could sub-standard compared to the more expensive ones. It turns out they are pretty good in terms of value for money.

[tanstaafl]

Answer to your title "best Battery for the money"...................


Eneloops ...........Factor in the admittedly high cost of the batteries and a charger then divide by how long they will last (lifetime) and they are the cheapest by far............


Also cheap batteries are great as users , but dont use them to stock up as all they are doing in the drawer is discharging..............

[featherstick]

Good info but a couple of points:

It's a US website so batteries, availability, prices etc. may be different.

It's comparing batteries in a high-drain situation e.g. a camera. Lighting is often low-drain.

Lifespan should be considered - I've just bought 24 Duracell PlusPower alkaline for GBP12.99 - they have a 10-year shelf life!

Rechargeables are great but you have to factor in the admin as well as the cost. When I was regularly cycling it was easy to remember to recharge them, now - not so much. And if you let them sit w/out a charge for too long they become u/s. Also, clearly they are no good in a grid-out situation (or only good once!)

[Toddie]

Good info but a couple of points:

It's a US website so batteries, availability, prices etc. may be different.

Unsure if you read the whole article and took a peek at the table, but the batteries were bought in a number of UK stores, and BitBox (the guys who did the "study") are UK based.

Lifespan should be considered - I've just bought 24 Duracell PlusPower alkaline for GBP12.99 - they have a 10-year shelf life!

Thanks for this, i'll definately look into the batteries with a life span like that. Have you done any tests with these duracells? E.g store for a year then try? I'd be very interested to hear if you have.

[featherstick]

Toddie - sorry, I must have got confused with the origin of the site.

I haven't tested shelflife, they never last long enough in our house now that the little fella has remote-control cars etc....

[preparedsurrey]

Kodak cheapies from poundland leak really quickly compared to others like lidl and Aldi, power wise they seem ok in low drain applications

[Stasher]

Good info but a couple of points:

It's a US website so batteries, availability, prices etc. may be different.

It's comparing batteries in a high-drain situation e.g. a camera. Lighting is often low-drain.

Lifespan should be considered - I've just bought 24 Duracell PlusPower alkaline for GBP12.99 - they have a 10-year shelf life!

Rechargeables are great but you have to factor in the admin as well as the cost. When I was regularly cycling it was easy to remember to recharge them, now - not so much. And if you let them sit w/out a charge for too long they become u/s. Also, clearly they are no good in a grid-out situation (or only good once!)

Dow wot?

10 years?

That's fantastic! Takes the grind out of the battery rotation schedule. In fact, I know we would eat them up faster than I would store. Does this shelf life apply to the whole range do you know?

[Cougar]

Envelops are on sale in maplin right now. According to the tests I've seen published they are supposed to be the best rechargeable. Very popular with American prepper to I believe.

[tanstaafl]

Envelops are on sale in maplin right now. According to the tests I've seen published they are supposed to be the best rechargeable. Very popular with American prepper to I believe.

Cheers ....


Eneloops will still have 70% of their charge after five years and can be recharged 2100 times

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneloop



But NiCd cells are apparently the ones with the longest shelf life (maybe 15 years) but I only buy to use and tend to not have high drain stuff so my Eneloops will probably last about a 1000 years with me charging them every 6 months