Saturday, November 20, 2010

Why I've given up on rechargeable batteries.

I feel cheated and betrayed.  For years I've made small efforts to be responsible in purchasing rechargeable batteries.  I wanted to reduce the number of batteries going to a landfill, I wanted to be responsible with money by not having to re-purchase batteries.  I wanted to do the right thing.    But I feel like the promises made and prices charged by battery manufacturers weren't genuinely intended to support the widescale adoption of rechargeable batteries. Its been a long process but for now I've finally given up. :-(



It all started with (I think it was dynacharge) advertising their NiCd Nickel Cadmium batteries with some young kid and a cassette Walkman supposedly playing thousands of cassette tapes in an effort to test out the batteries.  The message was that these batteries could be recharged and used 100s of times.  (The customers imagined all the money I would save by not having to purchase 100s of batteries.)

Rechargeable batteries cost more, but there was always the implied promise that in the end (after several months) we would be ahead of the game economically.  And we would be doing the "right thing"
So we bought our batteries, and our chargers, and carefully observed the appropriate charging times based on battery size written on the charger.  And we found that the batteries developed a "memory" and didn't "hold a charge" as well as the ads lead us to believe.  There were issues around capacity where the batteries being sold to consumers didn't have much capacity (measured in mAh Milli amp hours).  So we bought higher capacity batteries and still had memory issues.

Next we were told that Nimh Nickel metal hydride batteries had no memory. What we didn't know is that their voltage was lower than normal batteries, at least after a charge or two.  Turns out there were things we didn't know about caring for these batteries. We didn't know to drain them but not all the way etc.  Put them in a digital camera and quickly we found that the otherwise wonderful camera was quickly limited to 10-20 pictures before the batteries were "dead".  Cameras are picky, they are complex electronic devices and when they say they need 2.5-3 Volts, they don't take kindly to being offered 1.8 to 2.2 volts.  No thank Nimh, you don't work well in our Wii and you don't work well in our camera.  Thanks for wasting our money.

Now we are being told that Lion Lithium Ion batteries will solve our problems, retaining higher voltages, and less memory.  Do I invest in these batteries now?  2 generations have proven fatal.  I have not purchased Lion batteries.  I notice my mobile phone has a Lion battery, and I notice that while it used to be fine for 3 days, it now lasts only 2 days, my colleague's only lasts 1.  So something is decreasing in these Lion batteries, implying they may not be the perfect solution I seek.

I like Costco, I can go to the store and purchase 48 Alkaline AA batteries for about $12 or  $0.25 each.
Best Buy in contrast offers 8 Lithium AA batteries for $20 or about $2.5 each.
So the "disposable" batteries are compelling to me.  No charger, No charging for the appropriate time, and they are priced  at 1/10th the price of the rechargeable battery.

I learned a lot about different battery types, their characteristics and their proper care at Battery University.
The table below helps summarize some of what I've learned.

TypeCostIssuesCareCell Voltage
Alk$0.25DisposableNone1.5
Nicd$0.70Memory
Capacity drops to around 60%
Recharge
Fully Discharge
Avoid over charging
1.2V
Nimh$3.00Lower voltage
Capacity drops
Recharge
Fully Discharge
Avoid over charging
1.2V
Lion$2.50Lower Discharge Rate
Dropping Capacity after 1 year
Recharge
Don't Fully Discharge
1.5


So what is your experience with rechargeable batteries?  How about Lithium?  Is it performing "as advertised"?  Should I make the leap this time? Are you also giving up and going back to disposable batteries?


Cheers,
Greg

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