AA Batteries

Great! There are times when common sense has to prevail. :-)

You can't really. eBay has its pros and cons, just like shopping at DSE and almost every other place does. The usual rules of common sense apply. Like buying a 2nd hand camera and being surprised when it doesn't come with the accessories (I know it's not Bob's fault as he didn't buy it). Or buying batteries at "too good to be true" prices, and being surprised when they are crap. Or buying a new $1000 camera for $100 from someone in asia with a feedback rating of two and being surprised when it doesn't turn up. etc etc.

As for DSE, they may be a "reputable" dealer, but they have been known more than once to sell (probably unknowingly) shonky products and fake parts etc. They'll happily buy from the lowest cost asian wholesaler no questions asked, just like many of the Ebay sellers do.

In the case of the original Ebay charger I quoted, the risk is very low indeed. All the good signs are there - It's an Australian seller, feedback is high and good, looks like it comes in the original sealed package, it's not a one-off, seller appears to specialise in selling all things Energizer, and the price is not so low as to make it sound like it's "too good to be true". All the hallmarks of a genuine product being sold on eBay at a good price that undercuts the biggies.

Of course, in some cases it's actually cheaper to buy at DSE than eBay. Not everything on eBay is chepaer than the big dealers.

Dave.

A month or so ago Woolies had a charger & 4 x 2500mAH Engergisers for $20 (usual price $25).

I've been very happy with them, though the batteries get a little warm in the charger and I don't know if the cut-off works.

Just watch the mAH ratings on the batteries supplied - Duracell does a similar deal but the 4 batteries supplied in their chargers are less (1800 mA/H?) than those available seperately (2650 mA/H). A trap if you don't read the writing!

Coles also usually carry a range of Energizer and Duracell chargers, not sure of the price though. But all the ones I have seen there are the 10-12hour "slow charge" type.

Dave.

"Peter Parker"

** Very likely the charger uses the rise in temp of the cells to trigger the end of charge.

Bout the only way to quick charge NiMH cells since the terminal voltage does not peak nicely like NiCds do.

........ Phil

Sure, dT works nicely (IMO the preferred way), however, I have yet to see a typical charger (that you buy from your local KMart or such) do it this way.

Temperature sensing is more difficult to handle, since you need to sense each cell, and have it stay in the cradle and have a temperature sensor press against it at the same time.

What they do instead is use a modified dV dt method that turns off once the voltage tapers off enough instead of waiting for it to go back down again.

In fact, the only charger I've seen with temperature sensing is my portable EPROM programmer. But those cells are built-in, not free-floating AA's.

--
Linux Registered User # 302622

You should be made aware that this will initiate a chargeback against Paypal, not the seller. You risk having your account closed since PP have to pay the fees associated with the chargeback (which is something like $US30, plus they get penalised if their chargeback ratio goes too high).

The credit card company doesn't care that Paypal are a man in the middle service, as far as they are concerned Paypal is the merchant that you made the purchase with...

BTW, unless they've improved remarkably in the past couple of years, the Energiser cells seem to have a very high self-discharge rate. If you charge them before use it's fine, but if your usage is more spontaneous (or sparse) then you'll probably be better off with another brand. I tried the cheapie brand "Ritmo" (purchased from MSY Computers) several months ago and have been very happy with their performance.

(S4423P):

Gotta be something amiss there, they look like an identical product.

S4423 - Charger by itself, $69.99 S4423P - Charger with bonus batteries "valued at $9.99", $94.98

So you're paying an extra $24.99 to get some "free" batteries that are worth $9.99? :)

I agree. I've just had one Energizer 2.5AH NiMH cell in a pair go completely flat a couple of weeks after it was charged and with almost no use, while its companion stayed almost fully charged. I've had this problem with those cells before. They were often self-discharging at about 25% per *day*. I've been replacing them with Duracell 2.65AH NiMH from Coles which have been excellent so far.

Bob

"rowan194"

** Yep - someone screwed up the pricing all right.

.... Phil

"rowan194"

** Dunno about the " Energiser " brand NiMH AAs - but a pair of DSE brand 2000 mAh cells I bought about 10 months ago for my digital camera are going just fine.

Must be some kind parallel there with pedigreed v. moggies - I guess.

........ Phil

I researched this a while ago. It's claimed that the Energizers are rebadged Sanyos. There's a long user comment about them at

and my experience with them has been the same as the reviewer's. They're good for maybe 6 months after purchase, then the self-discharge rate suddenly increases and keeps increasing until they're unusable.

Bob

** Interesting link.

Lucky I steered clear of Energiser NiMH cells.

..... Phil

Also check Australia post, our local post office shop had that same charger/battery combo pack there and Im sure it was only about $60.

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like duracell are the go, I'll see what I can find.

I was thinking my batteries were fairly new but when I think about it they're at least 2 years old.

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