beaker
NES Member
I keep a pretty well rounded stock of Alkaline and rechargeable batteries for my gear.
I have standardized on the following batteries:
AA & AAA- Eneloops for rechargeable, and Copper top Alkaline for all of the non rechargeable stock. For these sizes I am rotating in Lithium to replace the alkaline as the price for the significantly better lithium single use batteries is now more reasonable. I hate alkaline batteries, as anyone who can attest to cleaning up the leaks they cause.
18650 - for Primary lights - Only high capacity Panasonic or Samsung cells. I have tested most of them and all other brands aren't worth a damn. Although my OLIGHT batteries test and perform very well, equivalent to the Panasonic and Samsung.
123A Primary (Surefire) and CR123A as rechargeable options - for weapons lights, EDC headlamps, and smaller flashlights. I prefer the disposable 123A due to the high power density and long shelf life for this size.
I have some pretty large battery packs I have built to keep me in fresh rechargeable batteries for an extended period of time, or can use a couple of solar panels to keep them charged if I happen to be out of power for an extended period of time and use the single use batteries up.
My AA and AAA Eneloops are getting a bit old, 6-8 years now, lost a couple 16 AA's over time when they failed during during rotation for some reason, I think they were dropped hard, but the rest still charge and test well. However, I thought it would be a good time to lay in some replacement AA and AAA NiMH batteries due to the age of my current Eneloop cells.
I decided to see what the Chinesium rechargeable batteries were up to so I selected a very well reviewed brand (Soxono) and bought a box for testing. They were marketed at 2800 mAh, I never expected them to perform at that level, but who knows. I pulled 8 at random and cycled them through my ISDT charger.
Not surprising, the charger calculated ~60% of capacity when I plugged them in on all cells, so much for low discharge properties, not starting well. After cycling - topping off the 8 cells, letting them rest for an hour, then discharging at 1 amp, resting for an hour, then a full slow charge (300 mA charge rate) to get the best capacity, the variation cell to cell for capacity was all over the place. Anywhere from 1700 mAh, to 2300 mAh - that is a lot. Good batteries don't have this much variation in capacity. So no pleasant surprises here, stay away from cheap Chinesium rechargeable batteries. Back they go.
Ready to bite the bullet and buy some new Gen 4 Eneloop batteries, but still hoping for higher capacity cells, I was doing a bunch of research. Panasonic/Eneloop sells Eneloop Pro batteries, higher capacity than the standard Eneloop cells (2550 mAh for the PRO, 2000 mAh for the regular) but Pro's are ~$4-5 each for AA. Then I came across some information about IKEA rechargeable batteries, and some theories that they are actually Eneloop Pro cells. Spoiler alert, based on my testing, I also think they are Eneloop Pro cells with IKEA labels.
And here is the best part, they are $6.99 for 4 AA or AAA cells.
1) here is what they look like. There is a lower capacity rechargeable battery they sell, but the LADDA is the high capacity model.
2) Made in Japan
3) After grabbing a pack of 4 LADDA AA's and putting them into the charger, they were showing at 85% of estimated capacity just like an Eneloop cell would be after about a year +/- in storage. The charger is pretty sophisticated and has been quite accurate in these calculations.
4) After running them through a full charge, discharge and Charge cycle, I got stellar and consistent capacity results, exactly what you would expect from a high quality cell, with very tight cell to cell variation. And spot on at the rated capacity.
This is the real deal, and the best bargain out there. The only stuff I really like from IKEA is plastic storage totes for organizing reloading materials, and now batteries.
I have standardized on the following batteries:
AA & AAA- Eneloops for rechargeable, and Copper top Alkaline for all of the non rechargeable stock. For these sizes I am rotating in Lithium to replace the alkaline as the price for the significantly better lithium single use batteries is now more reasonable. I hate alkaline batteries, as anyone who can attest to cleaning up the leaks they cause.
18650 - for Primary lights - Only high capacity Panasonic or Samsung cells. I have tested most of them and all other brands aren't worth a damn. Although my OLIGHT batteries test and perform very well, equivalent to the Panasonic and Samsung.
123A Primary (Surefire) and CR123A as rechargeable options - for weapons lights, EDC headlamps, and smaller flashlights. I prefer the disposable 123A due to the high power density and long shelf life for this size.
I have some pretty large battery packs I have built to keep me in fresh rechargeable batteries for an extended period of time, or can use a couple of solar panels to keep them charged if I happen to be out of power for an extended period of time and use the single use batteries up.
My AA and AAA Eneloops are getting a bit old, 6-8 years now, lost a couple 16 AA's over time when they failed during during rotation for some reason, I think they were dropped hard, but the rest still charge and test well. However, I thought it would be a good time to lay in some replacement AA and AAA NiMH batteries due to the age of my current Eneloop cells.
I decided to see what the Chinesium rechargeable batteries were up to so I selected a very well reviewed brand (Soxono) and bought a box for testing. They were marketed at 2800 mAh, I never expected them to perform at that level, but who knows. I pulled 8 at random and cycled them through my ISDT charger.
Not surprising, the charger calculated ~60% of capacity when I plugged them in on all cells, so much for low discharge properties, not starting well. After cycling - topping off the 8 cells, letting them rest for an hour, then discharging at 1 amp, resting for an hour, then a full slow charge (300 mA charge rate) to get the best capacity, the variation cell to cell for capacity was all over the place. Anywhere from 1700 mAh, to 2300 mAh - that is a lot. Good batteries don't have this much variation in capacity. So no pleasant surprises here, stay away from cheap Chinesium rechargeable batteries. Back they go.
Ready to bite the bullet and buy some new Gen 4 Eneloop batteries, but still hoping for higher capacity cells, I was doing a bunch of research. Panasonic/Eneloop sells Eneloop Pro batteries, higher capacity than the standard Eneloop cells (2550 mAh for the PRO, 2000 mAh for the regular) but Pro's are ~$4-5 each for AA. Then I came across some information about IKEA rechargeable batteries, and some theories that they are actually Eneloop Pro cells. Spoiler alert, based on my testing, I also think they are Eneloop Pro cells with IKEA labels.
And here is the best part, they are $6.99 for 4 AA or AAA cells.
1) here is what they look like. There is a lower capacity rechargeable battery they sell, but the LADDA is the high capacity model.


2) Made in Japan

3) After grabbing a pack of 4 LADDA AA's and putting them into the charger, they were showing at 85% of estimated capacity just like an Eneloop cell would be after about a year +/- in storage. The charger is pretty sophisticated and has been quite accurate in these calculations.
4) After running them through a full charge, discharge and Charge cycle, I got stellar and consistent capacity results, exactly what you would expect from a high quality cell, with very tight cell to cell variation. And spot on at the rated capacity.
This is the real deal, and the best bargain out there. The only stuff I really like from IKEA is plastic storage totes for organizing reloading materials, and now batteries.





