Battery Storage?

The Tourist

The Tourist

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Dec 23, 2001
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As many of you know, I just bought a little flashlight that takes two AA batteries. Since everything runs on AA's at my job, we bought a lot of nickel metal hydride batteries and a charger. I bought two of the same kind so I can just re-charge them at work.

Since this flashlight will be used sporadically and may see long term storage, is a nickel metal hydride battery a good choice? Do they leak? Will they lose power fast?
 
Nickle metal re-chargables are NOT a good choice for long term storage. They work well when they are being used and rotated through their charger regularly. If you don't use the flashlight, you are going to have to re-charge the batteries every month anyway. I don't know of any rechargables that hold their charge on the shelf very well. They don't leak, but they don't hold charge very well...

Best for that are lithium hydride batteries. Not rechargable, but have 10+ year shelf life. OTOH, they are 3 times the cost of normal alkaline AA batteries, and only worth their price in high drain applications where they have 3 times the current of alkaline batteries. But in normal applications (low drain), and I think ordinary flashlights are considered low drain, the lithium batteries outlast ordinary alkalines by a smaller margin.

Your best bet (from a cost performance trade off) is probably ordinary alkaline batteries. The newer ones have a 7+ year shelf life, and they are much cheaper than the lithiums...
 
Hello

Unfortunetly I don't think NiHm batteries are a good choice if they will be seeing long term storage. They have a pretty high self discharge rate. Its around 1% a day. You should try lithium for long term storage.

Ryan
 
Thanks guys, I knew someone would have the answer. If I put it away for a period of time, I will use alkaline batteries. If I know I'm going to be using it constantly, I'll use the nickel metal hydride.

It's still a good deal. The chargers at Radio Shack were a bit pricey. Since my boss doesn't care if I use the company's for charges, I save money. So far we have not had to replace any nickel metal hydride batteries for the company, and we use them all of the time. Our digital camera consumes the charge at a quick rate when we use high resolution.

I like the feature about not leaking. I lost a Rough-Neck flashlight recently.
 
and that NiMH have a 5 percent...

On the other hand. NiMH have about 1/4 more storage capacity.
 
Rechargeable alkaline batteries have the same shelf life as ordinary alkaline batteries. I love them. You have to buy a special charger for them but it's well worth it. There's no need to drain them before recharging like ni-cads; in fact they last longer if you top them off before they get very low -- so for a flashlight that you only use occasionally, you can recharge it after every use if you want and keep the batteries at maximum charge at all times, ready for an emergency.
 
they have more capacity than alkalines, less discharge, and are rechargeable indefinitely with no memory... problem is, they need computer controlled recharging circuitry... and, would put battery manufacturer's out of business if they were produced in standard battery sizes (which is why they don't)
 
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