Tests and reviews of different batteries to help you find the Right One…
The 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries are of the third generation of Eneloop batteries from Sanyo and offer some really impressive features making the competition seem inferior in all aspects besides the capacity, even though 800 mAh is still a good rating for an LSD (low self discharge) NiMH battery. Sanyo claims that these Eneloop batteries are capable of being recharged up to 1800 times and that they are able to retain 90% of their capacity if only stored and not being used and up to 70% of their charge after 5 years of storage – definitely impressive. Another interesting fact about these AAA batteries is that on their package you can find a minimum rating of 750 mAh, but nothing about their typical capacity of 800 mAh written, though they are being sold as 800 mAh and that information is available on Sanyo’s website. These batteries are supposed to come pre-charged at 75% of their capacity and ready to be used, the ones we tested were manufactured in 10-2012 and we have measured the initial available capacity between 526 and 532 mAh or pretty much within the 10% discharge for a bit over than a year since they are manufactured, and now for the other tests…
Starting the tests of the 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A got us 872 mAh as useable capacity or almost 10% more than the typical rating of the batteries, so a great result. at a constant current discharge rate of 0.2A the batteries still manage to provide 750 mAh or the minimum guaranteed capacity rating and going higher at 0.5A the result is still great in terms of available capacity. Going for 1.0A however shows that these batteries are not doing that good, so they are not that suitable for very high power applications. In fact Sanyo has another series of batteries called Eneloop XX that is designed to handle better higher loads than the standard Sanyo batteries that are optimized more for longer use with lower power requirements.
The performance of the 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries in our tests:
– 872 mAh at 0.1A load
– 750 mAh at 0.2A load
– 730 mAh at 0.5A load
– 390 mAh at 1.0A load
– 1.090 Wh at 0.1A load
– 0.907 Wh at 0.2A load
– 0.838 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0.402 Wh at 1.0A load
– Download the official 1.2V AAA 800 mAh Sanyo Eneloop NiMH battery datasheet…
The 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh Varta Power Accu NiMH batteries are of the highest capacity rechargeable AAA size NiMHs that Varta offers, though these are the last of the non-LSD models as the company has apparently decided to replace this model with a low self discharge version. So far we’ve seen very good results in terms of performance from Varta batteries (especially when used in low power applications), so here we also have high expectations.
Starting the test of the 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh Varta Power Accu NiMH batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A and got us 1086 mAh as useable capacity and that is a great result making these batteries great for use in low power applications. In fact the 1086 mAh capacity is the highest capacity from a rechargeable AAA size battery that we’ve measured so far. By further increasing the levels of load we still get good levels of capacity, though the results here are not as good as the one with 0.1A and they are more moderate, but still showing that these Varta batteries can handle pretty good high power use as well.
The performance of the 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh Varta Power Accu NiMH batteries in our tests:
– 1086 mAh at 0.1A load
– 818 mAh at 0.2A load
– 757 mAh at 0.5A load
– 742 mAh at 1.0A load
– 1.345 Wh at 0.1A load
– 1.013 Wh at 0.2A load
– 0.890 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0.799 Wh at 1.0A load
The 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh GP NiMH batteries we test here are of the standard NiMH type and are rated at 1000 mAh typical capacity and 930 mAh minimum guaranteed. Our experience so far with GP batteries has shown that some models are performing great while others not so well, so it will be interesting to see to which group we can add these batteries. So time to start the testes…
As we usually do we have started the test of the 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh GP NiMH batteries with a low constant current discharge rate of 0.1A and the result we got was 1085 mAh and that is pretty impressive for a battery rated at 1000 mAh. Going further with a load of 0.2A and we managed to get 1005 mAh which is still over the typical rating of these batteries, and with even higher load we still manage to get good results, though not that impressive as at 0.5A we are are a below the minimum rating. Still we are seeing very good performance from the 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh GP NiMH batteries.
The performance of the 1.2V AAA 1000 mAh GP NiMH batteries in our tests:
– 1085 mAh at 0.1A load
– 1005 mAh at 0.2A load
– 876 mAh at 0.5A load
– 796 mAh at 1.0A load
– 1.325 Wh at 0.1A load
– 1.211 Wh at 0.2A load
– 1.029 Wh at 0.5A load
– 0.874 Wh at 1.0A load