Recharge

I'm taking a break from the norm to write about batteries. Yes, batteries. Rechargeable NiMH to be more exact.

A while ago (maybe about a year or two) I found myself on a quest for a better way to power my appliances. These are/were namely my digital camera, lil' mp3 player (now I have an ipod… woot), the pen for my tablet, and an FM transmitter (the one I use now doesn't need batteries).

So I decided to begin my search at the store. I went to Wal-Mart and after a few hours of careful perusing through all the information on the available chargers, batteries, brands, prices, and crazy numbers and acronyms affixed to all the packages, I settled on a set of Energizer AA NiMH 2500mAH (or some such crazy thing). These were a dream come true! When they ran out I just charged them again and used the spare ones. So I went out and bought more. I got some AAA's and some more AA.

After a while though, the AA's sagged in their performance to a point where it's simply aggravating. As for now they are virtually useless and won't work even right out of the charger. Anything I put them in simply tells me that the battery's low. The AAA's I use now only in my tablet pen and don't seem to present any problems, especially since there's 8 for only one appliance. The AA's, however, were annoying me. So I decided to do some research. These batteries are notorious for their high discharge rate, which apparently declines with time. There are many fancy-technical-reasons-involving-many-confusing-numbers for this, but after pouring over many reviews this particular battery is even more prone to this.

Furthermore, I am going to go out in search of Rayovac hybrid (or something like that) which are of a newer kind said to have a much better discharge rate. Hopefully this'll solve my problem and I'll be able to use my camera again.