Which AA battery brand is best?

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From what I have read in consumer testing magazines & facilities where batteries were tested(D, C, AAA, AA, 9v), it isn't the brand that was most important but, the type of battery. e.g.,

an Alkaline is an Alkaline, a heavy duty is a heavy duty, a standard cheap regular duty battery is a cheap regular duty battery. There were only insignificant differences between brands which could change in different batches, it was said.
 
Originally Posted by StevieC
Which AA battery brand is best?


Without a stutter or pause............ Duracell.
2nd Place is not that close-by in the race.
 
Duracell are the only ones that I've had leak through all sorts of devices, and explode if recharged even once.

Varta are my go to...get 3-4 charges out of them before the charger faults...never a leak...and after that, they go OK in solar powered yard lights for another year.
 
I just buy Lowe's Black Friday special which is 60 pack of AA for $12-$15 every year. It takes s year to use them. Typically brand is ray o vac alkaline made in 🇺🇸
 
Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN
I actually like Rayovac batteries. I am wondering if the Christmas special batteries sold at Lowes for a super low price have less reserve capacity as reflected by the price?

FYI, the Rayovac I tested above was bought during one of those Christmas specials at Home Depot, in 2016. 60-pack for $10.

I just picked up some more last month, but I haven't opened them yet.

Menards has a 60 pack for $8.99.
I am only seeing a 48 pack at this price at Menards. Still, not a bad deal.
 
My Sound man at church is sold on Energizer. He has to use them in mics and instruments and says they last longer than others. He's not factoring in cost. Just longevity. My guitar player says the same thing. Totally unscientific but since we switched over we haven't had any mics go dead during the services.
 
I use low drain rechargeables. A charger and a pack last a very long time compared to throwing away batteries over and over.
 
If your looking for the best it would be Lithium. The best bang for the buck is another story.

Typically the best way is to by a large package of them, like 20 at Sams, BJs.
 
Lithium batteries are basically all or nothing voltage-wise. In a power dead-bolt lock, you might get locked out if you don't have a backup key when they fail. Alkalines get weaker gradually and can give you a little warning about their condition. I also stopped using lithium batteries in my computer wireless mouse. I started getting a lot of strange crashes from data corruption between the mouse and computer when the mouse batteries got too weak to transmit reliably. Also, when my door lock batteries start to make the lock run slowly, I replace them and save them for my mouse to get the last smidgens of life out of them. They usually have 85% useable life for the mouse.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Batteries are not equal. In digital cameras by all means use lithium batteries. Yeah more expensive but last way longer and they're designed to hold the voltage up and die very quickly rather than the voltage steadily dropping . Dollar store batteries are junk. Rechargeables used to be designed to be 1.2 volts instead of 1.5 so they wouldn't overcharge and smoke your electronics. Don't know if that's still the case or not but they don't last long in things that need a minimum voltage to work. BITD I sold cameras and kept up on batteries, not so much now. The video confirmed what most know, you usually get what you pay for.

Battery voltage is determined by the chemistry of the battery, not "designed" in order to protect your electronics. The rechargeable batteries that have 1.2v open cell voltage get that way through the specific chemistry of the battery, just as most lithium based cells have a higher voltage due to the chemistry. The 1.5v lithium cells (actually 1.8v) have a much different chemistry than the 3v button cells and isn't exclusively "lithium". Rechargeable cells have considerations that other cells do not such as a repeatedly reversible reaction and this dictates the chemistry used more so than in a single use battery.

As an aside this is a really good overview of the 1.5v lithium batteries and illustrates how the "best" is highly dependent on the operating conditions of the battery:

http://data.energizer.com/pdfs/lithiuml91l92_appman.pdf
 
Dollar General use to stock Panasonic heavy duty alkaline batteries. Would still be buying them, but they don't have them in stock no more. Can't find any other stores that stock them locally.
 
I use Kirkland brand AA and Amazon Basics NimH rechargables in AA or AAA format exclusively. They re the best performance for the value in my applications.
 
For me, rechargeables are best followed by alkalines of a known brand that I can get at the dollar store. I would say that most alkalines are the same, most lithiums of the same type are the same, etc. Brand name doesn't mean much in my experience with non-rechargeables if I can pay $1 and get 80%+ life of something comparable vs. paying over $4 for that full retail comparable product. Leakage or explosions have never been a problem for me with something other than no-name batteries.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
I am only seeing a 48 pack at this price at Menards. Still, not a bad deal.

You are right. It is 48 pack. My bad.
 
Depends on what you want, but generally for alkaline the best battery is the one that gives the best performance for the cost. I buy Rayovac manufactured batteries from Menards under their NorthTech brand, or GP manufactured best buy house brand.

Some other things to note: Duracells leak the most when they're dead - more than any other manufacturer (this includes Costco's Kirkland Signature brand). Rayovacs seem like they can leak at random depending on batch - I have had numerous cells go bad well before their expiration. Also, Energizer generally makes the highest capacity alkaline 9v battery - like 50% higher capacity than Duracell ( but half the capacity of a lithium 9v)
 
The only useful tidbit I saw in that entire video was the bounce of a empty battery vs a full battery not doing it. I am very curious if true.

The cost comparisons are pretty useless because it depends on acquisition price of battery.
 
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