Review – Duracell Pre-Charged Batteries
We tend to go through a fair amount of rechargeable batteries here at geeky gadgets, and I am always buying new ones.
The only problem with rechargeable batteries is that you always have to charge them first before you can use them.
Duracell have a solution to this problem with their new Pre-Charged rechargeable batteries, and as you all probably know Duracell batteries always seem to last a lot longer than other batteries.
Their new Pre-Charged batteries are no different, and they can retain their power for up to 365 days whilst not in use.
According to Duracell, two batteries can power your digital camera and take up to 5,000 photos over their life, which is pretty impressive.
They can also be recharged hundreds of times, and for the cost of around $10.99 for a set of four you really can’t go wrong.
For more details on these new batteries, check out this fun new website from Duracell which has some cool videos on it, Museum of the Obvious.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m not going to go searching through your site, but I hope you realize that this is not a new technology. A123 Technologies developed this technology and Rayovak Batteries were the first to liscense it and sell them. I then noticed in Walmart a ‘no-name’ brand selling them and about the same time Kodak had them too. I know Walmart sells things for different prices across the country, but the four pack of Kodak at my local W-mart (one of the few things I will go into a Walmart store for) they only cost $7.88.
The Rayovak can be bought at Target with the charger for $11 or $12 dollars…comes with 2 AA and 2 AAA. I think the Rayovak’s have the highest mAh on thier batteries of the 3 brands I’ve seen these under thus far. One thing you should note in this article is that there is no rapid charging of these batteries, and according to Rayovak customer service, if you were to try using a rapid charger (1 hour/30min/15 min) it would actually take a lot longer till the batteries got their full charge (12-16 hours). In my experience, the basic Rayovak charger from Target takes me 5-6 hours to charge. Kodak has a basic charger/4AA battery set now too but it took 8-10 hours to charge with.
Duracell’s, according to the back of thier packaging, should only take 3 hours, however costs about $20. Except for the rapid chargers, I’ve found that the ‘advertised time’ on packaging is usually wishful at best. Instead, I’d recommend getting an extra set of batteries and have rotate them as needed/charge overnight. My digital camera takes 4 AA’s and I get 300-500 (flash dependent) shots on one set which is usually enough for my most snap-happy of days. Otherwise, the batteries sit in the camera on the order of a month +/- till they need a charge, and the extra set has retained nearly a full charge (close enough for gov’t work) and are ready to go, unlike the crappy Energizer AA’s I have which have a steep charge loss curve (after 2 weeks sitting in camera bag they have little/no charge to speak of).
But back to my point (although I don’t think I ever made it clear that I was getting to a point) about Duracell and your article/blurb about them and this technology is how late they were to get into this technology and how they still PUSH their alkaline batteries (Energizer too for that matter). It’s time to get away from non-rechargeables.
Why is Energizer the only (mainstream) company that C and D rechargeables can be found from. My wife and I just had a baby and I am disgusted at the # of batteries that are required by all of these baby ‘necessities,’ and that so few of the toys/bouncies/cribs/noismakers have AC adaptors (presumably to prevent kiddies from strangeling themselves and winning Darwin awards). And beyond the # of required batteries, is how inefficient these items are/quickly they go through batteries, rechargeable or otherwise…and I know that this is only the beginning.
Ciao