Trusted vendor for genuine Panasonic NiMH rechargeable batteries?

[maraakate]

My AA and AAA rechargeables are nearing EoL. Don't quite hold a charge like they used to. I prefer genuine Panasonic batteries when I can find them. I'd order from Amazon, but it's pretty well known at this point that a lot name brand batteries are counterfeit from Amazon and eBay. Does anyone known a trusted, reputable supplier for Panasonic batteries?

 

[Bad LP]

Why are you set on Panasonic?

 

[maraakate]

They make good batteries, good capacitors, overall good electronics. I trust them over other brands. I could buy some energizers from the grocery store and probably be OK with them. They're mostly for remotes, cat toys, and LED lamps.

 

[firefighterjake]

My experience has been that Eneloops (now owned by Panasonic) are generally better than many other brands . . . but depending on the use one might not notice much of a difference between them and other brands (I have some rechargeable Duracells I also use which are OK -- although I generally use the Eneloops first.)

Last time I ordered some Eneloops I got them from Best Buy . . . although right now it seems as if they have a 2-3 week delay.

 

[maraakate]

Ah yes, forgot about eneloops. Duracell is alright too. Like I said, it's just for some small things nothing critical, but I can say for certain to avoid Amazon Basics. Those seem to work good for about 6-12 months then they drastically drop off on their ability to hold a decent charge. I actually had two of them swell up on my charger recently.

 

[peakbagger]

Out of curiosity do you have hihg performance charger for the NIMH batteries?. The chemistry inherently has a memory issue and a standard charger doesnt deal with it. I picked up one that folks use for RC planes to run my surveying station and its designed to zap the battery to get a full charge.

 

[maraakate]

I don't have a deep cycle charger. The concept of battery memory is a hot button topic and I have no opinion one way or the other. I think it's too hard to definitively prove one way or the other because it's practically impossible to setup a repeatable test that simulates "real world" use and that's where all the arguments stem from. But, I could be wrong, maybe there are new studies that prove it to be a legitimate issue.

With that said, I've gotten about 8 years out of these batteries with a regular "smart" charger that I bought for $20 on Amazon.

 

[Bad LP]

I’ll never use any Duracell battery again. Never.

 

[maraakate]

I’ll never use any Duracell battery again. Never.

That bad, huh? Never used Duracell rechargeables. Only their alkalines on occasion for the kids toys, etc.

 

[peakbagger]

I got a free flashlight from them a couple of years ago. I had an expensive Utility grade LED flashlight (shockproof, waterproof) It had Duracell Industrial Alkaline batteries in it. Not that old. It opened it up one day to change the batteries and saw the tall tale signs of a leaking battery. They have or had an equipment damage guarantee so I contacted them and got a customer service rep. He asked for the battery code number and what my make an model flashlight it was. He asked me how much I paid for it then told me a check would be in the mail and to dispose of the old unit as I saw fit. It was not worth trying to salvage so I threw it away. The check showed up about 2 weeks later. I read somewhere on the web that this particular Duracell industrial battery had leakage issues.

 

[firefighterjake]

We've actually had several issues here at work with leaking Duracells (regular alkaline) in our SCBA air pack PASS alarms . . . and I have had some issues myself with personal equipment. We now use Energizer EN-91 or E-91 batteries as they supposedly are better at not leaking.

 

[Bad LP]

Sadly Duracell won a class action law suit for their pure garbage batteries.

I won't buy them and if they come with something new I just toss them still in the wrapper into the battery recycling bag marked NFG

 

[begreen]

I've had leakage issues with all the major brands. An Energizer leak nearly destroyed a TV remote recently and Duracells leaked in my FM earphone protectors. Lately, I have been using Ray-o-Vac and am trying to be more diligent about leaving batteries in something that is rarely used. This is a pita wrt emergency flashlights. I tried NiMh batteries for them but they don't hold a sustained charge. Lithium Ion batteries do this better so now we have some rechargeable lights that I can recharge on a biannual basis.