Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Re-chargeable battery

I've started using re-chargeables back in more than 10 years ago. I started using these batteries since the first day I owned my first digital camera. Re-chargeables are not only economical and environmental friendly, they are also very nice for high current draw applications. If you ever used regular disposable batteries in a digital camera (high current draw device), you will know what I mean.

My first set of re-chargeables are only 1300mAh, and with technological advancements, they go up in capacity steadily. You can find 2700mAh (or even higher) batteries these days.

However, there is a very big problem with re-chargeables. If you ever charged up your battery, leave it inside a box for a few weeks, and then you put it in the camera, you will find that the battery is already nearly 30-50% discharged! So, it's always good for us to charge up the batteries just before using.



Not until we have Sanyo Eneloop! This is being sold as "Ready to use Rechargeable Battery", and it's real. You bought it home, and you can use it without charging. Why is that? It is because it can hold its charge for a very long period of time!

This is very convenient indeed, since you can always charge up your batteries, leave them in the case, and use it any time you wanted. Unlike the old days when you have to charge just before using, and you know, charging up batteries are not exactly a very fast thing, it can take up to a few hours. So in case you have some sudden events that you want to use them, it's virtually impossible. But Eneloop solves all these!

Eneloop is not very good in terms of capacity, they are rated at only 2000mAh, however, you can safely expect longer actual life than even 2700mAh batteries due to the self-discharging characteristics.

I know there're some other brands out there, but I didn't try and so I couldn't say much. But Eneloop is just 30-50% more expensive than conventional re-chargeables, so why risk? Sanyo has been a great brand name in terms of re-chargeables, and Eneloop is just revolutionary.

I have many sets of them at home, and I'm going to replace all of my conventional rechargeables. Highly recommended, and you won't look back.

Have a look at their product website:-

http://www.eneloop.info/