Just learned about these. Having been frustrated with rechargables
these sound pretty good. Has there been a thread on these before?

http://www.amazon.com/Rayovac-Hybrid-Battery-NiMH-2000/dp/B000LPTDQQ

Don't know about that particulair brand and model. But i have been using NiMH with low self discharge for since they got out.

The one's i use are Sanyo Eneloop and GP Rechyco. They have pretty much replaced all AA and AAA battery i have. I use them everywhere.

What's that?

Regarding the Eneloop "miracle". IMHO, it looks like a consumer grade invention (e.g. for lazy and impatient). It's nice for long term storage probably (however, the alkalines shelf life is still better). But you sacrifice the capacity to have such a benefit (they have only 2000 mAh, you can get 2700 mAh and that's quite a noticeable difference. I've got 4 3800 mAh nonames, but didn't tested them yet, could be a hoax actually).

well it's not just about capacity. Really high capacity (2700) have very hihg discharge rate, after about 10 cycles. Which means they emty them selfs in a week or two. Making them useless in most devices, unless you want to charge them every week. 3800 mah is just a plain hoax.

A low self discharge battery is suitable for devices that uses less power. I use them in flashlights, mine camera (i don't make that many pictures at once), etc. I wouldn't call them battery's for lazy people. They are way more practical in many everyday devices that uses less lower.

Just get the right battery for a particulair use. I don't need ultra high capacity. 2000 mah is good enough for me, because i never drain battery's at once.

You are absolutely right. You do sacrifice some Amp-hour capacity when you choose a battery with a low self-discharge. This is because the low self-discharge property is created by using a much thicker dielectric inside compared to normal NiMH cell. That thicker dielectric, while keeping the stored electric charge from leaking across and balancing out, takes up some room normally used for the charge holding material, causing a slightly lower capacity.

It’s just a matter of weighing the properties of both against each other. Normal NiMH batteries will hold ~2700 mAh, but can empty themselves in a month. Low self-discharge NiMH batteries only hold ~2000 mAh, but can keep that charge solid for about a year.

Personally, I find the advantage of being able to store several thousand mAh of NiMH batteries that I know are still charged up trumps only having ~2700 mAh at one time because you need to wait for your next battery to charge before you get more. That is a simplified demonstration, of course, because you can orchestrate your charging schedule to allow you to almost always have fully charged normal NiMH batteries, but that requires a lot more effort, and one of the premises of this forum is that the opportunities where batteries are a lifesaver doesn’t always work with our schedules.

These 'hybrid' batteries ARE Nickel Metal Hydride batteries...they're just low self-discharge batteries like the new Duracell precharged or Panasonic Enveloop. Nothing new or special...price isn't bad I've found though.

I switched all my gear to Sanyo Eneloop about a year ago. The shelf life is almost what an alkaline is and the capacity is close too. Sure there are higher capacity NiMH out there but they get that higher capacity by sacrificing reliability. My own testing shows that the low self discharge cells work as well as alkaline so I'm happy to finally find a battery that actually works as it should.

I have a very good charger and run my batteries on a very strict schedule of top up charges even if I don't use them. The charger is very intelligent and won't overcharge them. By my math I'd have to charge them if I let them sit and they self-discharged anyhow. Most NiMH are good for about 500 FULL charges so this doesn't really reduce their overall life...especially since I switched to all LED lights.

The next time one or two won't recharge, I'm definitely going to get the low self-discharge type...but I'll hold out a while and get them wholesale and not retail...way way cheaper from places like Thomas Distributing.

Oh. And speaking of chargers I put together a 'power kit' a while back to cater to my gadget fetish. An Energizer Duo USB charger, a Ziplinq X2 USB power adapter, Some custom USB charge cables, an Energizer AA cell phone charger (modified to output to a USB port), and a 12V all weather folding solar panel. I can charge my phone, AAs or AAAs off of a lighter socket (12v or 24v), from a wall outlet, or from the rays of the sun. Sounds like time to post about another one of my kits

Actually, the higher value NiMH rechargeables rarely get the maximum charge value. A typical 2700 mAh cell may typically get only a 2500 mAh charge. A lot depends on the quality of the charger and the optimum recharge current/time profile for the cell. A poor quality charger on a 1hr charge may only give the 2700 mAH cell around 2200mHA charge. A 30 min charger may only give 1800 mAH. The Eneloops charge recorded on my charger were freakily accurate at 2000 mAH plus or minus 5 or 10 mAH.

I've found that Eneloop cells are currently the best on the market, outperforming even the higher rated cells when taking everything into account. Only when using other high quality and higher capacity cells such as Duracell, Ansmman, Uniross or Sanyo 2700 Industrial cells hot of the charger in high drain applications such as digital cameras etc will the Eneloops be bettered. For use in flashlights and GPS applications etc the Eneloops are excellent and will perform better than even top quality single use alkalines.

I've also tried cheaper NiMH cells, an example would be a cheap 2500 mAh no name, it would only charge to 1600 mAh. I suspect your 3800 mAh cells would not be able to hold anything more than 2000 mAH.

That's actually a good point. If you can, buy a charger that can test the battery. I have one of the top LaCrosse models which will (optionally) fully charge a battery, then discharge it to measure it's capacity, then charge it again.

It's how I test older cells which I suspect are near the end of their life before they fail me when I need them most. I also throw new batteries on this cycle to see how accurately they're labeled.