Magazine

Running on recharge

By Resource | 11 December 2009 | Add a Comment

You might not want to admit it, but the ‘season to be jolly’ is nearly upon us, and if we’ve learnt anything over the years about Christmas, it’s that you need batteries, and lots of them, on the big day or you can be left with some rather unhappy faces. With the UK stepping up its plans for battery recycling, we decided it was about time Resource put rechargeable batteries to the test*. Here’s how we got on

Running on recharge- UnirossUNIROSS

Uniross Rechargeable Multi Usage+ Long Life

AA batteries came pre charged and they were the cheapest rechargeable ones we tested, at £6.04 for a pack of four. Unfortunately, though, the battery life was poor in comparison to the other batteries we tested – only providing two days of continuous light. It also took five hours to charge them up again.

Uniross’s AA Performance 2700mAh  (Pack of four – £14.99) performed extremely well in a digital camera, taking hundreds of photos even with a flash.

The ‘Fast 1Hr’ charger (£19.99) is a necessary accessory and comes with a handy car adaptor, though the claim of a one-hour charge-time is extremely inflated (or deflated, rather; batteries took between three and five hours to charge in it).

 

Running on recharge- EnergizerENERGIZER

Though these ACCU Energizer Rechargeable NiMH 2500mAh

batteries came with a snazzy ‘rapide’ charger (£27.99), they failed to live up to expectations. The AAA batteries lasted just barely over 40 hours in our low-drain LED bicycle
light and the AAs allowed a digital camera to take only 10 photos before the ‘low battery’ symbol popped up. (They did go on to take at least 10 more photos before pooping out entirely, however.)  A pack of four AA cost £6.99, while four AAA cost £8.99.

 

Running on recharge- USBCELLUSBCELL

What’s so great about these rechargeable batteries from Moixa Energy is that there’s no need for separate cables or charger, you just plug them into your computer’s USB socket/ game console. Yes, that’s right, although they look like normal batteries, flip open the top and you’ll find a USB plug. Plug the batteries in, and a few hours later you’re good to go.

Well, we say a few hours, but the initial charge on this took eight hours, and the subsequent charges about the same amount of time. The batteries did perform very well, however, and outperformed all the other batteries – giving over a week of continuous light.

The only problem with these is having enough USB ports spare, and not next to each other – you can’t fit two batteries in two adjacent USB slots.

A pack costing £10.99 contains two AA USBCELL batteries and is available from a wide range of high street stores and online. 

 

Running on recharge- AnsmannANSMANN

Ansmann 2850mAh NiMH (Pack of four – £12.32 inc. VAT) are billed as ‘great for high drain and demanding applications’.

The new ‘Max e’ (not pictured) are reported to take ‘five times as many photos as a normal rechargeable batteries’. Both come pre charged, just unwrap and use. The 2850Ah NiMH produced good results, providing light for three continuous days. However, their charge time was disappointing  – over five hours.