A question on rechargeable batteries........ Has anyone tried

[Mark ( ohio )]

those sanyo eneloop nimh aa rechargeables in their explorers??? I believe they have a rating of 2000mAh and can be recharged 1500 times....Consumer report rated them superior... Any Thoughts??


Mark ( ohio )

 

[morelic55]

Have not tried the Eneloop in my SE, as I bought the RNB pack new when I got it. Have used them in my Xterra's for 3 years now and they are great. I get 3-4 8 hour hunts out of a charge, for 4 of them..................Mark

 

[The Magician]

I have had them for years now, used them in other detectors, now back to the explorer with my explorer 2. Fantastic batteries, it's the fact that they're slow discharge that makes them so good IMO.

 

[Neil]

How about the run time on the eneloops? what kind of hunt time can you get from them on an explorer/etrac? they are inexpensive compared to a stock rechargeable pack.

 

[The Magician]

They run somewhat longer than stock, though stock batteries seem to loose charge after not before too long it seems, then the Eneloops run much longer. Cost? I paid about $32 for mine (8 batteries), can't remember, about $50 for a very fast recharger that holds 4 batteries, from fully flat, charges them in an hour. All this should be cheaper for you guys in the US, typically twice as cheap, as I'm from australia.

What you should really be asking yourself is; what's the cost of the stock minelab batteries going flat at the start or during the hunt? What's the real cost?

 

[Neil]

I priced them out earlier this morning and they are $19 shipped for 8 and the chargers widely vary in price. The stock eneloop charger is a little over $11 shipped and takes 7 hours to charge. That is a lot faster than the stock pack but not as fast as your talking. I always put a small fan on mine while charging, keep the battery and charger as cool as possible.
I like the idea of the eneloops and will be buying those next time I purchase batteries. They would also be great in other devices.
Thanks for the info on them,
Neil

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Mark,

I had a post deleted for mentioning those batteries by brand name, so be careful. But yes there are several manufacturers of low self discharge NIMH batteries. The main reason our packs go dead is because regular NIMH batteries discharge themselves at a pretty quick rate. The low self discharge type have a lower mAh rating but after a couple of days in the pack they will be in better shape than the regular kind.

I've filled a couple of packs with these for under $20 each. They will stay 95% charged over a year. Got them in my CTX alkaline pack too. I don't know how many hours total one can detect with them before they die but it's much longer than the factory pack.

Chris