On Jun 17, 6:32 am, N8N wrote:
anyone recommend a reliable brand of rechargeable batteries, and where
can I buy them? i ordered some high-capacity NiMH C cells online a
while back and last night when the power hadn't been restored by the
time the sun went down I tried them in my flashlight; dead as a
doornail. These had been charged by me after receiving them and then
rotated through the charger again; all of my rechargeables have been
in the charger within at least the last month. I feel so wasteful
using alkalines but I keep having bad experiences with every
rechargeable I try.

nate

Check out C.Crane, http://www.ccrane.com/more-categorie...atteries.aspx;
their C and D cells stand out for actually having a higher mA-hr
rating than their AA's, in contrast to the major brands. I've been
using 4 of their D cells in my son's crib toy (Fisher-Price aquarium,
lights and motor load) for a couple of years now very happily (once I
got over paying FIFTEEN BUCKS FOR A FRIGGIN D-CELL). Note, they take
at least 36 hours to fully charge but last at least 8 or 10 weeks in
the toy, nightly usage ranging from nothing to maybe an hour. That's
with C.Crane's own charger which they've discontinued in favour of a
Rayovac model. They're a bunch of radio geeks so they must have
decided the Rayovac's a good unit.

(I've also used C.Crane's AAAs in a GPS unit and found that each
charge gives me about half the runtime of a fresh set of Duracells...a
clunk on the head to whoever designs high-drain things around AAAs.)

Notwithstanding the well-documented self-discharge of NiMH, if your C-
cells were stone cold less than a month out of a charger, I'd say
either they had not been well charged or had self-discharge even
higher than the norm. I once asked a random local salesdroid why the
major brands rated their Cs and Ds no higher in mA-hrs than their AAs
and was told that their chargers couldn't handle a higher rating...who
knows.

Chip C
Toronto