On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 10:14, john d hamilton wrote:

Have just bought the latest type of rechargeable *Hybrid* batteries from
Maplin, made by Uniross, called Hybrio. (also Argos are now selling them
made by Sanyo).

They are supposed to have the advantage over Nickel Metal Hydride in that
they don't have the 'memory effect'.

Err, no. The claimed advantage is that their self-discharge rate is
extra low. Therefore they are sold in (allegedly) "charged" state, so
can be used straight out of the pack. After use and recharging, they
will allegedly still be holding a fair chunk of usable charge even
after many months of storage.

Also the advantage of the Alkaline, in that they dont self
discharge at quite a high rate when not being used.

Alkaline batteries are primaries, not rechargeable (at least, not with
great success / reliability / amount of recharge), and have
exceptionally low self-discharge rates, particularly when stored
unused.

My experience of Hybrios is that they aren't _much_ better than
standard high-capacity NiMH. Also, a significant percentage have
proved to have lower-than-nominal capacity, which has been a right
nuisance at times, and led to me checking open-circuit cell voltages
and sorting the not-very-good cells apart from the rest of the
collection.

I am trying not to rely on Hybrio's supposed long-storage life, and to
carry a spare set of cells at all times. Where I might expect to
depend on full (or full-ish) charge (full day's GPS hiking, camera
flash to be used at a wedding), I now always replace with fresh.
Others may have different experiences, and be completely delighted
with their Hybrios. This is just my experience of five packs of 4*AA
and three of 4*AAA. I charge in a Uniroos fast charger, which handles
each cell individually (these chargers are, IMO, much preferable to
the majority which force charging in pairs or quads), and the LEDs
change from flashing to steady at different times, which is partly due
to differences in the four charging circuits, but can also indicate
significant differences between cells. Obviously, the charger was a
really good one, because they stopped making it. But at least one of
Maplin's high-rate chargers operates cell-by-cell.

Other manufacturer/tradenames for the technology a
Sanyo Eneloop
Panasonic Infinium
Vapex Instant

Hope this helps.