Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

--

DerbyBorn

On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

I don't feel hoodwinked by the label.

Are you talking about ordinary alkaline AA/AAA cells? My view is that
they seem to be perfectly OK but have a lower effective capacity than
some others. No problem with leakage, with life in storage, etc. But
nothing special. However, they are often less expensive than some others.

--
Rod

Seem as good as most alkalines are. For all I know all these could just be
brand engineered Duracells.
That is except the flying bomb ones you find in those cheap rubbish stores.
Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

--

DerbyBorn

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seem as good as most alkalines are. For all I know all these could
just be brand engineered Duracells.
That is except the flying bomb ones you find in those cheap rubbish
stores.
Brian


"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality"
label?

Crikey, I haven't seen Flying Bombs for 30-odd years!
I've found Panasonic alkaline in AA, and ordinary AAA and 006P/LR14
sizes perfectly acceptable, though nothing special,
but "Enercell" alkalines from Home Bargains to be cheaper and better,
with Aldi's & Lidl's at similar prices to the Panasonics' and life
similar to the Enercells'.
And "Powercell" from B&M no good.

Sorry,
Going senile!
Just realised I've probably cocked up the names of the Home Bargains'
and B&M's batteries.
If so, sincere apologies to the manufacturers mentioned, but for the
life of me can't remember the true names.
Nurse might be along in 25 years to help...

On 14/02/2014 00:38, Martin Crossley wrote:
"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
Seem as good as most alkalines are. For all I know all these could
just be brand engineered Duracells.
That is except the flying bomb ones you find in those cheap rubbish
stores.
Brian


"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality"
label?

Crikey, I haven't seen Flying Bombs for 30-odd years!
I've found Panasonic alkaline in AA, and ordinary AAA and 006P/LR14
sizes perfectly acceptable, though nothing special,
but "Enercell" alkalines from Home Bargains to be cheaper and better,
with Aldi's & Lidl's at similar prices to the Panasonics' and life
similar to the Enercells'.

Aldi & Lidl sometimes have bargain NiMH rechargeable with low self
discharge that are very good value for money (at least previous batches
have been). I can never remember which is which. Batteries labelled
Tronic (be sure to lok for the red low self discharge ones though).

And "Powercell" from B&M no good.

Depending on what you want them for even the horrid leak like hell zinc
chloride 20 for £1 Chinese junk from PoundShop etc can be value for
money. I occasionally need to light a dark village footpath some
evenings and LED units with ultra cheap batteries are perfect for that
duty. They only have to work for just a few hours at 0.3A or so (in
practice they are usually still glowing the next morning as the LEDs
draw much less current as the terminal voltage drops).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown wrote:

Aldi & Lidl sometimes have bargain NiMH rechargeable with low self
discharge that are very good value for money (at least previous batches
have been). I can never remember which is which. Batteries labelled
Tronic

In which case I think they're the Lidl ones, never bought any from Aldi

(be sure to lok for the red low self discharge ones though).

Some of the Tronic LSD have been black.

On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

We use them all the time & they are fine. TLC Direct do them cheap as
chips. IIRC 12 x AA + 12 x AAA for about £6.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 14/02/2014 08:17, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

We use them all the time & they are fine. TLC Direct do them cheap as
chips. IIRC 12 x AA + 12 x AAA for about £6.



Ikea!

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/

On 14/02/2014 09:28, stuart noble wrote:
On 14/02/2014 08:17, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

We use them all the time & they are fine. TLC Direct do them cheap as
chips. IIRC 12 x AA + 12 x AAA for about £6.



Ikea!

http://www.batteryshowdown.com/



+1 for Ikea alkalines, seem to last easily as long as other brands and
cheap enough to buy a couple of spare packs to last until the next visit

In article ,
stuart noble writes:
On 14/02/2014 08:17, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

We use them all the time & they are fine. TLC Direct do them cheap as
chips. IIRC 12 x AA + 12 x AAA for about £6.



Ikea!

I bought them a while back, and they nearly all leaked.

More recently, I was buying the GP Super from CPC at around £6 for
a box of 40, but they switched over to a lower capacity GP Alkaline
for their bulk packs which don't last as long, so I stopped buying
them. After a bit of experimenting, I found the Costco bulk packs to
be good, but not gone through a lot of them yet.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Thu, 13 Feb 2014 22:42:49 +0000, DerbyBorn wrote:

Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

I bought two Kodak 'D' size cells off ebay. One went ***phut*** within
seconds of switch on; internal short judging by the heat it was giving
off on removal. I'm wondering if these cells were fakes.
There was a time when Kodak batteries were among the best around (some 10
years ago) and certainly way better than Duracell back then, but it seems
recognised brand names in general are no longer a reliable indicator of
quality. :-(

On 14/02/2014 21:12, Cursitor Doom wrote:

There was a time when Kodak batteries were among the best around

Kodak never made batteries - they just sold their brand to badge
products when the demand for film fell through the floor and people
started using digital cameras.


--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

alan wrote in news:52ff3661$0$1409$5b6aafb4
@news.zen.co.uk:

On 14/02/2014 21:12, Cursitor Doom wrote:

There was a time when Kodak batteries were among the best around

Kodak never made batteries - they just sold their brand to badge
products when the demand for film fell through the floor and people
started using digital cameras.



I overheard a couple of people in Asda looking at a TV with "Polaroid"
badge on it. They were commenting that they made good cameras (??) so
the TV should be okay!

--

DerbyBorn

On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:


Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?


Why do you believe Panasonic is a "quality" label.

A company may have had a good reputation of designing one or two
products but when it starts branding unrelated products it just means
that the brand name has been sold on, usually to badge products that may
otherwise not sell in the same numbers.

The Panasonic batteries that I've used have been no worse, no better,
than any other known brand but I no longer buy fakes batteries from from
pound shops.

My favoured batteries these days are Duracell ProCell.


mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:26:11 +0000, alan wrote:

On 13/02/2014 22:42, DerbyBorn wrote:


Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?


Why do you believe Panasonic is a "quality" label.

A company may have had a good reputation of designing one or two
products but when it starts branding unrelated products it just means
that the brand name has been sold on, usually to badge products that may
otherwise not sell in the same numbers.

The Panasonic batteries that I've used have been no worse, no better,
than any other known brand but I no longer buy fakes batteries from from
pound shops.

My favoured batteries these days are Duracell ProCell.

+1. In bulk when on special offer from CPC!

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 15/02/2014 14:14, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:26:11 +0000, alan wrote:


My favoured batteries these days are Duracell ProCell.

+1. In bulk when on special offer from CPC!



I've had problems with CPC when ordering their batteries on special
offer (2 for the price of 1). On the last two occasions I've only
received half the amount ordered. I now buy from a couple of previously
used Ebay suppliers who have fresh stock (dated 2019+).

--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:51:15 +0000, alan wrote:

On 15/02/2014 14:14, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:26:11 +0000, alan wrote:


My favoured batteries these days are Duracell ProCell.

+1. In bulk when on special offer from CPC!


I've had problems with CPC when ordering their batteries on special
offer (2 for the price of 1). On the last two occasions I've only
received half the amount ordered. I now buy from a couple of previously
used Ebay suppliers who have fresh stock (dated 2019+).

Which supplier, please?
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 15/02/2014 16:28, PeterC wrote:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:51:15 +0000, alan wrote:

On 15/02/2014 14:14, Bob Eager wrote:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 09:26:11 +0000, alan wrote:


My favoured batteries these days are Duracell ProCell.

+1. In bulk when on special offer from CPC!


I've had problems with CPC when ordering their batteries on special
offer (2 for the price of 1). On the last two occasions I've only
received half the amount ordered. I now buy from a couple of previously
used Ebay suppliers who have fresh stock (dated 2019+).

Which supplier, please?


I've always had good service from Babz but I note in their current
listings they don't state the "best before" date.


--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

Huge wrote in news:bm610eFs60gU1
@mid.individual.net:

On 2014-02-13, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

After the deeply ****ty PVR we foolishly bought recently, I won't be
buying anything from Panasonic ever again. YMMV.



Crikey - will Panasonic read this?

--

DerbyBorn

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:40:13 +0000, Huge wrote:

I have a note on my "things to do" list to (i) find out who the head of
Panasonic UK is & (ii) write to them and ask for my money back.

The problem is by the time I come to my study, the towering rage induced
by using the useless PoS PVR has usually subsided.

Panasonic used to be really good stuff many years ago. But I bought one
of their ansaphones 18 months ago and it's total ****e. Virtually
unusable, in fact. Rotten audio quality and a hopeless menu system that
is just the pits.

Huge wrote:
On 2014-02-13, wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

After the deeply ****ty PVR we foolishly bought recently, I won't be
buying anything from Panasonic ever again. YMMV.



Probably another rebranded product with crap firmware. Her Vesta?
manufactured £60 PVR was appalling to use, but yesterday I retuned it
and it's control system magically began to work properly for the first
time in a year. Its predecessor was branded Sharp and the Sharp
controller also works on this one. The Sharp version lasted about 5
years, so there's been very little software change. I haven't yet
experienced a PVR which didn't require rebooting on at least a once a
month basis. I think the designers(?) were trained by Microsoft.

On Friday 14 February 2014 11:49 Huge wrote in uk.d-i-y:

It's not as good as that. It simply isn't fit for purpose. And all the
online reviews, and the bloke in Richer Sounds, said it was a good
one. I don't know what they were reviewing, but it wasn't the waste of
good electrons we've got. It doesn't crash, but it has the worst UI of
any device I've ever used, and certain fundamental functions cannot be
accessed when it's recording. It's a pathetic piece of junk. Sadly,
we've had it some months now, so I can't really take it back to RS. It
took us several weeks to work out how to drive it, given the manual
was written in Portugese by an Inuit who'd never seen the device, then
translated into "English" by a dyslexic Yanomamo tribesman who spoke
neither language. That too is the worst manual I've ever got with a
piece of electronics, and some of the contents are outright lies.

Right, that's fired me up enough to actually write the letter!

Ignore Sony too.

I have a DVD player, perfectly good. My niece fiddle with the controls
and managed to put it into some sort of lock-disc mode.

I have followed various web guides and a technical support call to
unlock it - all to no avail.

Nothing in the actual instructions of course.

The last response was "send it in for repair".

No, can't be bothered for a £50 DVD player. But Sony are also on my ****
list now. I will add your Panasonic to the list...

So far IME, Samsung seem quite good across a number of types of items (2
TVs, 2006 monitor I'm typing on now, 3 smartphones.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://squiddy.blog.dionic.net/

http://www.sensorly.com/ Crowd mapping of 2G/3G/4G mobile signal
coverage

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:57:09 +0000, Tim Watts wrote:


Ignore Sony too.

I won't touch Sony, either. Not after that root kit scandal and the
digital rights debacle. Outrageous!

On 14/02/2014 20:29, Cursitor Doom wrote:
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:57:09 +0000, Tim Watts wrote:


Ignore Sony too.

I won't touch Sony, either. Not after that root kit scandal and the
digital rights debacle. Outrageous!


Depends on the purchaser, expectations and the model bought.

Sony are technically brilliant but not so great for catering for people
that have been needlessly upsold [1] on the name or fashion statement.
Silly money gets involved and a waste of resources happens.

Is there a 'claims management company' to get these people their money
back? :-p

[1] as it was listed by 'Which' or plugged by PR experts in some other
magazine hot list, or worse recommended by someone else who read these
magazines and imagined they were buying the item for themselves. Geeks :-(

--
Adrian C

Huge wrote:
On 2014-02-14, wrote:
Huge wrote:
On 2014-02-13, wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

After the deeply ****ty PVR we foolishly bought recently, I won't be
buying anything from Panasonic ever again. YMMV.



Probably another rebranded product with crap firmware. Her Vesta?
manufactured £60 PVR was appalling to use, but yesterday I retuned it
and it's control system magically began to work properly for the first
time in a year. Its predecessor was branded Sharp and the Sharp
controller also works on this one. The Sharp version lasted about 5
years, so there's been very little software change. I haven't yet
experienced a PVR which didn't require rebooting on at least a once a
month basis. I think the designers(?) were trained by Microsoft.

It's not as good as that. It simply isn't fit for purpose. And all the
online reviews, and the bloke in Richer Sounds, said it was a good one. I
don't know what they were reviewing, but it wasn't the waste of good
electrons we've got. It doesn't crash, but it has the worst UI of any
device I've ever used, and certain fundamental functions cannot be
accessed when it's recording. It's a pathetic piece of junk. Sadly, we've
had it some months now, so I can't really take it back to RS. It took
us several weeks to work out how to drive it, given the manual was written
in Portugese by an Inuit who'd never seen the device, then translated into
"English" by a dyslexic Yanomamo tribesman who spoke neither language. That
too is the worst manual I've ever got with a piece of electronics, and
some of the contents are outright lies.

Right, that's fired me up enough to actually write the letter!


Hmm. Sounds like the TVonics I have in the kitchen. That has the AD
(audio description) function. Took me a week of looking through menus
which allowed me to change the volume but not get rid of it. I then
found the AD button on the controller which switches it on and off!
It's speed control function buttons have various states of working
depending on what it feels like. Two pushes give x2 speeds unless it's
confused in which case two pushes is pause. The software cannot keep
pace with the hardware I guess. Now I know why TVonics went broke!

On 14/02/2014 12:01, Capitol wrote:

It's speed control function buttons have various states of working
depending on what it feels like. Two pushes give x2 speeds unless it's
confused in which case two pushes is pause. The software cannot keep
pace with the hardware I guess. Now I know why TVonics went broke!


All the designers were ex-Sony

--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:49:03 +0000, Huge wrote:


Right, that's fired me up enough to actually write the letter!

Tell 'em about my ansaphone while you're at it. Hopeless PoS!

On 14/02/2014 08:04, Huge wrote:
On 2014-02-13, DerbyBorn wrote:
Are they any good - or are we being hoodwinked with a "quality" label?

After the deeply ****ty PVR we foolishly bought recently, I won't be
buying anything from Panasonic ever again. YMMV.

Aren't their breadmakers the ones to get?

I'd expect them to be a rather different division to PVRs, so wouldn't
let a bad experience with that put me off the other.

Aren't their breadmakers the ones to get?

I'd expect them to be a rather different division to PVRs, so wouldn't
let a bad experience with that put me off the other.



I guess most manufacturers get a few "dogs" onto the market from time to
time - not necessarily a generic manufacturing problem - maybe a mis-
reading of the customer's requirements when selecting software features.
Certainly one shouldn't damn a whole brand when products now are made in so
many different plants around the world.

--

DerbyBorn

I guess that the UK represents a very small proportion of the output of
these companies. The importers / concessionaires make decisions on which
products we should be offered in the UK and which need adapting to our
systems and this is where mistakes creep in. Same with cars. Remember the
original Renault Clio - never imported here - yet very popular on the
continent. The Importing Agents wouldn't take the risk of a RHD development
of it.
We also get features on some cars such as remote locking and alarms - other
countries get cruise control. Decisions made by the agents.

--

DerbyBorn

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 20:29:49 +0000, DerbyBorn wrote:

Remember the original Renault Clio - never imported here

Yes, it was.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...G_6054-800.jpg

I think you might be thinking of the original Twingo.

Adrian wrote in news:ldn7jr$5k4$1
@speranza.aioe.org:

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 20:29:49 +0000, DerbyBorn wrote:

Remember the original Renault Clio - never imported here

Yes, it was.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...G_6054-800.jpg

I think you might be thinking of the original Twingo.


Sorry - yes the Twingo

--

DerbyBorn

On 15/02/14 08:13, Adrian wrote:
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 20:29:49 +0000, DerbyBorn wrote:

Remember the original Renault Clio - never imported here

Yes, it was.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...G_6054-800.jpg

I think you might be thinking of the original Twingo.



Best car I ever had that original 1994 Twingo, kept it until two years
ago when the cost of getting it through another MOT was clearly uneconomic.

http://flic.kr/p/EGZ4F





--
djc

DerbyBorn wrote:

Aren't their breadmakers the ones to get?

I'd expect them to be a rather different division to PVRs, so wouldn't
let a bad experience with that put me off the other.



I guess most manufacturers get a few "dogs" onto the market from time to
time - not necessarily a generic manufacturing problem - maybe a mis-
reading of the customer's requirements when selecting software features.
Certainly one shouldn't damn a whole brand when products now are made in so
many different plants around the world.


They probably aren't manufacturers anymore. The whole thing is a
branding exercise. The marketing person deciding to buy from the
manufacturer is only concerned that it looks right. The customer is
expected to do the testing.

On 14/02/2014 17:21, DerbyBorn wrote:


I guess most manufacturers get a few "dogs" onto the market from time to
time - not necessarily a generic manufacturing problem - maybe a mis-
reading of the customer's requirements when selecting software features.
Certainly one shouldn't damn a whole brand when products now are made in so
many different plants around the world.


You have it the wrong way around. Occasionally the brand gets is right
and produces something that is well ahead of the competitors. With this
one product it then has a springboard for releasing junk for the next
couple of years.





--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk