Batteries?

[Oakman404]

Do any of you fine people use rechargeable? If so what kind and how long do the last and what has been your overall battery life?I put new energizer batts in my 1350 last Saturday, I have probably 15 hours on them and I am down to 2 bars already. Is this about right? I went out to Target tonight and bought a batt charger and 8 rechargeable batts. I am just curious about how long they will last per charge. I do wear headphones and I rarely use the backlight on my LCD screen. I figured if I have to replace batts this soon I will be spending more on batteries than I am digging from the ground each week!

 

[Uncle Willy]

I use them almost exclusively in all my machines and they'll last a 1000 hours or more before having to be replaced. You can burn through a lot of alkies in a 1000 hours or more.

Bill

 

[lazyaussie]

i use em to & they last for ages & no need to buy new ones when they run outta juice

 

[Oakman404]

Uncle Willy and Lazy,
Thanks so much for responding. I just wanted to ask you guys, how long can you hunt on a fully charged set of batteries?

 

[cwilk]

My 2500 goes anywhere from 15-17 hours on a recharge. I got over 20 hours when I bought them. I have 400 hours on them and they are still going strong. I keep a log and right now my figures show that I have gotten the equivalent of 8 free sets of batteries for my initial investment. Can't beat rechargeables.

Chris

 

[Oakman404]

That's awesome. I gotta tell ya, I put batts in my tecter last week and I probably have 15 hours on these disposables that I have in it now. Friday they were down to 2 bars already so I went and bought some rechargeable batteries. Well I hunted all day Sunday on the old set of disposables, thinking I would completely drain them first, and when I turned my 1350 on they were back to a full charge! Have you ever had disposables recover themselves like that? I hunted for 5 hours straight on Sunday and those disposables still have life in them! I just thought that was very weird.

 

[bloodyknees]

I use them almost exclusively in all my machines and they'll last a 1000 hours or more before having to be replaced. You can burn through a lot of alkies in a 1000 hours or more.

Bill

Bill, Do you install them fresh off the charger or do you keep a supply charged and ready for when you need them. I guess my question is: will the rechargables retain their charge while in storage (not in detector) as well a disposable batteries?
Thanks Al

 

[NM5K]

Not quite as well. But it's a simple matter to give them a little "touch up" charge
before you go on a hunt. They also run down a bit different than alkies too.
An alkie battery will more slowly slope down to a lower and lower voltage.
Most nicads and nickle hydride batteries will run fairly stable until the end,
and then they quickly fall out. Not as much warning at the very end.
Myself, I like rechargeable batteries in general, but I don't use them in my
detector. I think my 250 is a tad more stable, and maybe even go very slightly
deeper using the alkies.. Why? cuz the machine gets the full voltage it was
designed to run with. IE: an Ace 250 runs off 6 volts nominally. Four alkies give
you 1.5v x 4= 6 volts.
But four rechargables only give you 1.2 v x 4 = 4.8 volts. That's about the
voltage of alkies when they are about half run down..
Of course, many don't notice any problems with the lower voltage, but I
prefer to use the full 6 volts myself. I get alkies cheap at the dollar store,
so price is not much of an issue. The alkies also last quite a long time in
the 250 which is not really a battery guzzler like some of the bigger machines.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that disposable batteries are equivalent to 2200 milliamps. You can buy 2500 milliamp rechargeables. I've got them in my GTI 1500. They lasted about 25 hours.
I've been using the same set of rechargeables in my light detectors for the last 3.5 years. (About 700hours.) I have no plans to replace them anytime soon.
Mick Evans.