Two years of Rechargeable Battery Experiences

[cwilk]

I am going to replace my rechargeables next year. A new set of 8 is roughly $22.00. My current set started out lasting 22 hours before they needed recharging. After around 100 hours of use, they lasted 15-17 hours. That was about normal over the next 500 hours of use. Their final 80 hours they have only been lasting around 10 hours between chargings and they seem to be fading fast. A total of 679.75 hours of hunting for 22 bucks worth of batteries. Not too shabby. I will use the old batteries in my remotes and other low power consuming devices around the house.

FYI: They are Energizer 2500 mah batteries.

Chris

I have read on this forum that they feel that their detector performs better on standard batteries. I ran one set of regular batteries through my 2500 this fall and they lasted 25.5 hours. It was a good two weeks worth of finds but not statistically better than when I use rechargeables. FWIW.

 

[John-Edmonton]

n/t

 

[bearkat4160]

Those are exactly what I use in my 2500 also. I have got about 2 years on them, and sometimes I switch them between the Infinium and 2500. I usually use the supplied rechargables with the Infinium though. Just a note, those energizer 2500's make the detector heavier by more than one would think it would, as I recall I weighed it between both when I was back in Georgia. Cant remember by how much though. More than I thought it might be.

Alan

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I've been using rechargeables for years with no problems. I carry regular batteries in the back of my van for spares. Used to get regular batteries at Costco - 48 for $10.99.

Bill

 

[slingshot]

My gosh. That means I would probably NEVER have to buy batteries for the Ace again. When the icon gets down to 3 bars I keep WAITING for it to FINALLY drop to 2 bars and that's when I replace them. A 4-pack of 99 cent batteries (standard) at wally world lasts almost 4 full days. I bought them whenever I left my wallet at home and couldn't buy the alkalines.

 

[Old Katz]

Don't you have to run the rechargeables down completely before you try recharging them?
I used to have a little hand held 2.5 TV and I found that if I didn't let them run down
completely, the batteries would die on me within two to three months. Very expensive mistake.
I'd put them in the battery charger and they would start to charge ok but with just a few seconds
the charger would give me a red light and stop the charging process.
Katz

 

[cwilk]

I ran them down to one bar once or twice. Normally I recharge as the meter hits 3 bars. Thats out of 5 bars total. With new battery technology like NiMH it is best not to run them all the way down. The "memory effect" is not a big consideration in NiMHs like it was with NiCads.

I use a 15 minute quick charger. This is supposed to reduce the battery life but it sure is more convenient.

Chris

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah I've never had a problem. I've recharged mine at all stages and I've been on the same batteries for several years. Rechargeables have improved over the years.

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Costco has them 48 for $10.99 or at least they used to. They are the Costco brand, Kirkland, but all store brands are made by name brand companies under a "private label" agreement. Like Sears - all their stuff with the Sears name are made by major manufacturers. I bought a video camera years ago at Sears with the Sears name on it and it was a Hitachi. Don't get much better than that. If you buy Sears tires with their name on them they are made by Goodyear, Firestone, Bridgestone, or whoever gets the contract that year - and they have to make them as good or better than the tires they sell under their own name and offer a better guarantee in order to get Sear's business. Many of their big appliances are made by Sunbeam who doesn't even make the stuff under their own name.

Many detector manufacturers sell detectors under "private label" agreements sold under another name, like the Predator detectors sold by Kellyco. They are the old Garrett Ace 100/200/300 series that I field tested way back - discontinued years ago by Garrett. The first Tesoro I ever owned was sold by Kellyco under a different name but was the first Silver Sabre put out by Tesoro. It was blue in color and carried a different name but when it arrived I instantly recognized it as a Silver Sabre so I called Jack Gifford and asked him and sure enough it was.

Bill

 

[Azflyer]

Using Alkaline batteries vs NiCd batteries would be determined by the detector manufacturer. Even though manufacturer can recommend a NiCd battery, it could hurt the performance of a detector. Reason being a new single AAA, AA, C, or D Alkaline battery will be 1.5 volts and the comparable fully charged NiCd is 1.2 volts. An Alkaline 9V is 9 volts and the comparable NiCd 9V is only 7.2V or 8.4 volts depending on manufacturer (example_ lets say a dectector uses 8 AA batteries. 8 alkalines = 12V = 8*1.5V. 8 NiCds = 9.6V = 8*1.2V, OK still with me. Now * 8 alkalines 12V minus 8 NiCd 9.V (12-9.6) = a loss of 2.4V. On newer micro controlled machines this may not be an issue since the machines usually work at a lower voltage and drop the voltage down anyway. On older machines this could be detrimental since they use every bit of voltage to operate.
This is something that could use further research, since a metal detector works like a radio transmitter and receiver. With a radio transmitter, when you lower the input voltage, you also lower the transmitting power. This effect in turn could keep you from finding that coin at 8"

Just my penny worth of information