Review @ 1337 IT

I picked up a Powerex WizardOne MH-C9000 Battery charger about a month ago as I had decided it was time to make an effort to stop using so many disposable batteries. What with remotes, a Wii, Xbox 360 (with GH:WT Instruments), wireless keyboards and mice I had been chewing through alkaline AAs at a pretty decent pace.

I picked up the WizardOne along with two packs of 4xAA Imedion 2100mAh LSD batteries from servaas.com.au which seems to be the best place to get them in Australia (I believe they’re the local distributor). I paid $89.95 for the charger and $42.00 for the Imedions.

The Imedions are one of the new breed of LSD (Low Self Discharge) NiMH. They don’t suffer the high rate of discharge of standard NiMH batteries and claim to have 85% of charge remaining after 1yr on the shelf. This has been independently confirmed by everyday users.

I had also previously ordered some cheap NiMH AAs off EBay. The were labelled “BTY 2500″ and listed as 2500mAh capacity. I got 12 for about $6.60 with $7.60 shipping from China. They were from a reputable seller with over 20000 feedbacks and over 99% of them were good. A week after getting the WizardOne I also ordered a another 4AA and 4AAA from a *different* EBay seller for reasons we’ll get into shortly.

When the WizardOne arrived it had plenty of work to do. Now this thing is pretty cool. Its major features include:

• Charge AA and AAA batteries
• Charge in increments of 100mAh
• Discharge in increments of 100mAh
• Cycle batteries with a specific number of charges/discharges (in 100mAH increments - charge and discharge are independent values)
• “Break-in” mode for new batteries or refreshing/resurrecting old ones.
• Individual circuits for all 4 batteries (you can have one charging, one discharging, one cycling and one breaking in simultaneously)

I started with Break-in mode since I had 20 brand spanking new batteries. In this mode, the batteries are subjected to a specific regime of charge and discharge cycles to break-in the battery and consequently discover a battery’s capacity.  The WizardOne’s break-in mode is basically the IEC standard test for battery capacity.  In this mode, you enter the capacity of the battery (say 2000mAH) and the charger then performs the following procedure:

• Charge at 0.1C for 16hrs
• Rest 2hr
• Discharge at 0.2C until flat
• Rest 2hr
• Charge at 0.1C for 16hrs

1.0C is the full capacity in mAh of the battery, so when charging a 2000mAh battery at 0.1C would be 200mAh. Also, this is a timed charge so even if the battery signals that it is full, the charge will still trickle in. The batteries receive 1.6x their capacity, but excess charge is gently burned off in heat. Because the charge is a fraction of capacity, provided the battery’s capacity is listed correctly, the procedure should take a bit over 40 hrs from start to finish.

At the end of this first charge, some very worrying figures were to be seen on the WizardOne’s display. While the 2 Imedion batteries were cheerfully displaying figures very close to their rated 2100mAH (which is perfectly acceptable) the 2 Ebay specials were both displaying around 500mAH.

Due to the time required per cycle, it took almost a week to get all 20 batteries broken in. Out of 12 “BTY 2500″ batteries, the best peaked at 650mAH and the worst at around 480mAH. Now I wasn’t expecting cheap batteries from China to be right up to their rated capacity, for the price I would have been happy with anything over half their rated capacity, but most of these batteries were pushing 20% at best.

I hopped back on Ebay to scrutinise the seller’s feedback. Filtering only bad responses I found most of the complaints were about the batteries they sold - not good. Unfortunately I’d already given feedback on how wonderfully quick they’d been delivered - not having a charger, that’s all I could say. At this point I went in search of some more cheap EBay batteries (I’m a sucker for punishment). This time I filtered out the good feedback and found that most of the battery sellers had a lot of complaints specific to their batteries. Most of these complaints were drowned in the sea of good feedback for all the other cheap junk they sold but there were also good reports on the batteries from stooges with cheap chargers who didn’t know better or stooges like me who were happy that they arrived so quickly.

I eventually found a seller who was based in Newcastle. Not as insanely cheap as the Chinese sellers but dedicated to batteries. I grabbed a 4 Pack of Powerplus AA 2600mAH  and a 4 Pack of Powerplus 900mAH AAA from BatteryMax. They were a little more expensive, but shipping was quite reasonable and most importantly, no bad feedbacks.

I fired off an email to the BTY 2500 seller only to hear nothing. I sent a couple more and eventually drafted a paypal dispute on the last day it was available. Within half an hour I had a response from the seller telling me I was probably charging too fast or maybe I didn’t realise that batteries need to be broken in. When I responded that my charger performed a break-in charge that was up to scratch with IEC standards and that all 12 batteries were coming up around the same capacity rating all communication ceased.

Around about this time my Powerplus batteries arrived and I noticed something disturbing about the BTY batteries. The were light, very light. Hold them in your hand and you could feel the difference.

I popped them all on a set of scales and recorded the results. (The holder is about 10g)

The Imedions and Powerplus tipped the scales at about 32g/cell. The BTY didn’t do so well at 22g/cell. That’s 2/3 of the possible maximum energy density right there (which I would have been happy with). I can only assume that they’re carrying very low quality NiMH material or they’re filled with spacers (or sand). I may crack one open if I get curious enough to find out.

Now I had one day to “formalise” my Paypal complaint and without anymore contact from the seller I didn’t have much choice. As soon as I did this I got another response from the seller - almost immediately. It went along the lines of “Don’t do anything, we’ll send you another 12 batteries and when you get the package, simply take the new batteries out and put your old ones back in it. Label the bag “return to sender” and drop it in a postbox.” Excellent I though - seemed like a good solution, until the 14 day Paypal deadline loomed - when my only option was to submit tracking information or cancel the claim.

At this point I had no package to return the batteries in. Even if I had, it wouldn’t have tracking information. I actually found the envelope the batteries came in and considered sending it back, but once again, having no tracking information the ebay seller could (and most likely would) say they never appeared and paypal wouldn’t refund me without proof. The other option was to send them back at my own cost and recover the cost of the batteries but not shipping. Meaning that I’d paid $7.60 shipping for $6.60 worth of batteries, then paid at least $8.00 to get them back to China only to get $6.60 back. $15 in postage to get $6.60 back? So I’m out $8 and I don’t even have the batteries? Forget that.

Long story short, I kept my 12 Dodgy Ebay batteries and dropped the claim - well played Mr Ebayman, well played.

The good news is that the Power-Plus batteries are up to scratch - all within 5% of their rated capacity (except for one of the AAAs that’s a little lower). All in all good value.

Conclusions:

Powerex WizardOne MH-C9000 - Unless you already have a fancy battery charger/analyser, you should get one of these amazing little chargers. Even if you have a decent charger, you should get one for the break-in and analysis capabilities. I’m planning on grabbing a boring 8 cell charger to complement mine. At $89.95 it’s highly recommended.  Pick it up from servaas.com.au.

Powerex Imedion AA 2100mAH LSD - From all accounts these are some of the best LSD NiMH batteries on the market today - edging out the flashy name brands like Varta and Enerloop for performance and longivity. I found them to be very reasonably priced at $21.95/4 Pack for premium batteries and if you buy them with a charger from servaas.com.au you’ll get free shipping. Recommended.

BTY AA 2500mAH - (User currenly has nothing for sale…) Well you read the rant. They serve as a good warning to stay away from cheap ebay sellers. Are they worth the $0.50 (plus shipping) a cell that I paid for them? Probably not. If I keep them on the charger to counter their appalling self discharge then they are serviceable for occasional Wii or 360 use. Do I wish I bought more Imedions that could simply be left in those devices and work better for longer even after months or years? Uh yeah. Not Recommended - buy your Ebay batteries elsewhere (check the feedback first).

Powerplus AA 2600mAH  and Powerplus 900mAH AAA - Restored my faith in Ebay Battery Sellers. Good people from Newcastle (where I spent my formative high school years) and they specialise in batteries. Ship via express post at reasonable rates and quickly - what more could you ask for. They’re currently selling 8 x AAs for around $23 with $5 Postage - AAAs are a little less. They combine postage and do discounts for bulk buys i.e. 50x AA 2600mAh for $108. Bargain! Recommended.

Ebay/Paypal - Far too rigid dispute handling procedures. An option to “place dispute on hold for X days” or “communicate with a human” would have been nice. In the end if you pay more for postage than your item be willing to lose out and you won’t be too disappointed. Still the best place to buy cheap stuff.

I must say I’m hooked on the LSD NiMH now I have the Imedions. They’re a drop in replacement for alkalines - set and forget. Within a month of non-use a standard NiMH has dropped in stored capacity enough that the LSD is back on top in terms of capacity. That being said, Standard NiMH are still much cheaper, and higher capacity. I’ll definitely be using standard NiMH in my camera and other high drain devices, but for remotes and seldom used controllers and music peripherals it’s LSD all the way.

Does anyone else have any good or bad battery stories? Post them in comments.