Which AA Battery Should You Buy? Best Battery Brand COMPETITION
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Which AA Battery is BEST? I did a bracket-style tournament competition to find out which batteries you should consider buying. The battery competition is fierce, but you might be surprised by the bracket results. I know that I was!
With the help of science, we test which batteries last the longest, and which AA battery brands offer the best value (cost per amp). We'll also learn what happens when you cut a lithium-ion battery in half and put it in water (hint: it makes a lithium battery explosion). We'll see what's inside a battery, and learn the juicy science behind which AA battery brands are the best to buy.
Tested name-brand batteries include Energizer, Duracell, Rayovac, Eveready Gold, and Fuji. Off-brand battery tests include Amazon Basics, Target (Up & Up), CVS, RiteAid, Dollar Store, Wegmans, and Giant Grocery.
#batteries
You clearly put in a TON of time (and money) into this video (and batteries). Very well done. I hope you get a ton more views and keep it up!
Soo kind, thanks so much :)
Project Farm did this test and energizer came out far ahead of Duracell . I trust ProfectFarm. All of his tests have been on the nose. I purchased products he’s tested and been more than impressed afterward. No advertising on his channel.
Thanks for your comment! Love project farm. His testing is always very thorough. I'll put a link to his battery testing video here (czcams.com/video/V7-ghrTqA44/video.html). The Project Farm compares overall performance, whereas this video focuses on performance per dollar. I'm continuing to test the rest of the batteries from the video, at different drain rates. Once I complete that testing, I will share all the juicy results at engineeringdad.com... Sorry about the advertising. Until I reach 1000 subscribers, CZcams is in control of the ads on my channel.
I found another video which put the Home Depot brand on top.
I wouldn’t say it came out far ahead. It was like 5%.
Ladda nimh is my pick, but about Duracell vs energiser, I asked my phone a year or two ago and it told me
Energizer last three times as long as in low drain devices like a simple clock
Duracell last 2 times as long in high drain devices, didn't specify what, but I figure flashlights
I kinda believe it may be possible that Energizer work better in low drain and Duracell works better in high drain
But like I said, I buy neither, rechargable NiMh from IKEA Ladda brand is my go too, because eneloops are too expensive
I feel that normalizing the prices of the batteries to an 8-pack made some of the off brands lose their main advantage. If a 100 pack only costs a few dollars more and brings the cost down to less than 30 cents a battery their performance vs cost would be much better than the brands that don't have that option. It might be annoying to change the batteries more often but it's definitely more a bang for your buck.
Thanks for sharing... Yea, our results showed if you can get a generic store brand for less than 50-60 cents per battery,
then you are getting more amps per dollar, than you would spending more on the name brands. Also, many of the generic store brands performed similarly. I imagine they could even be from the same manufacturers, and just re-labeled for each store.
great content and video production! how long did the rayovac end up lasting in the flood light?
Good stuff, homie. Good production value.
Glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for your comment.
Just wanted to say, hope you make it big one day! Your content is top tier quality, while you get almost no attention, such a shame!
OK I'm just a picky EE so I have to correct some units here, especially since it's an engineering channel. I assume you're a mechanical engineer and not an electrical one, so aren't as familiar with the units.
Current: Amps, but generally milli-Amps (mA) at this scale.
Charge Capacity: Technically Coulombs (C). But for small batteries, especially rechargable ones, milli-Amp-hours (mAh) are more common. 1 mAh = 3.6C.
mAh is used because it is easier to picture. And because batteries also express charge/discharge rates in rates proportionate to their capacity which are also expressed as (C). That is, a 1000mAh battery draining at 2000mA is draining at "2C".
Energy capacity: milli-Watt-hours (mWh). I bring this one up, because for a 1.5v battery, the mWh rating would be a higher number than the mAh rating. This is sometimes used to try to upsell batteries. Though it is actually a useful number in its own right, since the voltage of the battery changes as it discharges, and this gives you a better idea of how much total energy is available across those changes. This is why EV batteries are measured in kWh.
Anyway, I bring this up because you described a toy as "it draws 10mA every time I press this button so on a 1000mA battery, I can press it x number of times". Saying it draws 10mA doesn't tell you how much charge it is actually consuming. And a "1000mA battery" tells you nothing about its capacity. It could be a 100mAh battery draining at 10C, or a 10Ah battery drawing at 0.1C. Or any number of combinations, since you described current rather than charge.
Instead, if the toy draws 10mA while you press the button, it only draws this while the sound is playing. If the sound lasts 1s, then it consumes about 2.6uAh (micro-Amp-Hours) or 0.0026mAh. Then you would divide the capacity of the battery in mAh by this value to get a very rough number of times the button can be pressed. So a 1000mAh battery could have this button pressed 360,000 times in a perfect world. (Not so perfect for the parents who bought the toy).
Hey, thanks, I appreciate and agree with your in depth explanation. And yes, I am a mechy... I should setup an arduino with a solenoid to press the button over and over again, counting how many times it plays until it drains. Just make sure it is far away from where we can here it, lol :)
dude that was a high quality video
Great video! I wonder if an update will be coming? The big companies like Duracell and Energizer seem to have a few different versions of their batteries now to confuse us even more and probably try to get more money from us. E.g. Energizer Industrial. Energizer Max. Energizer MaxPlus. Energizer Ultimate. And then with Duracell we have Duracell Procell Constant. Duracell Procell Intense Power. Duracell Plus. Duracell Ultra. Duracell Optimum. It would be interesting to know how many mAh all of these different products cost and their price so we can figure it all out.
Great Vid. One thing you forgot to mention is not to mix different batteries like you did in the last few seconds of your video as the less powerful battery will die before the other. Keep up the good work!
I’m in the live entertainment biz, (a lot of wireless devices), I did not see that you had the duracell “procell” in the challenge. I find that those are the best for the “best all around”, while when I can afford them, the energizer ultimate lithium last the longest even tho the most expensive.
Oh, nice. Great suggestion! The lithium ions definitely lasted the longest in the experiment, and they were decent in cost per amp.
Amazing review, really beneficial and a lot of effort has been put on
Thanks a lot!
Dude, I was legit pondering this while buying batteries just the other day. Love seeing you on the tube, man!
Dude, Jordan, good to see you too! :)
I know, right? and it only took $200 dollars worth of batteries to figure it out! 😂
Last year I bought 20 pack of RAYOVAC high energy alkaline, several of them leak in my TV remote, I thoght that was a thing of the past. So now I might try different bran, ruled out high price Duracell, I'll either go with the rabbit or a off brand brand of a popular brand.......
Very good video with explanations, and a comparison visuals...
Why isn't Ur video getting more views!? Lol
So glad you liked it! :) I have a “how to pick a good watermelon” experiment vid coming up in a few weeks. Thanks for the kind comment… maybe someday!
What's an "Ur" video?
63c 2 years ago for panasonic, how much are today? With indlation.
You didn't test the *** Home Depot Brand HDX *** which is supposed to be really good (and in the .30 to .40 cent range) from what I've seen in other videos. Also, you dumped all the batteries in a drawer after?? Maybe another video on battery storage is needed?? lol
Ha, yea I ended up testing all of the batteries in the drawer right after getting that video shot. Need to test Home Depot, probably similar to target or Amazon but with better price point.
I really like your channel, stumbled upon it after watching some reviews about car battery boosters. I like the family oriented/ dad oriented themes and video inserts - as if from the eye of the hard working and responsible father who needs to procure batteries to keep the kid/s happy with their battery powered toys.
We all know those batteries in toys die at the worst moment. So it's nice and I would say important to have a pack of batteries of various letters and sizes to accommodate battery needs at home.
It's funny that's the brand I buy Rayovac I thought they were better than all the rest and I like their their industrial batteries too
Did you know that Rayovac is actually and owned brand of energizer. By buying rayovak, you are on team energizer... Found that out during the experiment.
If your battery is going into something expensive, get the energizer lithium. Alkaline batteries are prone to leaking. Lithium batteries are far less likely to have a problem.
Duracells leak. I use Energizer. A surprising deal is the Panasonic Carbon Zinc AA (blue & black label). Very inexpensive and they last quite awhile.
I have always used Rayovac Alkaline.....unless I'm out in the cold hiking....then lithium all the way.
We use them at work. RayoVac Ultra pro AA gives off ~1800 mAh of energy.
Most dollar store batteries are zinc-carbon batteries, so they don’t last long.
Very sad that you didn’t have the Harbor Freight Thunderbolt Edge battery in this test. It tends to win every comparison I’ve seen so far.
You’re right! Should have done harbor freight. Next time I’m there I’ll pick some up to test them and update you in this comment string with results.
HF Thunderbolt Blue AA gives off 2100 mAh of energy at $.40 a piece
Very helpful content! Aces! Thank you! 💜🙏💜
Rechargeable is cheaper per Amp hour in the long run.
Agreed.
nice comparison...
Glad you liked it
Energizer Lithium
Great video! Thanks!!
Glad you liked it!
👍🏼👍🏼Appreciate your efforts
Please review the blue thunderbolt edge harbor freight and duracell powerboost ingredients battery
Duracells sux,leak like crazy if left a little bit longer in any device.Please do a test on coscos and b j batteries. Thanks for your test.
Interesting... I'll try to get my hands on cosco and BJ batteries, and then add then post the results at my website. I'll provide the link in this thread once it's up.
Costco Kirkland batteries are rebadged Duracells. 48 AAs for about $14- right now.
Harbor Freight Thunder Bolt BLUE ...
AA battery gives off 2100 mAh of energy at $.40 a piece
AAA battery gives off 850 mAh of evergy
eneloop's one 4 pack of batteries is like buy over 6000 batteries
awesome video and that's why the rayovac label says lasts as long as energizer but they also make the rayovac fusion.
Apparently storing batteries with the ends touching like that is "dangerous" and can cause house fires. It also depletes the battery over time.... supposedly 🤔
Yes your right. Didn’t leave them like that. I tested them all right afterwards.
@@BuildItDad Just sharing info I heard in a sarcastic manner lol, I don't really see much danger in storing them like that. I keep some in a zip lock bag, if anything it may deplete them overtime but thats inevitable.
How about environment? My choose rechargeable batteries
I’m very curious as what the name and model of device you used for testing? It’s something that I may purchase myself. Thanks
None of those battery ever truely lasted after 3 days of usage. This is why I ditched them and went with corded.
Well done.
awesome video
Thanks for the info.
You bet! Had so much fun making this, thanks for watching!
The lithium batteries will destroy the performance of every battery you compared them too. Cold doesnt affect them and they don't discharge over time like the others do. I can put a game camera up in October and go get it the first of March and the batteries worked flawlessly.
Lithium not affected by cold ... LMAO ....
Result at 6:28 thanks me later
i just realize my fancy gaming mouse razer orochi v2 that uses AAA batteries is a kids toy at the end of the day.
Firstly, the Energizer Lithium is a lithium battery, not lithium ion. Lithium ion batteries are rechargeable batteries. And lithium batteries have objectively higher performance than alkaline batteries.
Secondly, testing different alkaline brands is useless because you will get different results every time. The quality of the battery isn't dependent on the brand. It's actually completely random. If you test between two batteries from the same brand just bought at different times, you will likely find that they also perform differently, making the test actually quite useless. But this means that cheaper alkaine batteries are almost always better because they are the same but for cheaper. More expensive battery brands like duracell and energizer are a con in that they use neuromarketing and play on brand loyalty to simply convince people that their products are better when they're not. It's the same as branded pharmaceutical products. It's the exact same product; they just make more money from trying to convince you that, because they are an established brand, their product is somehow superior. That's how I think it really works.
Amazon industrial 150 pile for 40$ canadian .. what do you think ?
Definitely good deal…
Let you in on a secret… Panasonic is a name brand probably about the best likely made in Japan like Sanyo at least for rechargeable.
Thanks for the info!
So capacity is not nearly as important as which battery will leak most often and ruin your gear. I've had real bad experiences with most alkaline batteries, and Energizer and Duracell are both bad. I've yet to experience any leaks with a lithium battery. One other thing....lithium batteries produce 1.2 Vdc whereas alkaline batteries (should) make 1.5 Vdc. The alkaline batteries will be brighter in a flashlight (at least at first, but lithium will hold a more consistent voltage throughout their life cycle), but will not make any difference in things like game cameras. Food for thought....what matters to you?
You confused lithium with NiMH rechargeable batteries - those are the ones with 1.2 V. But lithium non-rechargeable batteries actually have slightly higher voltage than alkaline batteries - they start at 1.8 V but quickly drop to 1.5 or less depending on the load. Their voltage is also pretty consistent and higher than alkaline batteries - in a flashlight they will be both brighter and keep consistent output. And they will beat alkalines to death in freezing temperatures.
6:50
The dollar store “alkalines” performed so badly because they weren’t alkalines. Those were zinc carbon. “Super heavy duty” is a dead giveaway for zinc carbon.
Dollar tree does carry the same e-circuit brand in alkaljnes, and they’re great.
Thanks for catching that! They were different inside.
Dollar store alkalines were as bad as HF yellow batteries. The AA's gave off ~1000 mAh of energy. The HF orange was about ~1500 mAh and the HF Blue gave off about ~2100 mAh
Do you have a favorite battery brand? Let me know in the comments!🔋
I like energizer while my dad likes duracell
Also, that was a lie. Rayovac high energy isn't the winner. Ultimate lithium is
You forgot the harbor freight thunderbolt edge
Your right! Love that place :)
Shelf life? Otherwise great tests & video! Thanks!
That would take 15 years to test.
Most batteries say they last 10 years I noticed!
If you actually want some good batteries just buy Amazon basics or ikea Ladda rechargeable batteries
I find myself grabbing Amazon Basics batteries too... Clearly outperforms other store/ generic brand batteries, in juice per dollar. Thanks for your comment!
i can give you more juice per dollar
Buy rechargeable lol
What does it matter? Just get the brand u want to support. You gonna need new batteries eventually. 😜😜😜😜😜
😂 fair point
Please test alkaline recharging! I'm finding that recharging 99¢ ac Delco gives about 75% of the original power, and they die much quicker. I'd like to find a happy medium between price and performance, though at this point I may just buy like 100 lithium to be prepared before you can test this. Thanks!
Lithium re-charging is best!
@@BuildItDad yeah, but compared to the expense? And do lithium batteries get too old? Yep, just like alkaline. So trying to have rechargeables for everything seems like folly