Why buy rechargeable batteries to begin with?
- Convienience
- Cost effective
- Doesn’t fill up landfills
In the few months of owning an Xbox that my kids play every day we’ve gone through tons of Duracell batteries.
Regular batteries are:
- expensive
- a waste (contributing battery acid to our landfills)
- inconvenient to try and find new batteries when your kids scream every time a controller disconnects.
This means to be a “good dad” I need to have at least 4 fresh AA batteries at all times.
I do own an Energizer NiMH battery charger that can charge up to 4 AA batteries at a time, and I must say I do like the both the Energizer charger and batteries, they all still work and must be 10+ years old. The problem is most of those batteries have been mistakenly thrown out over the years and I only have 2 left, so I was looking for a fresh batch of batteries.
When I was in the supermarket not long ago I browsed the battery isle and saw that those same Energizer batteries I had before were running about $8 for just 2, I figured I could do better online so I searched for some at Amazon.
Why I chose these AmazonBasics batteries?
The main features I like about these batteries are:
- Long Life – can be recharged to full capacity over and over
- Long Run-time: depending on the device these batteries can run 2-3 times longer than a non-rechargeable
- Affordable – less than $20 for 8 rechargeable batteries
- Green Factor – rechargeable means not throwing out batteries when they die. Plus the “frustration free” packaging is 100% recyclable.
After reading some of the reviews on these batteries, and realizing there’s people out there with battery testers that take the subject of rechargeable batteries very seriously (discussing things like mHA – milliampere-hour), and overall being very satisfied with these batteries I figured it was worth a shot.
Since they were less than $20 for an 8 pack and Prime Eligible, I ordered them here.
Initial Test
Since the batteries were advertised as pre-charged I opened 1 of the four-packs and instantly inserted them into my kids Xbox controllers. Each controller takes 2 batteries each, so I need 4 batteries to start and 4 ready/recharged.
I inserted the batteries, started up the controller and watched to make sure the power button stayed lit and didn’t swirl in circles like it does when the batteries are getting low. This worked fine, no complaints. I even started up the Xbox and made sure it worked with Minecraft, no problems at all.
Test = Passed
Other Batteries I considered
Like I said previously I have some Energizer rechargeable batteries that have lasted over 10 years. We mainly used them in our Point and Shoot digital camera, which is a great use for batteries like these because cameras can drain batteries fast.
These same batteries are still available on Amazon here if you’re interested. I simply passed on these because I read the AmazonBasics Battery reviews first and they seemed more positive. The price of the Energizer batteries compared to the AmazonBasics was nearly identical, both under $20.
Important: If you already own a battery charger
When buying rechargeable batteries you need to make sure they are compatible with your charger, as these types of batteries work differently and need to be charged differently
- NiMH / Ni-MH (nickle metal hydride – the most common type of rechargeable battery)
- NiCD (nickle cadmium)
If you don’t even own a charger yet then buy a package charger + batteries, my suggestion is to buy Ni-MH charger and batteries (these Amazon batteries are NiMH).
Yearly Tests
I plan to test these batteries yearly since Amazon promises they will hold their charge, so I will keep this post updated with those additional tests.
Feedback
If you have any questions about these batteries then please let me know, you can ask directly in the comment form below.
Also if you have purchased these exact batteries you can leave a star rating at the top of the review as well as comments below as well.