Rechargeable batteries?

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Yo,

Generally speaking, whats the shelf life of rechargeable batteries?

I have two AAA that I use in my mp3 player regularly .. be it in the car or at work. By the end of the day (8-9 hours), the one I am using is pretty much dead. Which is fine. While I am using batt a, batt b is at home charging. Then I alternate them day to day. Been doing this for about 6 months now.

Recently though they are only lasting me about 7-8 hours (usually closer to 7).

Could this set of batteries be hitting the end of their shelf life? Not that its a big deal. I will go out and buy two more. Im just curious to know if thats how long they normally last.

Thanks a bunch,
LG

[gadgetguy]

You're confusing terms. Shelf Life refers to how long it can be stored (not in use) before it becomes unusable. You're talking about active or useful life. You also don't mention what kind of rechargable batteries they are NiCad? NmH?
Regardless, it sounds to me like they are reaching the end of their useful life for you, but they may be usable for shorter periods for a long time to come. It's difficult to predict how long any rechargable battery will last because of many factors such as the environment, the type of device, "care and feeding", etc.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Im not actually "confusing" terms. I just used the wrong one at this time :P

They are Nmh though.

Ah well. No big. Was just curious. 6 months is pretty good anyway. I figure a two pack is like $12 or so. Id spend WAY more than than buying batteries regularly.

Thanks Gadgetguy!!

[yoda313]

heads up lucifer my iriver mp3 player actually has a power setting for rechargeable batterise. It's supposed to maximize battery usage.

Also do you use any special equalizers or bass boost on the player?? If so that will drain power as well. Another thing is to find a way to limit any light usage on your model. Some might have an option to totally disable any display light to extend your batteries a little bit.

For an 8 hour work day when I using rechargeable batteries I would get a day to a day and half out of them.

Now I just mainly use my mp3 cd player and leave it plugged in to my work power strip under my computer and forget about batteries. Though I'm using unpowered speakers so I'm not sapping as much "free" power from work as others do. Some at work have big boom box type radios with cd players and others use big powered speakers that must tap more power than my mp3 cd player that can run on just two aa (it's a 6v adapter if I remember right).

[Lucifers_Ghost]

If you saw my mp3 player you would realize how a lot of that doesnt apply lol I got this mp3 player for like $15 (its a 512). Its by Apex or something. 3 buttons. Play/Pause, next, previous. Thats IT :P Cant even forward through songs. Just next song please :P Its so basic it hurts.

I dont even have a cd player anymore .. other than the one with my home theatre. Hmm wonder if my boss would mind a 500 watt marantz in my cubicle? lol

[thecoalman]

I had some AA rechargeable batteries for over 15 years now. They sat around for few years with not much use but then i purchased this wireless mouse and for whatever reason will eat through a set a of alkaline batteries in about 1 week. Needless to say that would have been very expensive, been using the rechargables regularly for about 3 years now, have 6 of them. 2 for the mouse and two for recharging when needed. Last about 3 days, can't say that has diminished any.

[rallynavvie]

3 days is good for a mouse? Wow, does it have an LCD built into it or what?

I've been using rechargeables for anything I can put them in for about 6-7 years. Mostly they're used in wireless mice but I also use them for digital cameras, portable speakers, etc. I don't wear them down enough to need to recharge them daily like you do but I have seen them become unusable, at least enough that the recharger rejects them, after a couple years of average use (recharging maybe once a month).

I need to go get some of the new 2500mAh ones, they seem to work a lot better with my digital camera. And FWIW I get about 2 months of use from my Bluetooth mouse and my Logitech media mouse, the latter of which is powered on all the time.

[thecoalman]

3 days is good for a mouse? Wow, does it have an LCD built into it or what? .

It is if you can only get a week out of alkalines... For that matter I'd be happy with 24 hours. Cost a fortune if i had to buy them everytime. No idea why it's so much, the keyboard on the other hand lasted about 1-1/2 to 2 years on two alkalines.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

3 days is good for a mouse? Wow, does it have an LCD built into it or what? .

It is if you can only get a week out of alkalines... For that matter I'd be happy with 24 hours. Cost a fortune if i had to buy them everytime. No idea why it's so much, the keyboard on the other hand lasted about 1-1/2 to 2 years on two alkalines.

Geez!!!, I have a wireless mouse and the batteries last at least 7-8 months!

[rallynavvie]

Yeah, I think a new mouse may be better than even buying replacement rechargeable batteries. IMO the expense would be worth not having batteries kill out in the middle of a game. Even if you don't game 3 days is pretty fast, maybe those batteries just don't hold the charge anymore?

[thecoalman]

It kills alkalines too though so the batteries are good enough, I game quite a bit but mostly Rise of Nations so a few seconds lost is not that big a deal. The spares are wihin easy reach, only a problem if I'm playing something like BF2 and flying a plane.

[rallynavvie]

It kills alkalines too though so the batteries are good enough, I game quite a bit but mostly Rise of Nations so a few seconds lost is not that big a deal. The spares are wihin easy reach, only a problem if I'm playing something like BF2 and flying a plane.

First of all that first sentence pretty much settles it: get a new mouse. Secondly please don't fly anything in BF2 with a mouse, it's ridiculous. I can tell when I'm hunting down mouse-flyers :P

Go get yourself a good Logitech mouse, one that feels like a good replacement. I just picked up a Bluetooth MX laser set to replace my trusty MediaPlay mouse and I'm liking it so far. I'm still using an old MS Sidewinder Precision joystick for flying. Was thinking about getting that throttle/stick combo but I can probably pass on $100 in gaming controllers like that.