What do you know about household batteries?

[Lady Hobbs]

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I found out I didn't know nothing.

[Padams]

all I know is is I am constantly searching for or charging batteries. With all the battery powered trains the kids have it's a never ending cycle.

[Rue]

I've given up on rechargables. It never works for us. We don't use a lot of batteries to start with. Then inevitably the rechargables aren't charged, or they've stopped holding a charge...so then we go an buy regular ones...

[rich311k]

I go through a lot of batteries. i find the regular old duracells are my best bet. i but then at Costco in bulk and from some on line places. I use 12 everytime I do a photo session.

[Algenco]

I have mostly Nimh fantastic power.
Rich, the nimh battery pack for my Canon will take thousands of pics on a charge.
Don't know about remote flash battery life

[toddnbecka]

Interesting info, particularly about the lithium batteries. We had been using a custom-made lithium cell for a new motorized blind, but had problems with them. Now we're sending out 16 AA lithium batteries with a newly designed battery box instead. In any case I'd hate to buy replacements for those expensive buggers when they die. But if you can afford to buy remote-control motorized blinds I suppose new batteries aren't a big deal...
I have an old HP digital camera that takes 3 AA batteries. You can get a few pics with new alkalines before they're drained, forget about viewing them on the camera though. Regular batteries wouldn't even power it long enough for one pic. Tried the expensive NiMH type, they worked much better but still not well overall. The recharge time compared to their useful capacity was pathetic, and they need to be kept charged or they die (as I found out the hard way.)
When I upgraded to a newer Panasonic camera I also bought a case of the special batteries that it takes. Then I learned that one will last all day rather than a couple minutes, so now I have several lifetimes worth of new batteries still in unopened packages.

[dmagerl]

"Another downside of both NiMH's and NiCads is that they self-discharge quickly (~20-25%/month). Self-discharge means they lose power even if they're just sitting in a drawer. Shelf life is about 2-3 months. So they're not the best choice for, say, emergency flashlights (use alkaline instead) or smoke detectors (use lithium -- lasts 7-10 years)."

For NIMH cells, this just isnt true anymore. The new hybrid NIMH cells do not self discharge and for all intents and purposes can be used like alkaline, i.e., can be left unattended for long periods of time and then used without any degradation.

I've switch all my remotes, battery powered clocks, cameras, heck, anything with batteries, over to these cells.

Sanyo Eneloop is one brand, Rayovac Hybrid is another. These batteries are great!

[Northernguy]

I have a 4pack of the Rayovac rechargables.
They are great! My camera is in use daily and one charge for 2 batterries easily lasts a week.About 800 pics. Its a canon all in one though.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sure is interesting what they have to say about the different types. My camera uses a lot of batteries.

I need to replace the batteries in both portable phones this week too. They start online around $20 and by the time I was done searching found them for around $14 each.