Lithium AA and AAA cells - interesting behaviour.

[IanB]

Super, thanks. The Mxbatt ones aren't available over here but there is another brand that looks suspiciously similar. However, with all of them we are looking at around £5 apiece, which is a bit steep. I'll have to think up a compelling use case...

I see 8 AA batteries plus 8 slot charger for $41. That's cheap enough that I'm inclined to give it a punt, just for testing purposes.

However, any confidence I might wish to have in the MXBatt brand is undermined by this offering: https://www.amazon.com/MXBatt-Rechargeable-Batteries-3300mAh-12-Pack/dp/B0CG9JJLQ2

3300 mAh AA NiMH? And 1100 mAh for AAA? Really?

Bear in mind as far as price is concerned, that single use Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries cost around $3 each right now (£5 for a pack of 2 from Argos), so you only need to recharge a battery 2-3x to be saving money.

[paulca]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lithium-Rechargeable-Battery-Capacity-Constant/dp/B08C7SQTMW/

These basically.

Advantages as discussed, plenty of keyboards and mice I have, have rejected Duracells at 1.2V and only a few months.  It almost felt criminal throwing them out.

The downside is, for devices that don't have a battery warning system, these simply "appear" to cut out, dead.  You cannot, for example, like normal AA/AAA cells switch them around or hold them in your hand for a while to get another hour out of them.  When dead, they are 100% dead.

They come with USB splitter cables to change 2 or 4 at a time.  They only charge at low rates, 100-200mA.

Honestly though, the AAA cells are probably not worth it.  They suffer low capacity and as they commonly get used in keyboards and tend to run out at the least useful moment, I have trended back to normal AAAs.  I still use these USB Rechargable AA cells in mice etc. though.

I was going to trial run one in the basic wall clock to see how long it will run it for.  Not the typical application, but I expect rather than run slow for a few weeks before it stop, it will just be bang on time until it stops dead.

[IanB]

Fortunately, I have found all my keyboards and mice to work fine with Eneloops, giving low battery failure only when the voltage gets below 1.0 V per cell. (Brands are Logitech and Microsoft.) Therefore, the only reason to consider lithium ion rechargeables would be the convenience of not needing a separate charger.