IKEA Ladda, 6 months, test of SoC.

Hi,

Today I needed a couple of my AA IKEA Ladda cells, I had a couple that have been sat by themselves for almost exactly 6 months since purchase and first charge.

I did a discharge on my C9000, at 500 mA, and it came out as:

Cell 1: 1791 mAh
Cell 2: 1765 mAh

These cells are fresh in the sense that they are not old, have only been charged once since purchase, so doing the math based on a rated capacity of 2450 mAh, it comes down to...

Cell 1: 73% SoC
Cell 2: 72% SoC

Doing a refresh and analyse now but don't expect the capacity to be much over 2450, so I believe the numbers are good and to the point.

Just throwing the numbers out there for what they're worth, given the small sample, but might be useful to someone in comparison when choosing what to buy when it comes to NiMH.

/Dennis

Thanks for the data. Every little bit helps.

I was at the Miami Ikea store today, looking at the 2450s, the 1000s, the 900s and the 500s. When my Panasonic hand-held home phones need new batteries, the 500mAh AAAs might be the ticket. Acquiring AAA Eneloop Lites is somewhat difficult.

Chris

ChrisGarrett said:

Thanks for the data. Every little bit helps.

I was at the Miami Ikea store today, looking at the 2450s, the 1000s, the 900s and the 500s. When my Panasonic hand-held home phones need new batteries, the 500mAh AAAs might be the ticket. Acquiring AAA Eneloop Lites is somewhat difficult.

Chris

Click to expand...

idk if my insight is obvious, but the 2450's and 900's ought to be Eneloop Pros. Ladda's are a nice price, but I doubt anyone will see 500 cycles out of them or any Eneloop Pro, because it isn't easy to never abuse a cell. I don't know what those other lower capacity cells are, but if the reported capacity is accurate they don't appear to match up to standard Eneloops. I am unfamiliar with "Eneloop Lite." What is their labelled capacity?

I think that eneloop lite AAA are 550 mAh

EDIT ... reference here ...

http://main.panasonic-eneloop.eu/en/products-lite

Thanks for posting Dennis. I have also done 6 months discharge tests on one of my batches of Ikea Ladda Whites http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...one-done-Self-Discharge-tests-on-Eneloop-Pros

Can you see what date yours are stamped? There is a four digit numeric code and a two letter alpha code stamped on each cell. I assumed that this is the date format (different from Eneloops), but I guessed the first two digits were the year, and the second two is the weeks of the year

My original batches were made in
1637 - in the week of 12 September 2016
1639 - in the week of 26 September 2016
1642 - in the week of 17 October 2016

I fully charged one of the four cells batch marked "1637" when I bought it at the end of September 2016.

I left it in storage at ambient temperature of between 18-22C (64-72F) with humidity under 30% for six months, and then tested after 6 months. I tested in my Maha C9000, discharging at 500mA.

Ikea Ladda White AA x 4 batch made "1637"
First Self Discharge Test After 6 months (March 2018)

1. 1687 68.86%
2. 1624 66.29%
3. 1665 67.96%
4. 1117 45.59% Faulty cell?

Ikea Ladda White AA x 4 batch made "1637"
Second Self Discharge Test (June 2018)

1. 1733 70.73%
2. 1767 72.12%
3. 1619 66.08%
4. 1286 52.49% Again, this cell showed greater self discharge

So apart from that one cell that appears to be discharging at a higher rate, the others seem to be a bit lower than your tests. For the one that has greater self discharge, I even changed the slot on the Maha, just in case it was an issue with the slot from the first test.

This is of interest to me, as while the capacity and general performance of the Ikea Ladda Whites seem to be as good as my Eneloop Pro, the self discharge seems to be a higher rate. Eneloop Pros are meant to be 85% within 1 year.

Anyway, in case I had a dud batch early batch, I have now bought a new set of Ladda White AAs. The new ones are stamped "1804", so guessing made in the first week of January, 2018, so by the time I bought them, in June 2018 they have been in package for about 6 months.

I know that Eneloops don't get fully charged fresh fro the factory, but I also ran a discharge test to see their capacity "out of the box":

Ikea Ladda White AA x 4 batch made "1804"
Discharge from fresh packet (June 2018)

1. 1616 65.96%
2. 1658 67.67%
3. 853 34.82% WTF? again?
4. 1610 65.71%

Again, I seem to be unlucky and there is one that is discharged greater than the others. But nevermind. I ran four discharge/charge routines and have stored them for testing again in December 2018.

I don't have a new batch of Eneloop Pro AAs to compare for self discharge. I know that the Eneloop Pros tend to have a greater self discharge compared to the standard Eneloops.

For a Eneloop self discharge comparison, I have just tested a set of Eneloop 3rd Generation Tropical AAs made in June 2013 - their first discharge out of the package shows 1813mAh - 1834mAh (averaging about 88% of their fully charged 2000mAh capacity). That is probably greater than 88% capacity after FIVE years, since I believe they don't leave the factory fully charged.

night.hoodie said:

idk if my insight is obvious, but the 2450's and 900's ought to be Eneloop Pros.... I am unfamiliar with "Eneloop Lite." What is their labelled capacity?

Click to expand...

The "Eneloop Lites" generally correspond with the Ikea Ladda Brown batteries (AA - 1000mAh, AAA - 500mAh) vs Eneloop Lite (AA - 950mAh, AAA - 550mAh).

My sister has Eneloop Lites as the recommended batteries for her DECT home telephone handsets, but I have swapped them out with Ikea Brown 500mAh, and she sees no difference now, so great for the price.

archimedes said:

I think that eneloop lite AAA are 550 mAh

Click to expand...

Ah. The mystery low cap Ladda cells are then likely revealed (why would they source from different manufacturers? they probably would not).

I find it so difficult identifying or finding rewrapped standard Eneloops, I stopped looking. There were a couple years when they seemed to be everywhere. I have some Thunderbolt labeled AA cells from Harbor Coast I am confident are standard Eneloops, white tops, fantastic performance (along with other same label Chinese black tops that blow), but now it seems (I noted since since Duracell switched from standard to the higher cap Pros) all the rewrapped Eneloops are Pro. I think Pro works in interests of most users, the better capacity, less lifetime, because most users I BET never cycle more than 30 times, for whatever the reason (not flashaholics). But I have trouble not killing the Pro cells. I have finally managed to hurt some standard Eneloops after repeated overdischarge; they give slightly less runtime. Sorry, OT babble!

Something tells me the lower capacity Lite cells might even be more resilient than standard Eneloops. I now see the point of these cells, for as stated above replacing OEM low cap cells in cordless phones and razors that take a beating with overcharge and overdischarge.

archimedes said:

I think that eneloop lite AAA are 550 mAh

EDIT ... reference here ...

http://main.panasonic-eneloop.eu/en/products-lite

Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember tracking them a few years ago on Ebay from a Belgian seller and they're in that range. The point being that you want to use a lower capacity battery in these handsets. I think I have 350mAh Panasonic Chinese batteries in my two Pannies.

I tried fiddling with Gen. 2 Eneloops and the handset was doing funky things on the display.

Anyhow, I'll get the brown Laddas when I need to, I guess...

Chris

keithy said:

The "Eneloop Lites" generally correspond with the Ikea Ladda Brown batteries (AA - 1000mAh, AAA - 500mAh) vs Eneloop Lite (AA - 950mAh, AAA - 550mAh).

My sister has Eneloop Lites as the recommended batteries for her DECT home telephone handsets, but I have swapped them out with Ikea Brown 550mAh, and she sees no difference now, so great for the price.

Click to expand...

Yeah, there's something with the charging module that 'wants' to see lower capacities, as I tried the standard Gen. 2 white Eneloops and my display was giving dwanky readings.

Anyhow...Eneloop Lite AAAs, at least on Ebay, are more money than the AA Lites and about 50% more money than standard Gen. 5 AAs, lol.

Chris

SweD said:

Hi,

Today I needed a couple of my AA IKEA Ladda cells, I had a couple that have been sat by themselves for almost exactly 6 months since purchase and first charge.

I did a discharge on my C9000, at 500 mA, and it came out as:

Cell 1: 1791 mAh
Cell 2: 1765 mAh

These cells are fresh in the sense that they are not old, have only been charged once since purchase, so doing the math based on a rated capacity of 2450 mAh, it comes down to...

Cell 1: 73% SoC
Cell 2: 72% SoC

Doing a refresh and analyse now but don't expect the capacity to be much over 2450, so I believe the numbers are good and to the point.

Just throwing the numbers out there for what they're worth, given the small sample, but might be useful to someone in comparison when choosing what to buy when it comes to NiMH.

/Dennis

Click to expand...

The Refresh and Analyze ended up at 2431 and 2397 mAh, respectively.

keithy said:

Can you see what date yours are stamped? There is a four digit numeric code and a two letter alpha code stamped on each cell. I assumed that this is the date format (different from Eneloops), but I guessed the first two digits were the year, and the second two is the weeks of the year

Click to expand...

The only marking I see is "TIS 2217-2548", right under a symbol and the word Thailand, it's the same on both cells.

/Dennis

Ladda are my go to users. Plenty of products around the house that use aa and aaa cells. They straight from the ikea bookshelf 12 bay charger and into use. I charge my other Nimh in the same charger. By a noticeable amount, they out last anything else. When they die they go straight into the charger and another set is taken out.

Im not storing any rechargeables any period of time. I bought them to use them and they get used. When performance drops off I'll get more Ladda and hopefully they will still be the made in Japan ones. If not I will use something else.

They arent dor lights anyway. The ladda will have plenty of juice left in high performance lights but can't supply it fast enoug and flicker or blink. Lower capacity cells don't do that so if I use Nimh in a light, it will be lower capacity. 2000mah eneloop seem to work fine.

SweD said:

The only marking I see is "TIS 2217-2548", right under a symbol and the word Thailand, it's the same on both cells.

Click to expand...

The date marking is embossed on the cell cover, not printed. It can be hard to read.

In all my sets it is underneath that Thailand Standards Institute number. I tried to take some pics but my phone doesn't have a good macro lens so I used a magnifying glass:





Also, before storing the cells again for the next 6 months test, I noted they fully charged also between 2420mAh - 2460mAh (only one cell exceeded 2450mAh from each of my 1637 and 1804 sets tested).

keithy said:

The date marking is embossed on the cell cover, not printed. It can be hard to read.

In all my sets it is underneath that Thailand Standards Institute number. I tried to take some pics but my phone doesn't have a good macro lens so I used a magnifying glass:

Click to expand...

Found it ... Mine says 1723

/Dennis

SweD said:

Found it ... Mine says 1723

Click to expand...

Cool. So that makes it from the week of 6 September 2017.

Between your set and my sets from 2016 and 2018 I think it should give a reasonable spread over different production batches.

For my 2016 and 2018 testing 4 cell sets, I will test 2 after 6 months, and the next 2 after 12 months. I have marked the cells that showed greater discharge with a sharpie as well to see if the same occurs next.

archimedes said:

I think that eneloop lite AAA are 550 mAh

EDIT ... reference here ...

http://main.panasonic-eneloop.eu/en/products-lite

Click to expand...

I use Eneloop Lite AAA in my Panasonic Cordless Phone, I had previously use a couple of standard Eneloop AAA but after a couple of years they had lost (if i remember correctly) approx 50% of the capacity and i could not recover it on my Maha C9000 so they were binned, The Eneloop Lites are working great as they exchange capacity for toughness.

John.