# AA Alkaline continuous Discharge Test



## rookiedaddy (Jan 6, 2010)

This thread is about the finding of which alkaline cells perform best and how each perform under a continuous discharge load.

*Update 2010-01-18: Table updated with TESCO branded batteries*

All cells are purchased off the retail malls/shops. Using Sanyo Eneloop as the base reference. Discharge equipment used is MAHA MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer, manufacturing date code *0I0BA*, room temperature 25-28 degree celcius.

First, some legend:
*M* - Manufacturing Date
*E* - Expiry Date
*CHN* - China
*IND* - Indonesia
*JPN* - Japan
*SGP* - Singapore
*USA* - USA
*THL* - Thailand
*!!* - MAHA MH-C9000 display *DONE* immediately upon inserting battery or last discharge current is less than 20mAh

List of batteries tested:





Duracell Alkaline





Sanyo Alkaline





Panasonic Alkaline





Panasonic Evolta





Energizer e2 Advanced





Energizer MAX





Ikea AA- thanks polkiuj

TESCO Batteries - thanks pseudoblue
TESCO Value Zinc chloride (ok, this is not alkaline...)
TESCO Everyday 
TESCO Power Hi Tech

The discharge function in MAHA MH-C9000 allows to select the discharge rate desired, in this test, we will focus on a discharge current of 500mA and 1000mA on the 1st discharge, while subsequent discharge current at 200mA. MH-C9000 will discharge each cell down to 0.90V and terminate, the word *DONE* will be display at the LCD.
A rest of at least 1 to 2 hours between discharge cycle to allow the cell Voltage to rebound and stabilize.

Here is the results:





The numbers are what displayed at MH-C9000 LCD after it's done discharging for the cycle.
The above result serves only as an alternative to what you may find on the Internet and cpf, it is not to be taken as authoritative reference, I'm *NOT in any way* a battery expert, but a curious consumer that happens to have an interesting equipment that allows me to do some testing and experimenting. I'm surprised to have found how some cells performs in the least expected manner.

As some cells performance are quite unexpected, I'll be doing more testing and update this thread as soon as the testing and data gathering is done.

This is the first time I'm doing this, so I greatly appreciate your pointing out any short-comings and mistakes I've made and I will try my best to correct it in future version and testing. TIA. 

Observations (WIP):
- I've recorded the voltage after 30 minutes of discharge, at 0.5A, Eneloop is reading ~1.21V while all alkaline cells tested reads between 1.03-1.18V; at 1.0A discharge, Eneloop is reading ~1.14V while all alkaline cells drop below 1.05V.

Note:
- As pointed out by Tom (SilverFox): _"there are often variations in cell performance with different batches of cells and from cells purchased at different locations"_, so YMMV.

_for those who lives in SEA, I have another version with pricing information link here, the default currency is in Ringgit Malaysia_


----------



## beamis (Jan 6, 2010)

Good information. Thanks for testing and sharing your results.

One small quibble: mAh is a measure of current over time. When you are measuring the discharge current it is just mA. If the battery discharges at 500 mA for one hour, you'd say that's 500 mAh.


----------



## polkiuj (Jan 6, 2010)

beamis said:


> Good information. Thanks for testing and sharing your results.
> 
> One small quibble: mAh is a measure of current over time. When you are measuring the discharge current it is just mA. If the battery discharges at 500 mA for one hour, you'd say that's 500 mAh.



That's true. Hehe.

Thanks Rookiedaddy! So happy to see the Ikea performances! Wow! For the price it's the best battery out there! (value)

Duracells puzzle me. How come it has more capacity discharged @ 1A than 0.5A?


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 6, 2010)

beamis said:


> One small quibble: mAh is a measure of current over time. When you are measuring the discharge current it is just mA. If the battery discharges at 500 mA for one hour, you'd say that's 500 mAh.


Thanks beamis. Corrected some of the wording, table's column title remains as it's the discharge rate selected in MH-C9000. Thanks for the pointers. Appreciate it. :thumbsup:
*EDIT:* oops, I've rechecked, it's mA, now column title corrected.



polkiuj said:


> Duracells puzzle me. How come it has more capacity discharged @ 1A than 0.5A?


I believe each cell has different capacity. But in this case, the total capacity of Duracell:
Discharge at
~0.5A => 793 + 303 = 1096mAh
~1.0A => 1048mAh (no further discharge is possible on this cell after the first discharge)

yes, some of the data collected is really interesting, perhaps some are purpose for high current drain while others are for low current drain, and yet some are not meant to be drain continuously.

These Duracell are OEM packed and made in China. I can't locate any made in USA Duracell locally so unable to test the difference. I'll do another round of testing for some the cells and will add new cells once I get my hands on them.


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 6, 2010)

Battery image uploaded and some mistakes corrected.


----------



## ltiu (Jan 6, 2010)

*I'm confused*, you discharged a battery at 500 mAh (for an hour), then discharged that same battery at 200mAh for another hour, then discharged that same battery at 200mAh for another hour ???


----------



## SilverFox (Jan 6, 2010)

Hello Rookiedaddy,

Excellent work.

Keep in mind that the C-9000 uses pulse discharging, which comes very close to constant current discharging, but there is still some differences. As a relative check, it doesn't amount to much, but it does factor in when you are comparing your results with manufacturer data sheets.

With that said, relative differences between brands will show up fine with either method of discharge testing.

In casual and formal testing I have found that there are often variations in cell performance with different batches of cells and from cells purchased at different locations. Unless you test a large sample of cells, it is difficult to trend the various brands. However, I find the "snap shoot" information informative and useful.

You may also find this thread informative...

Tom


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 6, 2010)

Hello ltiu, the discharge is done using MAHA MH-C9000 discharge function. This will discharge the cell at user selected discharge rate (500mA/1000mA) until the cell Voltage reaches 0.90V, not *for an hour*. Take the "Ikea AM3 E:2014-08 (CHN)" cell for example, at discharge rate of 500mA, it took 174 minutes until it reaches 0.90V and C9000 terminates the discharge which gives the reading of 1327mAh. Subsequent discharge after the cell Voltage rebound is set at 200ma to continue to drain the rest of available energy.

This test is the result of my curiosity to find out how different cells perform under continuous medium and high load, and what to plan for and expected of different cells in different devices. Hope this clarify the confusion. 
=============================================

Hello Tom, thanks for the advise and pointers. your excellent thread is one that I refer to before and during my testing. Been re-reading it a half dozen times. 

I'm curious to what manufacturer claims sometimes, as their marketing will always come-up with creative way to interpret the datasheet. Hence the test to find out how different cells perform.

I've added a note to variation of cells from different batches. Thanks for the heads-up. :thumbsup:


----------



## ltiu (Jan 6, 2010)

rookiedaddy said:


> Hello ltiu, the discharge is done using MAHA MH-C9000 discharge function. This will discharge the cell at user selected discharge rate (500mA/1000mA) until the cell Voltage reaches 0.90V, not *for an hour*.



Got it, thanks.


----------



## VidPro (Jan 7, 2010)

love it, the second wind test  just what an alkaline needs.


----------



## pseudoblue (Jan 7, 2010)

Hey bro, interesting test methods and the results are surprising! Very informative indeed :thumbsup:


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 18, 2010)

1st post updated with TESCO branded batteries.


----------



## Magic Matt (Jan 18, 2010)

Would you consider doing some tests on the Asda Long life cells please?


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 18, 2010)

Hello Magic Matt, yes, I would. However, after a brief search, I couldn't get hold of Asda branded batteries locally. Do you know from whom they OEM from? Are these Asda batteries made in China?


----------



## Magic Matt (Jan 18, 2010)

No idea who makes them I'm afraid, it's just they always seemed to outlast Duracells in my digital camera. I was almost hoping maybe that testing them may reveal who manufacturs them.

I will try and duplicate your tests on some when I get my C-9000 (oh the agony of waiting!).


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 18, 2010)

great! let us know your test results when you have them.

I'm hoping to get hold of some US-made cells later, pretty hard to come by locally except the Energizer Lithium.


----------



## UserName (Jan 18, 2010)

I've got a fresh package of duracell alkaline AA, marked as "made in usa", and a c9000 on order. With a little time to learn how to use the charger, I can get you numbers from those cells when it gets here.


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 19, 2010)

Hello UserName, that's great! lovecpf

On some of my recent testing, I've also recorded the Voltage and mAh reading upon the 1st 30 minutes of every cycle. Will put the data up after completed some re-testing. I also hope to make the worksheet available for download later.


----------



## uk_caver (Jan 19, 2010)

Nice work, and some interesting results you have there.

Those Duracell readings do look pretty strange, both with the very poor overall capacity with an initial 0.5A discharge, and with the 1A reading being seriously better than the 0.5A, which isn't at all what would be expected in general, or even from the Duracell datasheets.


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 19, 2010)

yup, the Duracell readings do seems strange. I'm doing another round of testing for these Duracell now, will update the results soon. These are in OEM packing -- 2 cells pack in shrink-wrap. I'm not sure if there are any difference between OEM and retail packing for these Duracell as both are made in China, I will get some retail blister pack Duracell to test later.


----------



## vali (Jan 20, 2010)

I think Duracell batteries can be different depending where they were built. I got excelent results with cells made in EC (BTW I was thinking they were made in Ecuador but now I realized that EC means European Community). 

The bad thing is they are gold priced and I (finally) found great rechargeables: LSD NiMH (been using rechargeables since 25 years ago and without proper care/decent charger I was thinking more times than less that they were hopeless).

Very interesting test anyways. I will see if I have some made in EC duracells and some cheap cegasa (local brand in Spain) and do the same test to compare with.


----------



## UserName (Jan 21, 2010)

I started 1000ma discharges on a duracell coppertop, and a duracell ultra advanced (both made in usa cells). The 1000ma discharge has finished, and the cells are currently resting. I noted voltages at 15 minute intervals.

```
duracell ultra advanced, @1000ma rate
 0 minutes 1.40 volts
15 minutes 1.19 volts
30 minutes 1.12 volts
45 minutes 1.05 volts
60 minutes 0.98 volts        1088 mah 72 minutes
rest
@200ma rate, 753 mah  249 minutes
rest
@200ma rate,  90 mah  30 minutes


duracell coppertop, @1000ma rate
 0 minutes 1.39 volts
15 minutes 1.18 volts
30 minutes 1.11 volts
45 minutes 1.05 volts
60 minutes 0.99 volts        1197 mah 80 minutes
rest
@200ma rate,  568 mah 189 minutes
rest
@200ma rate,  85 mah 29 minutes
```
To be consistent with your testing methodology, should the cells rest only 1-2 hours, or is that a minimum? I'm going to start the first 200ma discharge before I go to sleep, but the rest I'll finish tomorrow, with hopefully the time to do 500ma tests on another pair this weekend.

--EDIT--
Code box updated with final results. I will post back with pics of the cells when I get time, and I will post date codes then. On a related note, where on the cells are the date codes, and how are they interpreted?


----------



## rookiedaddy (Jan 22, 2010)

thanks for sharing :twothumbs. Yes, the 1-2 hours is the minimum rest time I use. The cell Voltage will normally rebound in less than an hour.


----------



## WildChild (Aug 21, 2010)

Currently doing a 100mA run on two Duracell Coppertop (Made in China). I'll report back when it's done.

[EDIT]First done: 1060 mAh[/EDIT]
[EDIT2]Second done: 1222 mAh[/EDIT2]


----------



## Battery Guy (Aug 21, 2010)

rookiedaddy said:


> Hello ltiu, the discharge is done using MAHA MH-C9000 discharge function. This will discharge the cell at user selected discharge rate (500mA/1000mA) until the cell Voltage reaches 0.90V, not *for an hour*. Take the "Ikea AM3 E:2014-08 (CHN)" cell for example, at discharge rate of 500mA, it took 174 minutes until it reaches 0.90V and C9000 terminates the discharge which gives the reading of 1327mAh. Subsequent discharge after the cell Voltage rebound is set at 200ma to continue to drain the rest of available energy.
> 
> This test is the result of my curiosity to find out how different cells perform under continuous medium and high load, and what to plan for and expected of different cells in different devices. Hope this clarify the confusion.



Interesting test. Glad this got an 8 month bump so that I had a chance to read the thread.

A single, high rate discharge, followed by successive slow discharges on the same cell, is a nice way to determine the high rate performance (first discharge) and the total cell capacity. To get the later value, simply sum the capacity measured at each discharge step.

For an alkaline AA cell, you can discharge at 1000mA, 500mA, 200mA, 100mA, 50mA and 10mA. You basically only get two useful values from this test, the 1000mA capacity and the summed total capacity. But it is a much faster way of getting at the total capacity than discharging the cell at 10mA (that will take between 270 and 300 hours depending on the alkaline AA cell).

Cheers,
BG


----------



## terence1957 (Aug 31, 2010)

A glaring omission from this table seems to be a key for the units, which I guess is mAh - meaning larger values are better (or have I got it wrong?) As a non-electronics buff, this kind of thing can be very frustrating when the "obvious" is neglected. Otherwise, an invaluable post!

Terence


----------



## hampton22 (Mar 4, 2012)

We are in need of testing some Alkaline and Heavy Duty Batteries. Would you be interested in talking to us about working with us on this? 

Thank You


----------



## 357mag1 (Mar 4, 2012)

rookiedaddy said:


> This thread is about the finding of which alkaline cells perform best and how each perform under a continuous discharge load.
> 
> *Update 2010-01-18: Table updated with TESCO branded batteries*
> 
> ...



I've done similar testing using the C9000 and a Triton2 EQ and with the batteries I used my results fairly closely mirrored yours. I find the Energizer Max AA to consistently top out as one of the best followed closely by the Duracell copper top.

Funny because the Energizer Max D cells tested far worse than any other D cell I tried. Lower average voltage and capacity. I've discharged half a dozen from different batches and results have stayed consistently lower end.


----------



## videoman (Mar 5, 2012)

Any chance of including the Costco' Kirkland branded ones ?. I've had great success with them on high drain electronic flash in quick recycling times.


----------

