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Batteries for your GPSr


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Actually the more you pay the cheaper they are. Those will probably far exceed other types in long term cost.

 

If you aren't going with rechargeable (by far the cheapest long term) then you should spring for lithium. They are twice as much as alkaline but (at least for me) lasted 4-5 times longer.

 

Although since I got my Montana I have only had to put in batteries one time and that was when I was out on the trail for about 7 hours.

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Another great woot deal for 3 20pack of aa or aaa batteries for 5.99. Not sure about the brand, but for 10 bucks (with shipping) its worth it.

 

I am not affiliated with Woot at all, just thought I would share with the community that uses alot of batteries! lol

i'll only bite if they're E squareds as thats all i feed my gps.

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

 

I just bought a bunch of Eneloops. I hear great things about them!

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

 

I just bought a bunch of Eneloops. I hear great things about them!

When you buy Eneloops make sure you get the latest version. Good for 1500 recharges and hold 75% of their charge for three years. Makes them good for things like flashlights that are only used occasionally.

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

 

Just curious why?

 

I find that the only battery a quality rechargable will not beat is the lithiums.

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It's lithiums that Garmin didn't recommend for a while. Rechargeable NiMh have always been okay. My Garmins even have an NiMh setting (vs Alkaline) so they can give an accurate number of bars of battery life.

 

Eneloops (hard to find in Canada), "duraloops" (Duracell-branded Eneloops) and the like are the best because they have very slow self-discharge. That's ideal in an emergency flashlight, but doesn't count for much in a GPSr owned by a hard-core cacher who's recharging batteries twice a week.

 

PS: The low-self-discharge rechargeables - Eneloops et al - also have low internal resistance, which makes them ideal for high-drain applications, like powerful flashlights. Many GPS units (like my trusty 60CSx) are actually low-drain units; I can get two long days of caching from a single tired set of NiMh rechargeables.

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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Has anyone tried the "new" high capacity eneloops? The ones that are wrapped in black rather than white. I find that the eneloops mAh rating is one of the most accurate out there.

 

I bought a 4-pack recently. Depending on how well they do, I'll be using them in my GPSr and my noise-canceling aviation headset, which eats a pair of AAs a week. I'll probably pick up another four.

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Has anyone tried the "new" high capacity eneloops? The ones that are wrapped in black rather than white. I find that the eneloops mAh rating is one of the most accurate out there.

 

I bought a 4-pack recently. Depending on how well they do, I'll be using them in my GPSr and my noise-canceling aviation headset, which eats a pair of AAs a week. I'll probably pick up another four.

I started to get them. However if you look at the life expectancy, the high capacity ones are good for 500 recharge cycles, the 2000's are good for 1500. Since the 2000's go 8 to 10 hours in both the CO and MT, I think I'll stick with them. They have them now at Costco 10 for $14.95.

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Has anyone tried the "new" high capacity eneloops? The ones that are wrapped in black rather than white. I find that the eneloops mAh rating is one of the most accurate out there.

 

I bought a 4-pack recently. Depending on how well they do, I'll be using them in my GPSr and my noise-canceling aviation headset, which eats a pair of AAs a week. I'll probably pick up another four.

 

I bought what I though was a high quality high capacity 4 pack of rechargable AA batteries and after 20 full charge/discharge cycles the mAh was under 2500mAh. They are currently below that after about 100 charges. They were advertised at 2850. They also are not the LSD (low self discharge) type which means I need to recharge both sets before heading out. On the flip side ALL of my eneloops have tested within +/- 50 mAh of 2000 mAh. I'll take the plunge soon enough, just hoping they will increase the current total recharge cycles well past the current 500 mark. I also hope they come out with a "true" 3000 mAh AA battery. On a long day of caching my 2850's give out the last few hours. It would be nice not to have to change them out for the day.

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Has anyone tried the "new" high capacity eneloops? The ones that are wrapped in black rather than white. I find that the eneloops mAh rating is one of the most accurate out there.

 

I bought a 4-pack recently. Depending on how well they do, I'll be using them in my GPSr and my noise-canceling aviation headset, which eats a pair of AAs a week. I'll probably pick up another four.

 

I'm a battery / charger nut. I got the Sony Eneloop 2500 ( black ) and they are GREAT ! The Oregon 450 goes about 12 hours of constant use as does the 62S .....my older Magellan could go for days.

I also almost never have to calibrate my compass ( 3 tri axis compass units )after changing batteries. These have to be the best option out there. I was using MAHA PowerX 2500 which were good but nothing like the Eneloop.

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Recently made the switch to rechargeables buying a Duracell charger and some rechargeables from Duracell as well.

 

If I bought the Eneloop batteries can I use the Duracell charger with it, or will I rip a tear in the space time continuum?

I'm not sure why but the rip a tear in the space time continuum struck a major funny bone over here!! Star Trek??

 

You will be fine with your duracell charger on the Eneloops. For what its worth I have both the duracells and the eneloops and the duracells have performed on par with the Eneloops. I will add that most chargers you purchase are fully automatic. Great for tossing them in and forgetting about them but not so great for the longevity of the battery. Most of the automatic chargers are focused on the speed in which they charge the battery. The faster they charge the warmer/hotter the battery becomes which is not good for the rechargable. There are a few chargers out there that will let you manually select the charge/discharge rate to get the maximum life out of your rechargables. Either way the space time continum will be just fine unless your recharging the lithium crystals!

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Thanks to contributors to this forum, I'm a lot more battery savvy than I once was. Although not ideal, an affordable and easily available solution for me was to go with the Duracell rechargeable's. These are the "copper top" batteries with the "white" caps at the positive end. They're the competition to the Sanyo Eneloops and boast a shelf life of 80% capacity after one year. Staples recently had them on sale at $11.99 for a package of four. I'm presently using a basic two-battery charger that may or may not charge both batteries equally but it's been working out for me. Needless to say, I always carry a spare set just in case.

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Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

NiMH batteries are fantastic in high drain devices. Their low internal resistance (compared to alkaline) means that they can supply a much higher current. My external flash, for example, lasts much longer and cycles much faster with NiMH than with alkalines. Even the relatively low capacity Eneloops.

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

 

Just curious why?

 

I find that the only battery a quality rechargable will not beat is the lithiums.

they report lower voltage to device which could cause low batt issues

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

 

Just curious why?

 

I find that the only battery a quality rechargable will not beat is the lithiums.

they report lower voltage to device which could cause low batt issues

 

I have read in some publications that the low voltage from NiMh can cause some electronic devices to not work. I have not experienced this in any of my equipment. The low voltage associated with NiMh rechargables is consistent until the battery is almost depleted. One of the major benefits of these "new" lsd (low self discharge) batteries is the low internal resistance. Meaning they actually work very well in high drain devices. Not as well as the throw away lithium's but a major step up from even the best of alkaline battery brands.

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I used Kirkland batteries for years, and finally made the move to Eneloops a few months ago. If you look around, you can get a good deal on them. I now have the two in the GPSr, and 4 in a case they came in, plus another 8 in reserve.

Eneloop is the gold standard in rechargables. wouldn't recommend rechargables for high drain devices tho.

Just curious why?

 

I find that the only battery a quality rechargable will not beat is the lithiums.

they report lower voltage to device which could cause low batt issues

When you use alkaline batteries on high drain devices, the high current draw actually causes a drop in voltage. Even normal draw will cause a drop in voltage.

 

Straight out of wikipedia's article on alkaline batteries : "the average voltage under load depends on discharge and varies from 1.1 to 1.3 V".

 

There are certainly devices that should not use NiMH. Clocks, for example. And remote controls. I have used Eneloops in my wireless mouse with success - they don't last as long as alkalines, but I figured 4 - 5 months is very good. I've not had any problems with digital cameras all the way back to 1999, and I haven't had any problems with all 3 of my Garmins.

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I have used this place for years when buying my rechargeable batteries: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/Sanyo-Eneloop_c_1020.html

 

They have a good FAQ on batteries and chargers: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/Battery-and-Charger-FAQ_ep_46-1.html

 

This is where I've bought all my batteries and chargers.

 

They are great sites but stay away from the deals with batteries packaged unless they truly are included for free. They are usually Powerex or some other cheap rechargeable. I started off with Powerex when I got my charger. After sixteen or so and having the charger checked out to see if it was working properly because the batteries would not hold charges very long, I tried the Eneloop 2000 mAh and have not looked back.

 

In addition to Thomas, if you have a Batteries Plus franchise near you they carry the MAHA chargers as well. (support the local economy) I have the MH-C9000 charger, which is great. Conditions as well as charges.

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Wow...who knew there were so many choices! I switched to an Eveready charger/batteries about a year ago...It is fast, charges in 20 minutes or less and came with a car jack..so I can always have spares ready to go, charging as I drive to a location.

 

They last soooo much longer the disposables that I have stopped using them all together and use these for my camera as well.

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My head is like, swimming with battery information now! :o Next time I'm out to spend some money, I'm going to try and some good rechargable batteries and a charger. It seems like I have to change out batteries in my Garmin more ofter than I'd like, but as long as I have plenty of extras then whatever :laughing: Actually, I might get some for my little mp3 player speakers too, because they'll eat batteries like crazy! The GPS has higher priorty though, hehe

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I have been using Enloops with a duracel 2 cell charger for 2 years. I wonder when it's going to be time to replace these batteries. I have 4 pair that rotate through my storage system. 2 sets freshly charged in the caching bag, 1 set in the GPSr in whatever is their current discharge state, and 1 set in the charger ready to swap for an exhausted set. The charger came with a pair of duracell rechargables, and I bought another pair of " high capacity" duracel cells. The high cap was a disappointment, since they actually discarged themselves in the bag and were "Dead on arrival" when I needed them. That was the only time I came close to running out of batteries on the trail. Both duracells have long since been retired, the first enloops are still in service.

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The biggest thing you can do for the life of ANY rechargeble is to get a quality charger. Fast chargers, the ones that work in 15 to 30 mins, reduce the fife of the battery because when they charge that fast they overheat the battery.

 

Just like good BBQ, slow and low is best.

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