Was waiting for these to go on sale as my old duracell charger borked itself. Few more XTAR products discounted in their amazon store page.
CamelCamelCamel.
Sounds pretty good to me, capacity is quite good too. Just wondering if they might go lower on Black Friday sales.
Just the price. These are closer to alkaline too for things that benefit from the 1.5V. But if you are going to get lithium AAs these are the ones to get. The low battery function is pretty useful, otherwise they just go from working to not without any warning.
Any downsides to these over the Eneloops?
They have higher self-discharge than NiMH LSD cells like Eneloops. But if you use them right after charging that won't be an issue.
Pros: 1.5V
Cons: Expensive around double the price of Eneloops.
Buck converter creates radio noise which can interfere with sensitive equipment.
Has self discharge higher than Eneloops due to buck converter always being on.
Is not suitable for high drain devices due to current being restricted by buck converter.
Long term reliability and durability is unknown unlike Eneloop which has a legendary reputation. Who is the supplier of the Lithium Ion cell inside and whats the quality of the chip?
Wonder if these would go well in a Nest Protect smoke alarm..
I'd rather use a lithium primary (non-rechargable) cell for crucial devices like that. These cells actually have a buck converter to convert the internal 3.6V cell to 1.5V so will have additional idle current drain.
These have been great in my door lock as the voltage output is 1.5v until almost dead.
Is LC4 capable of charging a single battery with other slots empty? or this is a 2-4 setup like most of AA chargers?
Yeh, the charging circuit is in the battery, the charger just outputs 5v to the battery I believe. The LC4 charger included doesn't do NiMH but the L4 does.
@bamzero Thanks for clarifying. L4 is tempting but don't need one since I have a couple of NiMH chargers.
Good to know XTAR batteries can be charged from any 5v source.
Don't use non Xtra batteries in these otherwise they overheat and melt the charger (personal experience)
Any downsides to these over the Eneloops? Been waiting for some Eneloops to go on sale