Source: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/66360
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 23:53:43+00:00

Document:
A few years back a local Radio Shack called it quits and offered some really low prices as they closed out. Among the stuff was a number of Eneloops in AA and AAA, for $2 per pack of eight. Needless to say, I made a bit of a hog of myself.
The only concern I had was that they’d been in a hot sunny display window long enough to have faded the packaging somewhat, but I bought them anyway. I’ve used some, but several packs ended up languishing unused in my battery box ever since.
Forward to today. Out of curiosity, I picked up an unopened 8-pack of AAs marked HR-3UTG and dated June 2006. These cells are 12 yrs & 9 mo. old. EVERY SINGLE ONE of this 8-pack tested exactly 1.27 v.
Right now the first four are on my MH-C9000 charger on ‘break in’ mode, all quietly accepting a 0.1C charge and apparently coming up in voltage as evenly as you please. After 22 minutes, they’re all reporting 1.33 v.
I am impressed! I’ll come back to this thread in two days and report where the first four ended up, but so far I can’t get over the fact that they came out of the package almost 13 years old testing as well as they did. They have got to be tough!
That is a really high voltage for a 13 year old cell.
These have been at room temperature ever since I bought them, not stored with any special consideration whatever.
The first four of this eight-pack are off the charger, having gone through a break in cycle of something in excess of 38 hours. They terminated sometime during the night, so I’m not exactly sure how long they took.
Late last night before I went to bed they were in the final charge stage, and indicating a nice even 1.38 v.
The charger indicates: 1919 mAh, 1921, 1930, 1930. All terminated at 1.48 v.
The remaining four are on the charger now, also on break-in.
Considering that these cells lay new/dormant for almost 13 years, I wouldn’t have been the least surprised if they’d been deader than John Cleese’ parrot. That they show any life at all, let alone an honest ‘up-to-spec’ capacity is quite remarkable I think.
Holy crap. That’s better than alkalines.
With alkalines, they would’ve already leaked in the package.
We now have the proof Eneloops can hold a charge better than alkalines, and never leak.
Amazing. If only every other AA company could follow their quality standards.
My first thought: sad you didn't check the capacity right from the package.. that would have been the oldest eneloop discharge test currently available....Or however I should phrase that.
But thanks a lot for sharing!!!
Well, if you tell me how to do that, I have another identical unopened pack.
(I also have two unopened 2-packs of AAA with same date).
Edit: to say I have an even better idea.
P.M. me your mailing address and I’ll send these to you – we’ll just call it my sacrifice for science. . You run whatever tests you think will gain us the most information and share it with the board.
Great idea, let ChibiM use them for some all round evaluation and testing.
…three of them higher than the first four, with one notably lower.
I noticed one oddity that may be a function of my charger – the first four showed termination at 1.48 v , while these last four all showed 1.44 v when I fetched them off the charger. After 30 minutes all four showed 1.43 v on my DMM. I don’t know exactly how long each set remained on the charger after termination, or if the charger shows the voltage at termination, or ‘at the monent’.
I wish I’d double checked the first four with the DMM after a half hour, but I didn’t.
ChibiM, if you’d like to run some more sophisticated analyses on these old cells, I have a couple of sealed packs remaining that I’d be pleased to send you at no cost.
I have Eneloop AA’s from 2008 that are still in use. They started out life in my camera flash units, taking a beating at weddings. They would come out of the flash unit too hot to hold after literally 700 or more flash photo’s. Nowadays they live an easier life in wireless Mouse units and small flashlights, but they still work fine.
AA Cycler has some very good long-duration cycle tests on Eneloops. Looks like they’re good for about 300-400 full cycles.
After that, internal resistance starts to sky-rocket very quickly. Capacity starts to drop as well, though more slowly. This is my personal anecdotal experience as well, so it’s good to see it’s backed up by real testing.
The conclusion seems to be that after a few hundred cycles, retire them to low-drain applications. If you do partial cycles, you’ll get a lot more out of them.
My personal experience is that they also start to lose their low-self-discharge ability as well, though they’ll still hold a charge for a few months. I have a few worn-out Eneloops that I still use in things like solar lawn lights.
With the advice of ChibiM, I opened another pack of eight, found that once again all eight tested exactly 1.27 v., and put the first four on ‘discharge’ mode right out of the pack.
After 150 minutes of discharge at 500 mA, the discharge stopped at 1.20 v.
Discharge readings were: 1146 mAh, 1153, 1138, and 1145.
After almost 13 years, these cells are still at roughly 60% capacity.
The last four are now being discharged in similar fashion.
Thanks for sharing your ‘Eneloop Story’, it’s a great one.
My ‘Eneloop Story’, from another thread; is copied & pasted below.
I just bought some Amazon Basics & LADDA’s to try them out.
BUT, they have a ‘long row to hoe’ to be as good as the regular white Eneloops.
I have Eneloops that I first bought in 2006 that are still going strong.
One 4 pack with a 2006 date code was bought at WalMart on closeout in June 2007. Somehow, still in the WalMart bag with receipt; they were “lost” under the truck seat. I found them November 2011.
I figured they were ‘toast’ after being lost for 52 months under the seat in hot of summer & cold of winter for that long.
Much to my complete surprise they still contained probably at least 80% of their charge. That is a guess as I did not have an analyzing charger at that time. But I did run a couple AA MagLites for several hours off them. Then charged them up & they are still going strong to this day.
I was sold at that point. It has been Eneloops for me since that day.
And I have bought a bunch through the years.
With the advice of ChibiM, I opened another pack of eight, found that once again all eight tested exactly 1.27 v., and put the first four on ‘discharge’ mode right out of the pack. After 150 minutes of discharge at 500 mA, the discharge stopped at 1.20 v. Discharge readings were: 1146 mAh, 1153, 1138, and 1145. After almost 13 years, these cells are still at roughly 60% capacity. The last four are now being discharged in similar fashion.
Bravo! Thanks so much for the discharge test Tumbleweed48! Awesome numbers. And keep in mind that overseas cells didnt get charged 100% before shipping out but rather 70-75%.. So yeah, remarkable batteries! See how close those numbers are? Wow... any other brand would have been dead or mismatched numbers. I can't believe they were so close.
If you don't mind, I will add this info to the eneloop101 website.
The final four have completed the discharge cycle, with two terminating ar 1.20 v. and two at 1.21 v.
1152 mAh, 1187, 1143, 1147.
The average across eight cells is 1,151 mAh, or almost exactly 60% of the stated 1900 mAh capacity.
Maximum deviation from the average is a mere +36 / -13 mAh.
I will now start a break in cycle, and report back in a couple of days.
By all means, ChibiM, use the data as you see fit. The more we can all learn, the better!
Eneloops are Eneloops… no contest! Incredible technology indeed.
End of discharge should be 0.9 volts -1 volts ,how come you say 1.2 volts? Terminatin when charging should be 1.48v – 1.5ish.
I just left them on the charger until the charger terminated and said “done”, then read the numbers and posted them.
I don’t know of any way to set a C-9000 to any different parameters. Other chargers might be different, but this is all I have.
Well the numbers look good so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.
Robot girls .... Seemed like the perfect solution to an age old problem .
then she left me for a Subaru.
I’ve been using Eneloop and Eneloop Pro for about a year and I’ve been very happy. I’m always glad to see more confirmation of a good investment.
Just a quick final update; the last eight cells dated June 2006 have completed their break in cycle on the Maha C-9000 charger.
Average capacity works out to 1920.2 mAh with a variance of -20 / +46 mAh.
The lowest indicated 1900 mAh, while the highest is 1966 mAh, with the rest clustered nearer the average.
On a less encouraging note, I managed to destroy a FourSevens Mini M2A trying to open it for an emitter upgrade. Oh well… …I tried!
What was that someone said about glue?
I have 8x standard AA and AAA eneloop unopened since 2013.
Lets keep them unused for… 15 years and see what happens.
If I’m still here in 15 years and this forum is still a thing, I look forward to seeing the results.

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