Ikea "Ladda" batteries / Eneloop chemistry.

[Mr Gus]

As I don't get to ikea often, NEVER "pre-electric" I took the word of various battery forums some years ago regarding Ikea rechargeable LADDA range being Panasonic eneloop (& there is much to support this if you look) ..but a behemoth of branding such as Ikea don't want too much detail out there.

About 4 years ago I tried some, & (against my proper eneloops) they held their own, however recently there was panic (2021) about rebranding which cleared shelves amongst the battery-boys "just in case" ...turns out it was just a packaging change & the battery skin.

Being in possession of a couple of xtar battery chargers I plonked them in the dragon charger "boxfresh" for a measuring cycle from new.

first cycle figures for unstretched stock of Ladda AA 2450 mAh batteries was
2481
2472
2462
2455

This displayed effectively similar results across the 4 packs I purchased, all displayed above displayed capacity, ..always a good start

(I use them for led lighting, xbox controllers, dab+ radio etc, they have performed well under extensive use)

NB IKEA do a lower capacity AA so if unfamiliar please take note, it can be a long trip back to swap em over.
Suffice to say, anyone with a new baby gets given a few packs of these (subtle introduction to potential change) boring but useful.

[Mr Gus]

Went to ikea yesterday to pick up some candles, a meat "pricker" for better crispy pork & a few other bits for daughter's digs, then to grab a few litres of maple syrup for brewing via costco.

Nightmare overall but for those with access to an ikea store 3 for 2 on their ladda batteries. ..very good value ..thing is the signage inferred it was only on the charger & battery combination. ..otherwise I'd have bought more to refresh my ageing 7day shop.com stock.

But 12 AA 2450mAh & 12 AAA 750 mAh with that discount is very welcome.

[Mr Gus]

Having just recently bought more stock of the higher capacity ikea Ladda 2450 AA nimh recgargeable I again performed an "unstretched" straight out of the box capacity test again, on this occasion the final numbers were several hundred mAh off the advertised capacity, which whilst a flawed (ie never take readings from slumbering new batteries until theyve done a handful of charges .it's an indicator before you lose your receipt (puppy steals & gummies it)

Way off the mark of the last lot, mentioned this to ikea & they replaced the lot! (slow test, so I jumped on the phone as they were so unusually low for ikea) am now in the process of draining them one set at a time to get to 5 cycles & a re-test of capacity, ..which i did mention to the customer service but maybe they were a bit keen to be seen to shine (asked to do a questionnaire) ..or they have maybe dropped their tolerances to maintain product flow recently?
Still crackingly good batteries imho, esp with the current 3 packs for the price of 2 deal ending imminently)

My old apollo led lamp is being used for one set, I have 12x 4 packs to get through, slow moving results.

[Swwils]

IKEA LADDA no longer are "guaranteed" to be Panasonic Eneloop - this happened in 2019.

Tell-tale sign is that capacity doesn't match the Eneloop pro or lite, made by Fujitsu; they could be made by Matsushita that still make the white eneloop. but now I believe sell to other brands. In any case Sanyo no longer are the "exclusive" low self discharge manufacturer. Almost all Ni-MH are now very low self discharge. Other signs are that they are rated for 1000 cycles like the cheaper 1900mAh blue Fujitsu (HR-3UTI), with lower performance at high current compared to the white Eneloop/Fujitsu. Nkon was selling them at some point and they were around the same price.

When a NiMH is made in Japan, it either comes from a Matsushita factory (Panasonic) or from a FDK factory (Fujitsu). Japan have an anti trust law like in the USA and when Matsushita bought Sanyo, they became the only NiMH manufacturer in Japan (Sony manufacture all NiMH in China). So Matsushita had to sell the old Sanyo factory (eneloop pro and lite) to Fujitsu. They of course sell back to Matsushita for the Eneloop brand but they had no restriction to sell to other. So basically. "Made in Japan" definitely indicates the FDK factory, as there is only one LSD NiMH factory in Japan.

They also do occasional special editions in chocolate colours etc:



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321914232400 ... R8KA4ZSQYQ

[Mr Gus]

That I did not know, thanks Swwils

[Oldgreybeard]

I bought some Duracell "long life" NiMH AA cells about a year ago, use them in an electric toothbrush, and they seem to perform extremely well. Big difference between the lower capacity freebies they chuck in with the charger and the higher capacity cells they sell individually, though. Might as well chuck the freebie cells, as they are pretty useless. Seems daft that Duracell bundle them with the charger when they are so crap, must convince a lot of people not to buy any more cells.

[Mr Gus]

With Duracell downgrading their quality of batteries, (their rechargeables do indeed suck) i'm always wary as to how much longer I can trust the "ultra-power" variant, if they cut corners for profit there then I may as well chuck my avalanche tranceiver in the bin & roll dice.

[Oldgreybeard]

With Duracell downgrading their quality of batteries, (their rechargeables do indeed suck) i'm always wary as to how much longer I can trust the "ultra-power" variant, if they cut corners for profit there then I may as well chuck my avalanche tranceiver in the bin & roll dice.

I don't know who makes the 2500mAh AA Duracell NiMH cells but they are every bit as good as the older Eneloops I still have, I'd go so far as to say they may actually be better when it comes to self-discharge. I doubt Duracell make them, TBH, they are most probably just re-badged, but they are so good I've bought quite a few of them now. Just seems odd that they bundle a couple of crap cells with half the capacity with their charger.

[Swwils]

Duracell likely have some re-badged eneloop pros, but it's hard to tell, they make alot of vague packagings.

DX1500 coded batteries that are made in Japan are most likely eneloops. Some say Stay-charged, Rechargeable plus, Ion Core or Active charge, Duralock etc. Those are already 5 types of packages for the DX1500 batteries. Some show 300 cycles, others 400 cycles. Some say DX1500H others DX1500. So would be too much work to track what they are doing compared to just getting eneloop pros.

[Mr Gus]

Avi tranceivers, you dont risk cold & life saving with rechargeable batteries, too much of a gamble, If you are on the mountain you run fresh cells till they are halfway then swap em out, ..if it was a decent 18650 i'd reconsider, but they tend to be AAA.
(of course they get re-used)

My walkie talkies run ok on rechargeable packs, but I take care to pocket protect mine near the heart & the armpit region, too valuable to leave to chance, last things taken off the charge cradle, first things put back, ..ritualistic.

Otherwise I despise Duracells lack of quality & avoid em like you would ebola.