- Be rechargeables have outlasted my alkalines. I also bought the energizers from Sams/WalMart. The first time I used them in the GPS they did not last as long as I thought they would. I had to change my GPS from Alkaline to Rechargeable. Jeff JC_Geo --- Mike Lusicic <lusicic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: --------------------------------- - The secret to long rechargeable battery life is the charger itself. Youneed one that is designed for the type of battery you are using. Notall rechargeable batteries are the same, and the voltage varies. Thatis why the rechargeable batteries may not last as long. They haveslightly lower voltage, so for the same power output, they have to makeit with more current. Anyway, all rechargeable batteries have to have some sort of vent. Itis usually a one way job. That is because when you charge a battery, itcreates heat. That creates pressure inside the battery case. Too muchpressure and the battery will explode. Thus they have a vent to preventsuch a catastrophic event. If the battery gets hot and does vent some gas, the gas that it isventing is actually part of the electrolyte inside the battery. Youlose too much, and the battery loses capacity. The most heat isproduced after the battery is done charging and you keep it on thecharger. If the charger "knows" what voltage represents a full charge,it can stop charging the battery, or only feed it a tiny current tokeep it from heating up. Dumb chargers, or ones made for differentbattery types with different fully charged voltage levels canovercharge and overheat the battery. That is when you shorten the lifeof the battery. I hope this helps. Roger Barnes wrote: -My experience is that some last a year or two and some last severalyears. I did not mark my batteries so I could pair the same twotogether all the time. I think that helps. The next time I open newones, I will do that. The ones that last several years have beenrecharged dozens of times, even the ones that haven't lasted as longhave been recharged maybe a dozen time or more. They charge OK, theyjust don't last very long. Anyway, I think they have been well worthit. Of course, YMMV.Rogerps - YMMV = Your Mileage May Very, in case anyone is wondering. Andrew Senger wrote:Thanks everyone for your information. I have a couple of follow-upquestions.Have you ever had the batteries go "dead" (i.e. won't recharge, orwon't stay charged for long)? If so, approx how long did that take(in recharges or months/years)?At Sam's, I bought a recharge kit with 8 AA batteries and 4 AAAbatteries. It was the same price as (I believe) a 32-count AA case.Eric mentioned that he was getting about 3/4 of the time withrechargeables, so I would need at least 5 recharges to be worth thevalue. Will the 8 batteries will last 5 times longer than a typicalAA over its life? If so, is the charge still good after that 5th use?Thanks again!Andrew **************************************** For List Info or To make _ANY_ changes, including unsubscribing from this list, click -----> //www.freelists.org/list/geocaching Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived http://tinyurl.com/87cqw **************************************** For List Info or To make _ANY_ changes, including unsubscribing from this list, click -----> //www.freelists.org/list/geocaching Missouri Caches Scheduled to be Archived http://tinyurl.com/87cqw