Batteries can be a right pain!
What a week I've had of it, the hama duo had to be returned, one of the 4 cells supplied with it was a no volter it turns out. They all charged up, but one day in the camera, and one of them dropped to zero volts during that time. The really bad news was that it was not actually in picture taking use, it just dropped to 0.0V while sat there ready to go (in theory!)
So that had to go. I could not bring myself to try another of that brand, so went with an Energizer Ultra Compact which was the only other alternative at that Asda store. Can't offer any results for that one yet as it's not even had it's first charge cycle. Also picked up a Compact Energizer from Tesco. I'll run them head to head and see what they are like, The Compact does trickle charge after full, and The Ultra Compact does not, but offers a slightly quicker charge time potentially. Both came with 2500 mAh cells and it'll be interesting to see how they all pan out.
Energizer was not my first choice for a charger as it was one of that brand that broke down in the first place, so I was a bit reluctant. Choice seems rather poor here in the UK high street sadly. The cells from that old Energizer are still going strong, while I've yet to hear a peep out of Rayovac about the specs for some of their cells which I have had for some time. I'd like to charge them up too, but I can't get a specific set of figures from which to calculate how long they need to charge for. Rayovac deserve a serious slap for not printing the mAh on the jacket in the first place, and second one for not replying to help an existing customer. They just made it to my do not buy list for that egregious performance. There is no reason that would make what happened with them OK again. So now I've gone from existing customer to ex-customer. Nice Complacency job guys, I'd like to wish you well to enjoy it! ;O)
Finally during this week I had to grab at least one set of spare batteries suitable for use with one or other of the new chargers. I opted to try out a set from Jessops. There's quite a lot more to be said about this contact with Jessops, but that's for another posting. It was NOT a fun customer experience all the way, but ended up fair enough I guess, well, perhaps adequate is the better word to use here. ;O) The Jessops cells did not appear to get as hot as the hama 2500 offering while being charged in the hama charger, and maybe that's a good sign. Equally, the Energizers, so far, appear to run pretty cool while charging too in The Compact charger, but there's a fair few hours left to go on their first run. After that I plan to try the Ultra Compact model and it's cells.
Regrettably I did not think to check the voltages on the hama cells straight out of the packaging, but did with the Energizers, as I've learned from experience to do better like that now. The Ultra Compact from Asda showed a markedly lower voltage than those in The Compact set from Tesco, there could be a product storage issue with Asda, or certainly with that branch. I'll not name the branch, as if Asda do decide to audit how they treat this sort of stock, then they'd be best off doing it at all branches as otherwise the point is going to be fully lost, I'd be fully crazy to encourage that to happen. So the Tesco batch offered 3 out of 4 cells above one volt and the Asda batch offered 3 out of 4 below one volt. I can only hope none of that will become a significant issue.
So that had to go. I could not bring myself to try another of that brand, so went with an Energizer Ultra Compact which was the only other alternative at that Asda store. Can't offer any results for that one yet as it's not even had it's first charge cycle. Also picked up a Compact Energizer from Tesco. I'll run them head to head and see what they are like, The Compact does trickle charge after full, and The Ultra Compact does not, but offers a slightly quicker charge time potentially. Both came with 2500 mAh cells and it'll be interesting to see how they all pan out.
Energizer was not my first choice for a charger as it was one of that brand that broke down in the first place, so I was a bit reluctant. Choice seems rather poor here in the UK high street sadly. The cells from that old Energizer are still going strong, while I've yet to hear a peep out of Rayovac about the specs for some of their cells which I have had for some time. I'd like to charge them up too, but I can't get a specific set of figures from which to calculate how long they need to charge for. Rayovac deserve a serious slap for not printing the mAh on the jacket in the first place, and second one for not replying to help an existing customer. They just made it to my do not buy list for that egregious performance. There is no reason that would make what happened with them OK again. So now I've gone from existing customer to ex-customer. Nice Complacency job guys, I'd like to wish you well to enjoy it! ;O)
Finally during this week I had to grab at least one set of spare batteries suitable for use with one or other of the new chargers. I opted to try out a set from Jessops. There's quite a lot more to be said about this contact with Jessops, but that's for another posting. It was NOT a fun customer experience all the way, but ended up fair enough I guess, well, perhaps adequate is the better word to use here. ;O) The Jessops cells did not appear to get as hot as the hama 2500 offering while being charged in the hama charger, and maybe that's a good sign. Equally, the Energizers, so far, appear to run pretty cool while charging too in The Compact charger, but there's a fair few hours left to go on their first run. After that I plan to try the Ultra Compact model and it's cells.
Regrettably I did not think to check the voltages on the hama cells straight out of the packaging, but did with the Energizers, as I've learned from experience to do better like that now. The Ultra Compact from Asda showed a markedly lower voltage than those in The Compact set from Tesco, there could be a product storage issue with Asda, or certainly with that branch. I'll not name the branch, as if Asda do decide to audit how they treat this sort of stock, then they'd be best off doing it at all branches as otherwise the point is going to be fully lost, I'd be fully crazy to encourage that to happen. So the Tesco batch offered 3 out of 4 cells above one volt and the Asda batch offered 3 out of 4 below one volt. I can only hope none of that will become a significant issue.
posted by iFly at 22:55
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