I bought a bunch of eneloop pro, but using them in connected thermostats is always displaying “low battery” even after just fully charged. This is when I discovered that they are actually 1.2V

It really came as a surprise, is there a catch? Are they only good for low power stuff like remote controls?

Edit: it seems they do exist in lithium. Question remains why are the NiMH only 1.2v and why are they the most widespread?

  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’ve reached the point of absolutely hating rechargable batteries. Between their ghost discharge, and the fact that I don’t go through as many batteries like I used, using normal alkaline batteries seems to be the best for me anyway.

    • Evotech@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Huh, I use exclusively rechargeable batteries in everything. Works great.

      Except the smoke alarm, that one complains if I don’t use lithium

      • Analog@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        23 hours ago

        Google seems to have set their nest protect units to need six lithium AA non-rechargeable cells. Which is 1.8v, not 1.5v. You put in completely fresh batteries verified with a multimeter at above 1.5v (1.58v iirc) and they’ll complain about it.

        I bought lithium rechargeable and they’re 1.5v. Which seems reasonable. I wish all of ‘em would be one standard.

        Feels instead like we have AA-, AA, and AA+.

      • treadful
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Same. Temp sensors, flashlights, game controllers, thermostat, whatever. Haven’t had any issues.

        The only time they suck is when a device wants an odd number of batteries. And my charger only works with tandem batteries. Not really sure of the implications, but charging two batteries with significantly different charge makes me nervous.

        • Daemon Silverstein@thelemmy.club
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          2 days ago

          There are battery chargers that allow charging an odd number of batteries, even single batteries. I have a charger that is powered through USB, similar to the following:

          The one I have has two power inputs: an USB-C and Micro USB, so it can be powered by any of these.

        • Evotech@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          Idk, I use one that charges 8. Both double and triple A’s

          Always have spares in the charger ready to go

    • SHOW_ME_YOUR_ASSHOLE@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      I gave up on them as well. They’d always be dead after sitting in a drawer and a lot of devices I use AA or AAA batteries in don’t like the lower voltage. The devices complain about the batteries being low and I could never tell if they were dead from lying around for too long or if the device thought they were dead just because of the low voltage.

      • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        yeah when things did not come with their own rechargable integrated battery it was a thing but the few I use at this point it just does not make sense to use rechargables.

        • lud@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 days ago

          For me it’s the opposite.

          I pretty much only use batteries for my wireless mouse and my Xbox controller. When the batteries die I just recharge them and put them back a few hours later.

          • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 days ago

            I feel like the only batteries I use are for the firealarm and remotes. Oh then I have oddball things with watch type batteries but as far as I know their are no rechargable equivalents.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      I finally bought some rechargeables again this year after shunning them years ago but that’s just because I 3D printed a bunch of Christmas lights that have battery powered RGB pucks inside them.

      Funnily enough, I started with all alkaline until the rechargables came in the mail at which time I replaced half of them with rechargeables which have already died and needed recharging before the other half with the original alkaline have needed to be replaced.

      Previously, the only really good use I had for them was with my old Xbox 360 controllers since I could have a pair on the charger while using the other pair.