Customer Reviews

Rayovac Rechargeable NiMH Batteries, AA-size, 4-count Carded Pack

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A decade ago, a 1400 mAh discharge capacity NiMH rechargeable battery would have been marginally acceptable. For today's digital cameras and the current state of NiMH battery technology, this RayOVac product is inexcusable.

You notice that neither the package or the battery indicates the discharge capacity. Here's why: the specs on this product are so inferior that nobody would buy it for digital camera use if they knew the truth.

My information about discharge capacity for this product comes for RayOVac's own specification sheet, available at their website.

Copy and paste this link in your browser to see the data sheet:

[...]

For less demanding devices like some GPS receivers, portable scanners, flashlights, etc., these batteris might be fine. But the package shows a digital camera and leads customer to believe that they are appropriate for a digital camera.

I give the product one star partly for being substandard as far as discharge capacity and partly for the deception that RayOVac uses in order to trick people into buying this product.

Here's the lesson for you: unless you know for certain what you're buying, don't buy it. If the manufacturer or salesperson can't provide the information you need, walk away.

Historically, RayOVac dry cells were very good in their day. I'm very disappointed in the way RayOVac has "modernized" the company with Chinese product outsourcing and deceptive marketing practices.

The latest family of Rayovac rechargeable NiMH batteries are all missing one thing: the capacity rating. Previously, you can see the charge capacity (such as '2500mAh') marked on every package and also on each cell. But newer Rayovac rechargeable NiMH cells are just grouped into three classes ('Everyday-Use', 'High-Energy' and 'Hybrid'), with vague claims such as 'Up to 275 photos' printed on their packages.

Of course, those claims make very little sense to us, because Rayovac never tell us which camera was used, and under what test conditions were those photos taken.

After a lot of searching, I was able to find the spec sheet for those cells from rayovacindustrial dot com:

- NM715-4OP 'Everyday-Use' AA, 'Up to 275 photos': capacity=1400mAh
- NM715-4B 'High-Energy' AA, 'Up to 375 photos': capacity=1900mAh
- LD715-4A 'Hybrid' AA, 'Up to 400 photos': capacity=2100mAh

The item offered here is the NM715-4OP (the 'OP' stands for 'Opening Product'). It has the lowest capacity amoung all Rayovac NiMH batteries. I have tested some in my La Crosse BC-900 Battery Charger, and the average capacity is actually higher than spec at 1500mAh. But this number is still very low by today's standard for NiMH AA cells. So although the price looks attractive, this is just not a good value.

As of this writing, the Rayovac 4.0 AA 4-PACK is available at even lower cost. Those are low-self-discharge cells with higher capacity of 2100mAh. So it is a no-brainer which package you should buy.

[Update on July 16, 2010]
I recently discovered a hidden benefit of those Rayovac 'Opening Product' AA cells: they are exactly the same size as alkaline AA cells, while other NiMH cells with capacity 2000mAh or over are all slightly thicker. So for some appliances with extremely tight battery compartment (such as the Rayovac Sportsman Xtreme 1W LED Flashlight), those are the only rechargeable cells I can use. For that I bumped up the star-rating by one.

[Update Sep 4, 2010]
As if the offerings above is not confusing enough, Rayovac has now discontinued the 'Hybrid' series, and replaced it with another two types:

- LD715-4OP 'Pre-Charged': capacity=1400mAh
- PL715-4 'Platinum Pre-Charged': capacity=2100mAh

[Update on May 19, 2011]
Long-term self-discharge test result: Measured a pair of those Rayovac OP cells after 5 months of storage. The average remaining charge is 73.3%. This is quite good for ordinary NiMH cells (most of them leak 20-30% per month), but cannot compare to low-self-discharge types such as Rayovac Hybrid (which can retain about 85% charge after 6 months)

I use these batteries for our video game controllers for xbox and wii, and they last quite a long a time before needing charged. We are big into gaming and sometimes have been known to play for hours at a time. I am also a photographer, and would probably not rely on these for my camera. The charger I bought with these, has no indicator telling when the batteries are fully charged, and the little tester I had didn't work properly with them either. So, with that I'm never really sure about the charge they currently have. I just charge them for around 6 hours a time, because I have no idea how long they need to be on charge, but I've been using the same batteries for several years now and they're still holding up very well! And they were really inexpensive at Walmart when I purchased them.

UPC: 0-12800-50691-0
Rayovac part# NM715-4OP

Opened a new pack and tested with a LaCrosse BC-900 charger/tester in 'Refresh' mode at 700mA charge / 350mA discharge rate. This mode charges then discharges while metering the mAH capacity, then repeats this process over and over until there is no gain in capacity. This process can take several days and is good for refreshing old batteries and bringing brand new batteries up to their full capacity.

Results for these four cells: 1284, 1306, 1321, and 1360 mAH.

So, as other reviewers have stated, these cells are low capacity relative to most competitive cells. But keep in mind that many cells are wildly overrated in capacity so you can't really can't believe the stated capacity. The only way to know for sure is to test.

Low capacity doesn't mean low quality ... it's just a measure of capacity like the capacity difference between a one pint container and a one quart container -- a higher capacity battery stores more energy and therefore can continue delivering the same amount of energy over a longer period.

These cost about the same and are far lower quality and capacity than other batteries. These are made in China (not a good sign; all quality batteries are made in Japan). The capacity is not marked anywhere on the batteries or the packaging, which is extremely deceptive. The actual capacity is extremely low for an NiMH battery -- only 1400 mAh. Most other low self-discharge type batteries have at least 2000 mAh, and standard NiMH is about 2500 mAh.

In other words, this is a bargain-basement Chinese product pretending to be a name-brand. Save your money and buy something higher quality, like Energizer, Duracell, or Sanyo. Rayovac is no longer a quality manufacturer, but rather a shell company that simply re-brands cheap imported junk.

Works great for remote controls but not for digital cameras. The battery capacity is lower than comparable Duracell or Energizer batteries. Works great for remote controls or kids toys.

I have used many different brands of rechargeable batteries and these Rayovacs are the best for the money. Holds charge well, last fairly a long time than other rechargeable and alkaline batteries. I would still personally prefer the Duracell 2650mAh rechargeables but for the price, these will do it for me especially since you are getting 2 packs of 4 batteries, you can't beat the price. I would get these batteries again and recommend it to others.

I bought these about a year ago for my Canon PowerShot A470. They worked pretty well, or should I say pretty decent. Fully charged they'd probably last a good 10-15 minutes when the camera was on, which was good enough for taking photos and some video. Although, over time, about a year, these things won't even power on my camera even after they have been charging for a day or more. So, they seem to have lost their ability to hold a charge through the year I've had them.

They work fine everyday items, but I would go higher capacity if you're going to use them for your digital camera.

I bought these with the recharger because I thought maybe it would be a decent alternative to buying expensive batteries for cameras... but now I am wishing I hadn't. First of all, the package said it was "ready to use" but after taking 5 or 7 pictures, the batteries were dead. I didn't think it was a big deal because I figured maybe it was too good to be true right out of the box. So, we charged them overnight for about 10-14 hours and put them in. When the batteries died, my camera had 32 pictures on it, which included the 5 or 7 that I took the night before since I had put a new memory card in it as well. I am extermely disappointed with my purchase, becaues the package said it lasted 3x longer than the nice Energizer ones... not true. I have since then bought the nice Energizer batteries and have taken well over 30 pictures and the battery signal isn't on. I guess I know which ones I will be buying in the future.

I gave this a two star rating, though, because I know we can use them for remote controls and other things and they would last a little while. In fact, we took the batteries out of the camera and stuck them in an air freshener with a fan on it, and it worked just fine.

I bought, through one of the daily deal websites, 6 four packs of these batteries thinking they were 2000mah+ batteries. I charged these batteries at a 200ma rate on a couple LaCrosse chargers and was surprised by how little charge they took on a discharge/charge cycle. I then used the re-fresh cycle that more rapidly breaks them in (to reach their maximum charge potential) and still 75% took less than 600mah of charge. Only a few even got to 1400mah. Very disappointed with these Made in China batteries. (BTW, I have lots of the older pre-charged Rayovac 4.0 batteries and they have been much better.)