Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been using a variety of Ni–MH batteries for a while now but for sheer reliability and longevity the Eneloop ones are hard to fault. This is the 4th generation of the Eneloop range the first coming to the market in around 2005, over time the number of charges has increased from the original 1000 cycles up to a claimed 2100 as well as extending the charge they retain in storage for longer. Since Panasonic took over Sanyo in 2013 the they retain the Eneloop branding, this model is BK-3MCCE the prior generation is HR-3UTGB the cycles up from 1800 on that model. It's easy to spot the newest model purely because they are Panasonic branded The cells are quoted as retaining up to 70% of their capacity for 5 years and are ready to use out of the box I tested the pack I got and the capacities ranged from 2020-2078 mAh this can vary a bit but you're guaranteed a minimum of 1900 mAh. Unlike some other makers you can be sure you'll get the quoted capacity Despite the higher cost per battery the longevity of the Eneloop batteries has been very good I've had sets for a good while now (over 5 years) and they're still going strong where as some budget offerings have lost their capacity or worn out after a few years. I've also never had a problem with the Eneloop cells fitting, in the past a few makers have played around the standard AA size and some are a bit longer or larger in diameter this can cause problems on some devices fitting wise. On the packaging Panasonic recommend using their own chargers, but I've never had a problem with a good quality third party smart/intelligent charger with any make of battery it's well worth investing in one of these as it can extend the life of cells and avoid overcharging problems that some timer/manual chargers have. **A few chargers worth looking at** Maha MH-C9000 (very advanced high end charger) Powerex MH-C9000 Technoline BL-700 or BC1000 Foxnovo F-4S The official Panasonic charger is: BQ CC16 this is an intelligent charger with individual monitoring and charging of cells, I don't recommend the basic BQ CC18 it works fine but it is timer control only. A decent budget 8 cell intelligent charger is the KooPower 8 Bay smart charger (this seems to be available in a few brand names same design though) Some of the top end chargers have multiple charging speeds and testing capabilities as well as discharge/re-fresh cycles. If you don't need these features then just go for a normal smart charger it's worth the small additional cost. There are some cheaper batteries out there, and some decent budget offerings too. But despite the higher cost this seems to be levelled out with the lifespan of the batteries. Hard to fault really a very reliable and solid offering and suitable for use in a wide variety of appliances even heavy drain items like flashes and digital cameras. For super high capacity users take a look at the Eneloop Pro range