Great question. I already have that data and I am sharing it below. I measured the battery life for each battery as the duration (in terms of hours) output voltage remained above 1 volt while discharging across the 10 Ohm resistor. Following are the results for that ranking. I hope you will find this to be useful 😉: BATTERY BRAND HOURS ABOVE 1V Amazon-Basics 19.2 Duracell 19 Energizer 18.4 Alkalicell 17.5 Rayovac 17 Maxell 16.4 Voniko 16.3 SignatureSelect 16 Coast 15.9 Fujitsu 15.8 Fuji 9.2 Panasonic 4.5 Eveready 4.3
Good that you created this test, however I have several thoughts about it: - Some batteries react differently to different loads. So testing with only 1 value for all batteries is not valid for all kinds of applications. Like using it for a TV remote or a flashlight. - Such tests are more valid when tested more than one battery from the same brand. There are some differences in manufacturing, so you can hit a faulty one. - I am a bit suspicious regarding that sudden change of voltage on some of those graphs I have seen. I do not think a battery can produce such... faulty measurement? - I am also not super convinced how an arduino nano qualifies as a proper calibrated multimeter. Can you trust its measurements? I think the basic idea is good but this test could have such improvements.
Thank you so much for this excellent comment filled with great points. I did read it a few times and will do my best to clarify a few things and contribute to this very informative thread for the benefit of others as well. Before getting into the technical piece, I would like to share a brief disclaimer. One of the key reasons why I kicked off this entirely self-funded channel is to share my passion for electronics and the art of "making" with other like minded people while demonstrating how accessible many concepts, tools and methods are in the field. I want to inspire people to start "making", experimenting and creating things themselves. Therefore, for each content I create, I prioritize simplicity and clarity over anything else. Of course, this approach does bring trade offs with it, which I recognize. So please bear this in mind while reading my comments and watching my content on my channel 🙂 After this brief disclaimer, let me try to chime in to the great observations and information you have shared in your 4 bullets. This will also give me the opportunity to get into some of the background work that is not reflected in the video content. 1 - You have mentioned about the shortfall of testing with a single value load (i.e., 10 ohms in my case) This is absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, while experimenting with the concept, I did try different load values (2 Ohms upwards). I did notice each battery reacts very differently to the current drawn from it. Each battery also heats up excessively due to the low internal resistance when high currents are drawn from it. So I settled for a load value that does not cause excessive heat up of the batteries and draws a current level that is not too demanding but is realistic for most applications AA batteries may be used for. That value for me was ~150mA. As you have stated, there is plenty of room for improvement here by repeating each test for different load values (of course, performing such extensive test also has time implications). As a matter of fact, alkaline AA batteries work at their best when current draw is not very high. For high current draws, I would prefer using rechargeable batteries for sure. (Maybe I will create a new content to cover that interesting space a well and we can continue this discussion there too.) 2 - You have also correctly mentioned testing multiple batteries from the same manufacturer is a better approach. I totally agree! As a matter of fact, during my tests I did notice significant discharge profile variations across different batteries from the same manufacturer. After seeing the variance in the results, I decided to cover the "consistency" aspect as a separate content besides the one I have published. I selected the batteries from each manufacturer based on the consistency of their discharge profile. Since I did this for each battery, I used the most consistent battery I had from each manufacturer to be fair in my tests. If I was to average out multiple battery performance from each manufacturer, the results I shared will definitely have a much higher variance and the average score for each battery will be lower. 3 - Sudden change of voltage in some of the batteries was also unexpected for me. However, I did notice this behavior on multiple batteries from different manufacturers. The one explanation I have for this is due to their chemistry, alkaline batteries sometimes fail to deliver constant current over a long period especially when that load current is high (i.e., 100 mA or higher) Had I chosen a lower discharge current than 150 mA, I would expect such fluctuations to occur less frequently or disappear altogether. (Please note I am not an expert in battery chemistry and therefore I am unable to comment on how that constant current delivery changes with the chemistry and the production quality of a battery. I would love to learn more from someone with more knowledge/experience on this than myself) 4 - Arduino does not qualify as a calibrated multimeter at all. However, based on my observations, its sampling rate and voltage measurement consistency are sufficiently good to perform a quick verification like I have done. I did experiment with multiple measurements using my Arduino set up to ensure consistency across the board before creating this video content though. With 12-bit quantization, I was able to capture voltage variations as low as 1.2 mV, which is more than enough to capture the fine variations in voltage during each discharge cycle. Also, from a time resolution perspective, sampling at a 1 Hz rate was more than enough in my application. Therefore, sampling timing errors in Arduino ADC was not a major source of error in my tests. I definitely agree measurement accuracy can be improved further by using a more elaborate measurement set up. While that is technically possible (and probably is the right approach from a scientific perspective), I would argue it will not be accessible by most of my audience. As I mentioned in my brief disclaimer, I want my content to be inspiring and encouraging enough for the viewers to experiment for themselves. I want people to see they can also create such simple measurement set ups to get insights into say how an AA battery performs. Arduino is a great platform that allows people to experiment and create that's why I love it and use it extensively. I think the Arduino ecosystem has truly revolutionized the embedded electronics space and created an inclusive environment where many people are able to share ideas and creations than they would otherwise. In other words, in terms of vision, there is a lot of commonality with what Arduino has achieved and what my channel is trying to achieve 🙂 I hope the above provides a bit more insight into the "how" and the "why" aspects of my content. I must admit while creating this content I learned a lot about AA batteries beyond an average user scope. Battery testing is such a complicated and detailed process to the extent that it is a mix of art and science and as with most things the devil is in the detail for sure! There is certainly much more to learn and much more to test and try. My hope is this video content was useful to others in some shape or form to raise their curiosity, to question and more importantly to try and experiment themselves. Thank you once again for your amazing contribution and the insights you have shared. 🙏🙏🙏Please keep them coming! By the way, I also started my Live sessions on TikTok (since my channel's TH-cam standing is not eligible yet for Live broadcasts) If you are interested, please check out my channel at www.tiktok.com/@circuitappschannel also. I try to run my Live sessions every Wednesday around 21:00 Pacific time. Take care & best regards...
@@circuitapps Wow, this is by far the longest reply I ever got :D Thanks for the detailed answers. I see you did the tests more thoroughly than it seemed from the video, perhaps just mentioning your extra work behind the test, could be liked by the viewers. I also appreciate your intentions behind your decisions, and that you try to educate and entertain. I wish you good luck and lots of viewers :)
Could you also make a ranking for the longest lasting battery independent of cost?
Great question. I already have that data and I am sharing it below. I measured the battery life for each battery as the duration (in terms of hours) output voltage remained above 1 volt while discharging across the 10 Ohm resistor.
Following are the results for that ranking. I hope you will find this to be useful 😉:
BATTERY BRAND HOURS ABOVE 1V
Amazon-Basics 19.2
Duracell 19
Energizer 18.4
Alkalicell 17.5
Rayovac 17
Maxell 16.4
Voniko 16.3
SignatureSelect 16
Coast 15.9
Fujitsu 15.8
Fuji 9.2
Panasonic 4.5
Eveready 4.3
In the next video I want see see what battery is the best with 100 different brands of batteries
Setting a rather high bar there. Good inspirational content proposal though.
Good that you created this test, however I have several thoughts about it:
- Some batteries react differently to different loads. So testing with only 1 value for all batteries is not valid for all kinds of applications. Like using it for a TV remote or a flashlight.
- Such tests are more valid when tested more than one battery from the same brand. There are some differences in manufacturing, so you can hit a faulty one.
- I am a bit suspicious regarding that sudden change of voltage on some of those graphs I have seen. I do not think a battery can produce such... faulty measurement?
- I am also not super convinced how an arduino nano qualifies as a proper calibrated multimeter. Can you trust its measurements?
I think the basic idea is good but this test could have such improvements.
Thank you so much for this excellent comment filled with great points. I did read it a few times and will do my best to clarify a few things and contribute to this very informative thread for the benefit of others as well.
Before getting into the technical piece, I would like to share a brief disclaimer. One of the key reasons why I kicked off this entirely self-funded channel is to share my passion for electronics and the art of "making" with other like minded people while demonstrating how accessible many concepts, tools and methods are in the field. I want to inspire people to start "making", experimenting and creating things themselves. Therefore, for each content I create, I prioritize simplicity and clarity over anything else. Of course, this approach does bring trade offs with it, which I recognize. So please bear this in mind while reading my comments and watching my content on my channel 🙂
After this brief disclaimer, let me try to chime in to the great observations and information you have shared in your 4 bullets. This will also give me the opportunity to get into some of the background work that is not reflected in the video content.
1 - You have mentioned about the shortfall of testing with a single value load (i.e., 10 ohms in my case) This is absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, while experimenting with the concept, I did try different load values (2 Ohms upwards). I did notice each battery reacts very differently to the current drawn from it. Each battery also heats up excessively due to the low internal resistance when high currents are drawn from it. So I settled for a load value that does not cause excessive heat up of the batteries and draws a current level that is not too demanding but is realistic for most applications AA batteries may be used for. That value for me was ~150mA. As you have stated, there is plenty of room for improvement here by repeating each test for different load values (of course, performing such extensive test also has time implications). As a matter of fact, alkaline AA batteries work at their best when current draw is not very high. For high current draws, I would prefer using rechargeable batteries for sure. (Maybe I will create a new content to cover that interesting space a well and we can continue this discussion there too.)
2 - You have also correctly mentioned testing multiple batteries from the same manufacturer is a better approach. I totally agree! As a matter of fact, during my tests I did notice significant discharge profile variations across different batteries from the same manufacturer. After seeing the variance in the results, I decided to cover the "consistency" aspect as a separate content besides the one I have published. I selected the batteries from each manufacturer based on the consistency of their discharge profile. Since I did this for each battery, I used the most consistent battery I had from each manufacturer to be fair in my tests. If I was to average out multiple battery performance from each manufacturer, the results I shared will definitely have a much higher variance and the average score for each battery will be lower.
3 - Sudden change of voltage in some of the batteries was also unexpected for me. However, I did notice this behavior on multiple batteries from different manufacturers. The one explanation I have for this is due to their chemistry, alkaline batteries sometimes fail to deliver constant current over a long period especially when that load current is high (i.e., 100 mA or higher) Had I chosen a lower discharge current than 150 mA, I would expect such fluctuations to occur less frequently or disappear altogether. (Please note I am not an expert in battery chemistry and therefore I am unable to comment on how that constant current delivery changes with the chemistry and the production quality of a battery. I would love to learn more from someone with more knowledge/experience on this than myself)
4 - Arduino does not qualify as a calibrated multimeter at all. However, based on my observations, its sampling rate and voltage measurement consistency are sufficiently good to perform a quick verification like I have done. I did experiment with multiple measurements using my Arduino set up to ensure consistency across the board before creating this video content though. With 12-bit quantization, I was able to capture voltage variations as low as 1.2 mV, which is more than enough to capture the fine variations in voltage during each discharge cycle. Also, from a time resolution perspective, sampling at a 1 Hz rate was more than enough in my application. Therefore, sampling timing errors in Arduino ADC was not a major source of error in my tests. I definitely agree measurement accuracy can be improved further by using a more elaborate measurement set up. While that is technically possible (and probably is the right approach from a scientific perspective), I would argue it will not be accessible by most of my audience. As I mentioned in my brief disclaimer, I want my content to be inspiring and encouraging enough for the viewers to experiment for themselves. I want people to see they can also create such simple measurement set ups to get insights into say how an AA battery performs. Arduino is a great platform that allows people to experiment and create that's why I love it and use it extensively. I think the Arduino ecosystem has truly revolutionized the embedded electronics space and created an inclusive environment where many people are able to share ideas and creations than they would otherwise. In other words, in terms of vision, there is a lot of commonality with what Arduino has achieved and what my channel is trying to achieve 🙂
I hope the above provides a bit more insight into the "how" and the "why" aspects of my content. I must admit while creating this content I learned a lot about AA batteries beyond an average user scope. Battery testing is such a complicated and detailed process to the extent that it is a mix of art and science and as with most things the devil is in the detail for sure! There is certainly much more to learn and much more to test and try. My hope is this video content was useful to others in some shape or form to raise their curiosity, to question and more importantly to try and experiment themselves.
Thank you once again for your amazing contribution and the insights you have shared. 🙏🙏🙏Please keep them coming!
By the way, I also started my Live sessions on TikTok (since my channel's TH-cam standing is not eligible yet for Live broadcasts) If you are interested, please check out my channel at www.tiktok.com/@circuitappschannel also. I try to run my Live sessions every Wednesday around 21:00 Pacific time.
Take care & best regards...
@@circuitapps Wow, this is by far the longest reply I ever got :D
Thanks for the detailed answers.
I see you did the tests more thoroughly than it seemed from the video, perhaps just mentioning your extra work behind the test, could be liked by the viewers.
I also appreciate your intentions behind your decisions, and that you try to educate and entertain. I wish you good luck and lots of viewers :)
BONUS TIP: You can apply the same methodology in this video to evaluate alkaline AAA batteries as well as rechargeable AA and AAA batteries.
1. Duracell
2. Energizer
3. Panasonic
4. Sony
5. Samsung
6. LG Chem
7. Toshiba
8. Sanyo
9. Varta
10. Yuasa
11. Exide
12. Bosch
13. Optima
14. Trojan
15. NorthStar
16. Odyssey
17. Hawker
18. Saft
19. Enersys
20. Fullriver
21. Leoch
22. CSB Battery
23. East Penn (Deka/MK)
24. Universal Power Group
25. Antigravity Batteries
26. Shorai
27. Scorpion Battery
28. Tenergy
29. Rolls Surrette Battery
30. SigmasTek
31. Camelion
32. Ansmann
33. BYD
34. Blue-Sea
35. Ctek
36. Cyclon
37. Delta-Q
38. Deta
39. Dhc
40. Duracell-Procell
41. Durite
42. Ecoflow
43. Effeckta
44. Exegon
45. Fiamm
46. Fox-Ess
47. Fronius
48. Genesis
49. GNB
50. Growatt
51. Huawei
52. Hoppecke
53. Marathon
54. Mastervolt
55. MK-Powered
56. Noco
57. Pylontech
58. Powerline
59. Powersonic
60. Q-Batteries
61. SMA
62. Sonnenschein
63. S-P-E
64. Sunrow
65. Tadiran
66. Topband
67. Ultralife
68. Vision
69. VT-Power
70. X-Pro
71. CATL
72. Lishen
73. CALB
74. EVE Energy
75. Sunwoda
76. Ganfeng Lithium
77. SK Innovation
78. A123 Systems
79. Microvast
80. Farasis Energy
81. Romeo Power
82. Solid Power
83. QuantumScape
84. SES AI
85. Enovix
86. Sila Nanotechnologies
87. Amprius Technologies
88. StoreDot
89. ProLogium
90. Northvolt
91. Freyr Battery
92. Britishvolt
93. Verkor
94. ACC (Automotive Cells Company)
95. InoBat Auto
96. Ilika
97. OXIS Energy
98. Nexeon
99. Echion Technologies
100. NAWA Technologies
Nice chatgpt list! I'll see what I can do for you 😄