A brief overview of all the different types of
AA and AAA batteries today: Alkaline, Rechargeable Alkaline, NiZN, NiMH, NiCD, and lithium batteries (rechargeable and non-rechargeable) that are available in today's market.
AA and AAA batteries are probably the most common battery sizes for consumers today. The challenge is there are so many different kinds of AA and AAA batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, lithium batteries, lithium ion batteries,
alkaline batteries, each of them have their strengths and weaknesses for use in today's modern electronic equipment.
What we will try to do it here is to explain the pros and cons of each different battery type and explain what the recommended ideal battery type for different applications might be so that you can make an informed decision about which batteries to use for all of your tools and toys.
First a bit of detail about each battery type and then a AA Battery Comparison Table to compare them to each other in an overview.
1. alkaline AA and AAA batteries - if you don't use a lot of batteries and the devices that you do have are not gobbling up your alkalines - you can still use them, you can't beat em for convenience and initial cost. However, if you use lots of them like many people do you are wasting money and you need to consider using rechargeable batteries.
2. rechargeable alkaline AA and AAA batteries - if you have devices that perform better with the 1.5 volts of an alkaline and are not high drain (high drain devices deplete alkaline batteries very quickly) then this battery chemistry will work well for you. You can also get them with chargers that can also charge NiMH batteries, so that is pretty convenient.
3. lithium AA and AAA batteries - if you need batteries that last for years or are fantastic in extreme temperatures, this is the ticket. Yeah, I know - they are not rechargeable but there are some applications that these are really the best batteries for the job. They do last several times longer than alkalines, up to seven so the ads go....!
