Apple's Battery Charger Sets New Standby Usage Benchmark

[Eddyisgreat]

costco has apparently a new breed of eneloops on sale $25 for 8 AA, 4 AAA and charger. Not as sweet as the last deal though. $20 bucks for the charger, 12 cells and plastic C/D adapters lol. I sold the chargers, now i'm up to my eyeballs in eneloops!

Courtesy of Slickdeals.

 

[JAT]

A good battery/charger resource is Thomas Distributing

A good place to buy larger quantities of batteries is BearWobble. I recently bought about 100 AA and C hybrid batteries from them. (The eneloop batteries are "hybrid" batteries - the kind that don't self-discharge.)

Do you have any longer-term experience with bearwobble? The last place I used like this turned out to have crap product.

 

[Eidorian]

costco has apparently a new breed of eneloops on sale $25 for 8 AA, 4 AAA and charger. Not as sweet as the last deal though. $20 bucks for the charger, 12 cells and plastic C/D adapters lol. I sold the chargers, now i'm up to my eyeballs in eneloops!

Courtesy of Slickdeals.

It might be time to renew the membership.

 

[JAT]

Don't need it for the online items.

Although....doesn't look like much of a deal online.

 

[Jackal-Head]

So far my 4 year old RadioShack battery charger has done a great job. In the past five months is gets a lot of use recharging my Magic Mouse batteries every 3 weeks

MM runtime I get from regular (high self-discharge) NiMH (2x), several hours of use a day: 4 weeks
MM runtime I get from Eneloop: 8 weeks (equal to alkaline)

They are thaaat good.

the 18650 is essentially the size of the AA.

higher density and capacity though

Wrong! 18650 has more than twice the volume of an AA (which corresponds to 14500). Math is your friend.

I actually have an eneloop charger, but it's still annoying to have to pop in a fourth battery every time I want to charge the three the keyboard uses since it only charges in pairs.

Well you should have bought a quick charger… not only does 2xAA in 4h beat 4xAA in 16h but they're also smart and you can charge single batteries in about 1/2 the time it takes to charge two. The USB charger seems a bit shoddy though, mine won't charge AAA batteries in one of the two slots any more.

when I bought an iMac with BT mouse I also bought a fast wallcharger and 4 3200mAh batteries

IOW you have been duped. With Agfa 1000mAh AAAs e.g. I get twice the runtime on a Fenix LD01 flashlight than with cheap "Maxcell" AAAs that are supposed to be 1200mAh.

 

[Mike225]

.3 Watts x 24 Hours x 365 days = 2,628 Watt hours = 2.6 kW Hours = ~$0.50/year

Bravo, Apple. You're amazing as usual! Especially considering only ~4-6 hours a day may be considered 'environmentally unfriendly'. The rest is being produced with the base power plants anyways... How about you turn your AC units off for a day at your campus and make up for about 5 years of this product instead. or install some Ice Bear units on your campus.

 

[AidenShaw]

Do you have any longer-term experience with bearwobble? The last place I used like this turned out to have crap product.

I purchased a large number of AccuPower/AccuEvolution cells from BearWobble - the same AccuPower cells sold elsewhere - but at a good price.

$2 each for AA hybrids, $5.75 each for C hybrids. Came in blister packs (the pack of 20 AA batteries shipped as five blister packs of four cells).

.3 Watts x 24 Hours x 365 days = 2,628 Watt hours = 2.6 kW Hours = ~$0.50/year

In Cupertino, the top rate for electric use is about $.50/kWh, or about $1.50. (There are lower rates for low use customers.)

 

[Mike225]

I purchased a large number of AccuPower/AccuEvolution cells from BearWobble - the same AccuPower cells sold elsewhere - but at a good price.

$2 each for AA hybrids, $5.75 each for C hybrids. Came in blister packs (the pack of 20 AA batteries shipped as five blister packs of four cells).




In Cupertino, the top rate for electric use is about $.50/kWh, or about $1.50. (There are lower rates for low use customers.)

Even more reason to install a Thermal Energy Storage device and get on a TOU rate plan. Considering they sell these devices to America etc. I dont see your point on Cupertino's energy rates.

 

[AidenShaw]

I dont see your point on Cupertino's energy rates.

Simply that your arithmetic was off by a factor of three.

 

[Mike225]

Simply that your arithmetic was off by a factor of three.

In 1 area on 1 (high rate) energy use plan... And even at that its a difference of $1 a year.

 

[NT1440]

.3 Watts x 24 Hours x 365 days = 2,628 Watt hours = 2.6 kW Hours = ~$0.50/year

Bravo, Apple. You're amazing as usual! Especially considering only ~4-6 hours a day may be considered 'environmentally unfriendly'. The rest is being produced with the base power plants anyways... How about you turn your AC units off for a day at your campus and make up for about 5 years of this product instead. or install some Ice Bear units on your campus.

And if they sell millions of them then they are helping in that small way. No battery charger is going to save you hundreds a year or something like that.

Also, do you personally know how Apple's campus is powered? How do you know they don't shop around for green suppliers, I know a good amount of large companies at least supplement their energy needs in such a way.

 

[AidenShaw]

Also, do you personally know how Apple's campus is powered?

Pacific Gas & Electric.

How do you know they don't shop around for green suppliers, I know a good amount of large companies at least supplement their energy needs in such a way.

Yes, go to Google Earth (or any other satellite mapping service) and enter the coordinates 37.331704 -122.029893 and look at the Apple campus.

Then, enter 37.422199 -122.083990 and look at the 1.6 Mega Watt solar array on Google's nearby campus.

Jpeg for those who are satellite-image impaired: (click to enlarge)

Apple's marketing shouts "GREEN!", but their corporate actions do not. (A friend who works at Google got a $5000 credit for buying a Prius hybrid.)

(Disclaimer: We're about to light an 8.6 kW solar array on our home that's roughly equidistant to both the Google and Apple campuses - it should completely offset all of our electrical usage)

 

[YesILoveTech]

Apple could make their wireless devices more efficient.

Some Logitech mice can run on a single battery for more than 6 months - abeit, they do use USB rather than BT.

Actually Logitech has a wireless mouse that lasts for 15 months. I have one as a matter of fact and it is a extremely precise laser mouse at that, and ergonomic to boot.

But let these fanboys bust loads all in their knickers. They deserve it.

 

[tivoboy]

Wrong! 18650 has more than twice the volume of an AA (which corresponds to 14500). Math is your friend.

reading is your friend. there are about half a dozen posts in between that and this which reference the point, good follow on though.

 

[monsieurpaul]

Will the "standby power usage" feature allows me to keep the charger and a set of batteries plugged in the wall and forget them until I need them?

 

[bilbo--baggins]

I've been using these Uniross Hybrio batteries for the past couple of years:

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/hybrio-aa-rechargeable-battery.asp

with this charger

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-BL700.asp

I've been really happy with them. Before that I was buying the Energizer Ultimate Lithium which are fairly expensive. I'm not sure how long I get between charges, probably 6-8 weeks in the Magic Mouse (I had to give up wireless keyboards since Apple chopped off the numeric keypad...).

I've actually got dozens of these batteries as I've got 2 young children and so I use them in all of their toys.

It's a shame Apple hasn't published any specifications, as I'd be interested to see how they compare. Also seems odd that Apple doesn't offer the batteries separately.

I might be tempted to buy the Apple set just to compare, out of curiosity. I think my Technoline charger actually has modes for testing battery capacity so that would be interesting to try.

 

[NewtonsApple]

Really not a bad bargain..

I just picked one up along with the Magic Trackpad, which I LOVE, btw... It was there, alongside the trackpad and the Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboards at the Apple store. It really makes a fine companion product. It comes with six batteries. It is very compact, sleek, and a good value. I will probably never have to buy AA batteries again. 2 will be for my trackpad, 1 for my toothbrush, and alternate the other 2 between my bike light and beard trimmer.
Nobody is being forced to purchase this charger. If you can afford it, want it, then get it. If not, don't and get some other make. The trackpad is really great. I don't know how long the batteries will last per charge, but when I do I will report back. The batteries are made in Japan, also. The charger in China, but designed in california by Apple, not some other fly by night outfit. lol. If you do get it, I think you will be happy you did. Cheers!