Now that you've unwrapped your presents (or your kids presents) and you've got a handful of new devices that require batteries it's time to ask the question 'Should I get recharchable batteries?'. The answer is yes, but make sure you get the right kind (skip to the last section if this sort of thing makes your head spin).

A History of Recharchable Batteries

When I was a kid we had NiCad batteries, they didn't hold their charges all that long and even when fully charged, they didn't have as much power as the standard alkalines. In the mid-ninties with the advent of NiMH recharchables they fell out of favor. The NiMH batteries contained as much power as alkalines, but they would loose their charges completely after a few weeks. These were great for high drain devices such as cameras and CD players but were poor choices for low drain items such as clocks or remotes or anything where you'd typically not have to change the batteries after two weeks.

And Then Out of Nowhere

Only a few years ago the folks at Sanyo came out with a 'low self-discharge NiMH battery' under the brand Enloop. They have good capacity and can hold their charges for a couple of years.  I've been using them for a couple of years and I've been very pleased. For a while Enloops were the batteries in this class. Now there are similar offerings from Duracell and Rayovac.

Bottom Line

If you're buying batteries, look for recharchables branded as 'Pre-Charged' or 'Low Self-Discharge' and you'll be set. They will work with any NiMH charger you may already have. You can pick them up form Amazon and I've found them at Costco over the last month. Costco seems to only stock them around Christmas time but that may be different for you. They usually run about $2 - $2.50 per battery. They are only found in AA or AAA form factor at this point. You can buy some adapters where you essentuially just put a a AA battery inside of a case for a C or D battery.