Wednesday 7 September 2011

Value Pack - alkaline, ultralast


I'd give these a zero rating if I could. I thought they would be a good value, but they only have about 25% (or less) the power of a good name brand battery. I tried these in my pager and they only last about a week vs. 4-6 weeks for a good battery. I used them in a label maker and I could only print 4 labels before they died. I'm half way done with a 100 pack and they all have the same short life. NABC UltraLast ULA100AAB AA Size General Purpose Battery - Alkaline - 1.5V DC General Purpose Battery-100 count

I bought 100 of these batteries a year ago. They have been fine for radios, remote controls and other undemanding gadgets. I don't know if it's the humidity or the nature of the batteries, but some have now started to leak. I've thrown away about 20 and have the same number left.

If these batteries suit your purposes, I would suggest buying a smaller pack and using them quickly, rather than hoarding a large number as I did.

For the money you can't beat it. With four kids I go through batteries by the case and have often had issues with generic brands. These batteries were better than other generics I have tried at a discount to the name brands. Recommended.

Bought some of these at Micro Center. Absolute worst batteries I've ever purchased. More than half were dead out of the box. Not even good for remotes. Had to cycle through batteries in search of two good ones just to get a channel change. In no way is the price worth the stress or the number of batteries that actually worked. Winning combinations usually lasted a week anyway. An 8 pack of Duracell would beat these. Awful experience.

After reading all the reviews on these batteries and seeing that they were pretty hit and miss, I decided to follow in the footsteps of another reviewer and do some testing. I ordered a 100 pack of AA Ultralast alkaline batteries and found the best deal I could find on some name brand batteries. I ended up finding a 36 pack of Energizer AAs at Home Depot for $14 which made them 42 cents each after tax. These Ultralasts came in a 23 cents each after free shipping and no tax. I pulled out my trusty multimeter once they arrived and went to town. I tested 10 of the Energizers (28% of the package quantity) and they all metered at 1.61 volts right out of the package. The Ultralasts are packaged as 10 shrink wrapped packs of 10. So, I poked the sharp ends of the multimeter probes thru the plastic shrink wrap to test 4 out of each pack of 10 (40% of the total package quantity). I did this so that if they tested out low, I could return them with less likelyhood of any issues of acceptance. So, of the 40 batteries that I tested, most of them metered at 1.62 volts with a handful metering at 1.63 volts; better than the Energizers! I have no way of testing milliamp hours (mAh) so have no way to determine if the overall capacity is equal but from the reading up I did on alkaline batteries, the concensus seems to be that the TYPE of battery is going to have pretty much the same capacity regardless of manufacturer. (I Googled "all alkaline batteries the same" and read some of the various resulting articles/blogs/etc) Obviously an alkaline battery is going to have more capacity than a carbon battery and a lithium ion battery will have more than an alkaline but there are only so many mAh that any manufacturer can cram into a single AA battery. It sounds like some buyers may have gotten a bad batch but I think they're worth ordering. Test a few and if you get a bad batch, return them.

There should be some kind of law against selling items this poor in quality. Shame on Amazon for peddling these batteries.



These

1) Leak - and damage to the electronics far exceed the cost of these batteries.

2) Have short life

3) High self discharge - so they are no good after a year on the shelf.



I hope FTC or some other body takes a good look at this "stuff" and penalizes both the seller and the manufacturer.

I bought these thinking they are the same as the Sam's/Walmart store brand bulk pack. They are not. About half the batteries are bad out of the pack.



They foreshadow their lack of quality control with an insert that says if any of these batteries are bad, please send them to ____ for a replacement. I really do not want to send a 20¢ (or any number of them) back for a replacement. I just want the battery to work.



BTW, I have not check the expected life. As I am only putting them in electronics that get infrequent use (kid's pencil sharpener) or have minimal power demands (remote controls).

Based off my purchase, I believe there is a serious issue regarding quality with this product. Some batteries simply didn't work at all and others had very little energy. I regret the purchase and do not plan on buying from again. - Alkaline - Ultralast - Aa Batteries - Cheap'


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Value Pack - alkaline, ultralast alkaline Value Pack - alkaline, ultralast