AA lithiums have a *very* long shelf life – well over 10 years.

I’ve found they will not leak like ALL the brand name alkaline batteries I’ve tried recently (most generics are also made by brand name firms)

Be sure to recycle your alkaline and rechargeable batteries when they no longer work. You may have to find a hazardous waste disposal facility in your county. Earth911.org has a search form to find a local facility.

I’ve only had to replace those sets once in the last 4 years. I’d say that’s a good investment.

I would like to point out that rechargables, even high quality ones have a shorter life than regular batteries so for things that are really important, like your thermostat or your alarm clock backup it’s to your benefit to use regular batteries. In fact there is a disclaimer molded into the plastic on the inside of our new thermostat that mentions this. Just thought I’d pass it along.

Yes, they eventually keep charge for shorter periods, but this is a VERY gradual process. It hasn’t yet gotten to the point of annoyance where I need to toss any of them yet.

One thing though. They don’t keep a charge well when NOT being used. Maybe that’s the prob for a lot of people? I usually don’t keep any charged and waiting. I got myself a 2 hour charger, so I’m never really in desperate need where I can’t, either wait two hours for a full charge or swap out from another device.

My advice? Keep the rechargables for the stuff you use a lot and that use a lot of juice. For flashlights, clocks, and other low-energy or rarely used items, keep one 8-pack of AA’s from the dollar store in the house.

One beauty of NOT having rechargeable batteries –when a child’s noisy and irritating toy finally dies, you can say, “Oh, I’m sorry, we’re out of batteries!”

Several years ago, I used rechargeables with my sons’ educational toys, (Speak & Math, Speak & Spell, Touch & Tell.) After instruction on the plus and minus directionality of battery loading, we let them put the spent batteries in the recharger. After many successful months, Whoops! We had an accident, that could have been worse. The charger required all the slots to be filled or it wouldn’t work. The kids had misplaced a battery, and substituted an alkaline battery. It exploded (without noise) and ruined part of the paneling in the kitchen, on the wall behind the charger. We were just glad that no one was hurt, and our house did not catch on fire.

So, that’s my cautionary tale — if you let school aged children put batteries in the charger, tell them that non-rechargeable batteries will explode, and could be very dangerous to all. (Little boys and big boys do like to see things explode!)

This reminds me of an anecdote. Years ago, it was the tradition to throw uncooked rice at a wedding, not bird seed. Eventually, someone must have discovered bad things happened to birds who ate uncooked rice. I heard that “they’ll swell up and explode.” A young man commented with enthusiasm, “I’d pay money to see that!” I still chuckle about that every time I throw bird seed at a wedding. (Apologies to the bird lovers.)

Rechargeable NiMH batteries start at 1.2V when fully charged, and retain that same voltage until it suddenly drops off when they’re just about used up.

Many alkaline batteries start at 1.5V, but long before they’re used up, come down to 1V relatively quickly under high drain (but are OK under low drain). But rechargeables keep constant even under high drain. This means that the rechargeables allow your camera to work for longer, even if their total capacity is lower.

The detail on this may be a little off, but this is my understanding.

This site has some good illustrative graphs: http://www.dcordes.freeuk.com/cells.htm

Wii Fit arrived yesterday; that’s another four batteries.