A couple of weeks ago I read on the German OGO-page that a German company
produces recharchables which delivers more then 1.5 volts per cel.
They are called ACCUCEL and are Alkali-Mangan cells. Because they were only
deliverable by mail order I decided to wait a while until they were available
at a local store.
Yesterday I found them and at first glance they looked excellent:
a. 2 fully charched cells show 3.17 volt on the OGO setup.
b. when tho OGO has to wake up for an alarm it does so promply (with an SRAM
card installed) with NiCad's it starts really slowly.
c. The cells keep their charge for months (they say).
d. They come pre-loaded (so c must be true). Out of six cells only one was a
little bit down.
e. They need a special charger (puls-charger, automatic shut-off)
f. No memory effect (as if NiCads suffer from it)
g. Gradual drop in voltage (your battery meter is useful again)
h. 1000 mah per cell (that's almost as much as MeHi witch rates typically at
1200 mah.
i. Hundreds of recharges possible (they say)
DOWNSIDE, only deliverable in Europe??
QUESTION: what is the capacity of a Duracell Alkaline penlite? THEY don't
mention it.
I live in the Netherlands (nextdoor to Germany) so I don't know about exports.
I will contact my distributor to find if they can contact a USA distributor.
Pricing: cells 4$, charger 30$.
Enjoy your summer, I don't.
Gert-Jan Maas
Haarlem, the Netherlands
Maas_GertJ@MSN.COM