Tenergy Centura AAA NIMH Rechargeable Battery, 800mAh Low Self-Discharge Triple A Battery, 24 Pack

Purchased a few of these for use on low drain devices around the house, mainly TV remotes and other small devices. These will provide power for about 6 to 8 weeks depending on use. They charge right up in my old battery charger by another brand. So far I have had them over a year and not one of them has gone dead.

Let's be honest -- I bought these because of the price. Though it is not mentioned on the description, these are rated 800 mAh. After checking all the (low self discharge -- look it up) rechargeable batteries available both on Amazon and elsewhere, I bought these instead of the many others rated for 900 or 1000 mAh, because the price difference is just insane -- most of them are over $4 per battery, and some are as much as $6 a battery, once you factor in the shipping. At $19 for 12 batteries shipped, I reasoned that these will end up a better deal in the end one way or the other, because let's face it -- most people lose the rechargeable batteries before they get the full 1000 or so cycles out of them anyway. I decided for the 12 pack because then I can spread out the shipping over more batteries, and with this many of them, I can replace all the AAA batteries in my house, from various remote controls, with rechargeables eventually. The first thing I did when I got these was to put them through the "refresh" cycle on my LaCross charger. The thing is not cheap but in my opinion well worth it. After the refresh cycle, I fully discharged and then charged them, and to my enormous surprise, each of them held a charge well over the 800mAh rating that was printed on the packaging, ranging from 915 to 1060 mAh in the 8 that I have charged so far. With so many manufacturers being so disingenuous with the true ratings of their merchandise (I own an Evo phone and have bought many batteries that failed to live up to their supposed ratings), it really just makes my day when I find that something actually not only worked as well but in fct BETTER than advertised, and at a fraction of the price that many other manufacturers set their merchandise at. Perhaps the one drawback is that the capacities of the individual batteries seems a little inconsistent -- as I mentioned, ranging from the low 900's to the mid 1000's. However, considering how cheap these are and the fact that even at the low end of the range, it's much higher than the advertised capacity, I feel it would be really silly to hold that against them. If the consistency makes a huge difference to you, you can always manually label the batteries by the ratings they actually exhibit using a magic marker or something. I don't think it's worth the effort to the vast majority of people -- all that it really matters is that these work really great, and are way cheaper than most.

In spite of Centura's advertised similarity to Eneloop, Centura has a significantly higher self-discharge rate. I'd rate these batteries at about 4.3 stars (Price...5 stars, Capacity...5, Self discharge rate...3.) If they didn't advertise these batteries as retaining 90% capacity at 6 months and 85% at 1 year, I'd have given them 5 stars since they are a good value in an LSD. However, since they have a higher discharge rate than advertised (I'd say no better than average for a LSD), can't do it. I've pretty much replaced all alkaline batteries with NiMH LSD. Most devices use AAs...cameras, flashlights, GPS, wireless devices etc. and they're loaded with the older Rayovac Hybrids and Eneloops. Have a couple which use AAA and they have Hybrids. When I saw the $5 price of 4 Tenergy Centura AAAs and the advertised comparison to Eneloop (generally considered the best LSD available), I couldn't resist a purchase to test and keep them as a backup. As were previous reviewers, I also was impressed with initial capacity which was well above the 800 mAh rating. After a couple of discharge/recharge cycles on a LaCrosse BC-9009 at a 100 mA discharge rate, they yielded a capacity of 916, 880, 879, and 870 mAh. Pretty impressive for AAA rechargeables. I initially intended to test capacity at 6 months and 1 year to determine discharge rate. However, after reading NLee's test at 92 days, decided to test a couple myself which now are at 110 days and have been stored in the basement at 60 to 65 degrees. The results: 916 mAh now down to 727 mAh...79% of initial capacity. 880 mAh down to 731...83% of initial capacity. Average the two and you have 81%...in line with NLee's results and already below the advertised 85% at 1 year. However, there is another way to look at this. These batteries are rated at 800 mAh so if you consider the percent of rated capacity, they now average 91% of it at a bit under 4 months. Although the discharge rate will likely decrease with time, given the past rate of discharge, it's pretty doubtful they'll lose no more than 1% over the next 2 months or maintain 85 percent at a year. To be fair, I'll test one battery at 6 months and the last at 1 year. If there's still 680 mAh (85% of 800 mAh) remaining at 1 year, I'll update this review and change the rating to a 5. Would I recommend these batteries? Absolutely! They are a great value in a LSD! Get some of the major brand 800 mAh LSDs and you will pay twice the price, have less capacity, and see little change in discharge rate. However, if you want a LSD battery with that advertised 85% capacity at one year, it would seem you'll have to spend the extra money and get Eneloop. _______________________________________________________________________________ (Update 1/2/12) Final testing. At six months (184 days) tested both remaining batteries for self-discharge rate. The results...879 mAh battery now 726...82% of initial and 91% of rated 800mAh. 870 mAh now 710...82% of initial and 89% of rated.. Ran all four batteries through 4 charge/discharge cycles to determine capacity loss under use. Including the initial preparation for testing, this represents a total of 7 cycles. Initial capacity/ Current/ percentage drop for the 4 batteries. 916/851/7%, 880/876/under1%, 879/866/1.5%, 870/836/4%. Conclusion:It would appear that after about 3-4 months, discharge rate falls to about 1% per month...so although not quite up to Eneloop, its close to that advertised for the 800 mAh RATED capacity. Two of the batteries (880 & 879) held capacities reasonably well under use but the 870 showed a significant drop and the 916 was unacceptable. Although noteworthy that all capacities are still above rated capacity, I have little confidence that the 916 will stand up under long-term us. I would say I have two 5 star batteries, a 4 star...and a 3 star. My initial 4 star rating still holds. Added note: Early purchasers, myself included, report near 900 mAh initial capacity while a more recent purchaser reports it near 800. This implies that Centura may have changed manufacturers or that they are branding products from two different manufacturers. My testing confirms significant variability in quality within a single lot. Long term durability of Centura remains an unknown. For those concerned about it, I would recommend Eneloop due to their well-established high quality in all aspects...especially considering the recent 40% jump in Amazon's Centura price.

Third set I’ve purchased because they work!

I have a large number of these Tenergy Centura Nimh Low Self Discharge cells in both AA, AAA, and 9V, and they all perform flawlessly - never a bad cell. Yes, the Panasonic/Sony Eneloops have a lower Self Discharge rate, but to me they are not worth the significantly higher price. The Tenergy Centuras perform great, and are less expensive than Energizer, Duracell, and RayOVac Nimh cells that are not even Low Self Discharge. (At least, their product information does not say so if they are.) You can buy cheaper no-namer Chinese cells of uncertain capacity, but I've tried those and the headaches with bad cells (or ones that go bad) that won't take a charge is not worth the headaches.

I had bought 2 sets of these batteries 2 sets for using in (i have other brands like the eneloop and the sanyo ones): a. Exergen non touch kids thermometer b. powering a small handheld LED craftsman torch c. using with my son's Thomas-and-friends train set (runs on tracks) Initially these batteries were great till a year or so- they used to retain charge for months, had great performance and used to sort of quick charge. I was very pleased with their performance for a year and half.. BUT then, they started progressive worsening... after about 1.5 years, i noticed the following: 1. that they took more than 12 hours to charge fully (while they did not get discharged fully with use, and had a little juice left) 2. They could not keep the full charge, hence the full volts delivering was not there- often the train used to stop, the torch used to be very dim even though it had LEDs which use very less power 3. The annoying was the thermometer, where the batteries used to die inside and i always ended up with a dead thermometer when i need it the most!! 4. After a year or so, the plastic started started peeling from the positive metal node.... in short, i would recommend them for people who want to use them only for a year... but in my opinion there are other brands like the Eneloop and the sanyo ones which have better performance and are more value for money as they tend to run for years (i have Eneloop and the sanyo ones running strong even after 4 years with minimal normal degradation)

Fortunately, I have a La Crosse Technology Alpha Power Battery Charger, BC1000 so I am able to see the juice value in these batteries. After a couple of discharge/charge cycles I got readings of between 875 to 915 mAh, well above the 800 mAh listed for these AAA batteries. (Note that with new rechargeables you may need a couple of discharge/recharge cycles before you get stable mAh readings). So in summary (at least for the batch I got): AAA's are on average 900 mAh which is well above the 800 mAh listed for these batteries. This mAh value is similar to the older and less expensive Tenergy High capacity NiMH Rechargeable battery package: 8 AA 2600 mAh + 8 AAA 1000 mAh ; which are listed as 1000 mAh but average about 900 mAh. However that is where the similarity ends. The new Tenergy Centura AAA are still able to hold 80% of their full charge (of 900 mAH) after a month (which if adjusted for 800 mAH listed would mean they hold 90% of the the 800 mAH). This is in marked difference compared to the older Tenergy "Blues" that fall to 80% of their charge within a week of being on the shelve. Since I general replace my batteries in about a month I am unable to test the shelve life of the Centura AAA's over a longer period but given that they are at an adjusted 90% of their full listed mAh at about a month, it would be a stretch to accept the manufacturer claim that they "maintains 85% residual capacity after 1 year of storage". Overall though, despite the shelve life discrepancy, I still find the Tenergy Centura AAA to be a decent rechargeable battery especially given the great price/value ratio.

I don't have much confidence in Tenergy products in general. But the Tenergy Centura AAA Low Self-Discharge (LSD) NiMH Rechargeable Batteries are presently available at ~50% the cost of Sanyo Eneloop AAA . So I took a chance and was pleasantly surprised. Here are my test results, using my old La Crosse BC-900 Battery Charger : - Right out of the package, the average remaining charge measured was only 237mAh, or 30% of the rated capacity of '800mAh'. - After the first recharge, the average capacity jumped up to 898mAh! - After another two discharge/recharge cycles, the average peaked at 900mAh. The spread is quite small, with minimum=880mAh and maximum=922mAh. In comparison, Sanyo eneloop AAA typically arrives with ~75% of rated capacity, and the average capacity after 2 cycles is 830-840mAh. So the Tenergy Centura, while marketed as an eneloop clone, actually delivered ~7% higher capacity than eneloop. The measured capacity of Tenergy Centura is higher than all other LSD AAA cells I have tested - except for PowerEx Imedion AAA . The Imedion AAA is rated for '950mAh', and delivers 975mAh average capacity under the same test conditions. But of course the price for Imedion is much higher. I still have one concern: the performance charts provided by Tenergy claim that the capacity of Centura AAA is within 1% variation from that of eneloop, but why did I measure ~7% higher capacity instead? It is possible that Centura cells have actually improved in capacity, or maybe they are made by two different suppliers, one with higher capacity than the other. In any case, the present low price of Centura makes it an irresistible deal. You got to start picking while the picking is good. [Aside] Make sure you shop around for the best unit-price. As of this writing, the Tenergy Centura 12xAAA package is actually more expensive than three 4-pack, after you factor in shipping cost. [Update on Oct 9, 2011] Long term self-discharge data: After 92 days in storage, a pair of Tenergy Centura AAA cells retained 83.3% of the original charge. This proves that they are indeed LSD type, although the charge retention rate is slightly worse than advertised ("85% after 12 months"). [Update on Dec 5, 2011] Tested a second pair of Centura AAA cells after 5 months. The average remaining charge is 739mAh, or 81.2% of original measured capacity of 910mAh. Another way of look at it: those cells have retained 92% of rated capacity of 800mAh. This is probably where the marketing claim of "85% after 12 months" came from.