Manufacturers are fobbing us off with dreadful rechargeable batteries

It's all very well being green, but who wants to power their cameras and remote controls with second-rate batteries? Environmentalists have been telling us for years to replace disposable batteries with rechargeable ones. It's a pity, then, that so many of those for sale don't provide anywhere near as much juice as throw-away alkaline ones. Even worse, they quickly lose their power when left unused.

There are, however, some good rechargeable batteries on sale - if you can find them. The most important thing is to buy ones that come pre-charged. Manufacturers only pre-charge if they believe the batteries will keep the charge between manufacturing and purchase.

It's a good idea to buy batteries with a high "milliampere hour" (mAh) rating, as they will store more power than lower-end ones. Many are only sold as 1600mAh, whereas Uniross has them at 2100mAh and Ansman has them as high as 2850mAh. Accordingly, the Ansmans are widely used by professional photographers to power flash units, which can quickly drain downmarket batteries.

So there are some excellent rechargeable batteries, but many manufacturers need to clean up their acts. The poor ones are bought once and then turn people off the idea of rechargeable batteries for life. Manufacturers and retailers which sell them ought to be ashamed.

Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/