wii battery life / rechargeable battery questions

[brc64]

It looks like I'm going to need to buy a battery charger and some rechargeable AAs before long. I've had my console for less than 3 weeks and already I'm in the red with the included batteries.

This is one of the main reasons I'm opposed to wireless technology. I mean, at least with the Xbox 360 and PS3, you have the option of playing wired if you want. And both of those systems have official rechargeable batteries available. But anyways...

Is there anything in particular to look for when looking into rechargeable batteries? Is there a particularly brand that outperforms others? What about chargers... should I spend the extra $10 and get the "15 minute" chargers, or are those not all they're cracked up to be?

[Someotherdude]

Costco has a set of Duracell 2400 mAh (look for at least 2000 mAh {milliamp hours - basically how much charge it holds} ) NiMH + charger. For $29.95, you get 6 AA, 2 AAA, and a 15 minute charger. It's a decent deal. This should work great for the wiimotes.

With 6 AA's, you can have 2 working wiimotes, and keep one set of batteries fully charged all the time.

[sMashPiranha]

Just remember faster charge = more heat and overall shorter lifetime of the battery. Might not matter if you can get batteries for cheap but I always use the slow charge.

[AndY1]

I have 4 AA 2700mAh GP rechargables + 8 hour charger

[chame]

Unlike the li-ion and li-polymer, the only way to know if the niquel based batteries are charged is the temperature, it increases when they are ready. Usually cheap chargers measure the charge with time, they mention 8 hours charge because its the theorical time needed to charge the batteries at about 1/10 capacity of the battery.

If the charger uses 200mah then it will take 10 hours to charge a 2000mah battery , bigger currents will affect battery life.

Anyway who cares, batteries are so cheap...

[MyTMouse]

Originally Posted by brc64

It looks like I'm going to need to buy a battery charger and some rechargeable AAs before long. I've had my console for less than 3 weeks and already I'm in the red with the included batteries.

This is one of the main reasons I'm opposed to wireless technology. I mean, at least with the Xbox 360 and PS3, you have the option of playing wired if you want. And both of those systems have official rechargeable batteries available. But anyways...

Is there anything in particular to look for when looking into rechargeable batteries? Is there a particularly brand that outperforms others? What about chargers... should I spend the extra $10 and get the "15 minute" chargers, or are those not all they're cracked up to be?

The highest performing NiMh batteris are the Sanyo Industrial grade 2700mAh AAs...they charge to 3000mAh+ in some cases.

Quick chargers aren't the way to go...high charge current equals lots of heat and deteriorated battery performance.

I'd go with a quality charger like the La Crosse BC-900 charger that has so many features (like refreshing old batteries, LCD readout for voltage, capacity, etc.)

Look for the batteries and charger I listed at http://www.thomas-distributing.com/index.htm

[Hyrax]

Originally Posted by brc64

It looks like I'm going to need to buy a battery charger and some rechargeable AAs before long. I've had my console for less than 3 weeks and already I'm in the red with the included batteries.

This is one of the main reasons I'm opposed to wireless technology. I mean, at least with the Xbox 360 and PS3, you have the option of playing wired if you want. And both of those systems have official rechargeable batteries available. But anyways...

Is there anything in particular to look for when looking into rechargeable batteries? Is there a particularly brand that outperforms others? What about chargers... should I spend the extra $10 and get the "15 minute" chargers, or are those not all they're cracked up to be?

It's just a damn battery. Get the cheapest rechargeable you can get within reason.

[MyTMouse]

Originally Posted by Hyrax

It's just a damn battery. Get the cheapest rechargeable you can get within reason.

If you're just gonna use them for a controller then ya, I wouldn't spend much. But if you're gonna buy some extra batteries for other applications then I'd get some good batts.

At Wal-Mart the Energizer 2500mAh NIMh AAs are really cheap and they're amazing batteries