Being from the Netherlands, I assumed "standard rechargable " to mean NiCd.
In India standard AA/AAA rechargeable means NiMH. NiCd's are for "cordless phones".
you won't find NiCd commonly in canada either, so rechargeable would mean NiMH here too.
Based on my interaction with my relatives that stay in the US I have to clearly differentiate NiMH from rechargeable's since they consider rechargeable = rechargeable Alkaline.
I've yet to see rechargeable Alkaline. Although they seem to exist according to Wikipedia, for sure they are not to be considered as standard type of rechargeables. Good luck to even finding a charger which officially supports them.
Being from the Netherlands, I assumed "standard rechargable " to mean NiCd.
Not for last 10 years, NiCd batteries are relic of the past. The vast majority of rechargeable AA batteries are NiMh.
What?! Are you guys all nuts?
- NiCd are readily available in Canada just like NiMH, though most of the super-expensive retail brands like Duracell and Energizer you will normally find NiMH being pushed by the retail stores because they can charge more for that bit of extra capacity and they are easier to build with lower self-discharge characteristics which is important for low-drain devices like a remote control. NiCd is far superior for heavy cycle heavy loads and huge multi-cell packs of them are even used in some off-grid or battery backup inverter setups.
- Every cordless phone I've seen in the past 10 years that uses standard cells comes with NiMH cells in them.
- Alkalines that are specifically designed to be recharged (like PureEnergy, which was developed in Canada) are readily available also, though you can partially recharge any standard alkaline cells several times as long as they haven't been ultra-deep discharged by somehting like a Batteriser before the internal elements just aren't there anymore. If you try to recharge ones that have been over-discharged, that's when they leak. They just aren't designed to be robust enough (the case and seals or the anode and cathode) for many charge/discharge cycles since they're intended to be discharged once and discarded.
- Alkaline rechargers are readily availble also... Where are you guys looking?
- Just like NiCd or NiMH, you can recharge alkalines using your bench power supply, just go nice and slow and limit the current to a nice low value (and don't accidentally leave them for days and days to ultra-overcharge...)
lol
All batteries are just electrochemical cells, which is chemistry, which is just a a glorified form of Physics.
When I think "rechargeable" in a size like AA, I think NiCd first, then NiMH by default.... Alkaline rechargeables only when specified as "alkaline rechargeable" but everyones's probably going to think of whatever they personally use.
NiCd is used in things like power tools because they have
FAR better cycle life at high charge/discharge rates than NiMH and are significantly cheaper for close to the same capacity.
NiCd and NiMH can be charged in the same chargers at low charge rates, it's only when you get to rapid chargers that you need to do it a bit differently for the two chemistries.