16 minutes ago, CaolIla said:

find on this page


Caution

• Do not disassemble.

• Do not dispose of in fire, put in backwards, mix different battery types, use with non-rechargeable batteries, or short circuit.

• Do not connect the (+) and (-) ends with metal objects.

• Do not use in water-proof flashlights or in any device with an airtight battery compartment. Doing so may result in explosions or leaks that may cause personal injury.

• Keep batteries out of reach of children. If swallowed, contact your doctor or local poison control center.
  
  
  
  ☹️ or 🤣 I don't know

hahaha

On al lighter note, you reminded me that about twenty years ago, I worked for a while at a greyhound track (I maintained some accounting software). What always made me laugh was that when I went in through the back entrance, for the staff, the sign on the door said: "Beware of the dog." 🤣

52 minutes ago, CaolIla said:

• Do not use in water-proof flashlights or in any device with an airtight battery compartment. Doing so may result in explosions or leaks that may cause personal injury.

I had this happen bit under 10 years ago. White Eneloops in Z240.

Well, not sure what exploded, but the strobe exploded UW.

Hi,

have/had also issues with the Eneloop Pro`s.

See:

https://waterpixels.net/forums/topic/2425-eneloop-pro-accu-issue/#comment-16297

May be I bought fake ones, but anyway the behaviour of the Pros especially during charging where very strange compared to the white ones used the same charger. Some took a very, very long time (10h) to charge some got very hot. Tried to analyze but no clue what happen as they did`nt show the same behaviour at any times.

Br Markus

7 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

Here a link to a comparison of Eneloop white and black with alkaline batteries (by Panasonic, no other NiMh accus are mentioned): https://www.panasonic.com/sg/consumer/energy-solutions/battery/rechargeable-battery-learn/article/eneloop_pro.html?srsltid=AfmBOorLhUvSrvP5lDzmxA6c5RAOdMLn817I0YwOQFbFv0xLK1uig5MI

The conclusions are similar to the ones by ChatGPT (longevity vs. power). The advantage in flash charging time was also tested and the black Pros charge approx. 20% faster compared to the whites (they give no numbers; estimated from the graph "Faster flash charging and longer life")...

If the numbers in continuous discharge current, given by ChatGPT are real (1-2A for white vs. 3A for black), this means the current that can be supplied by the battery continuously without leading to damage of the battery (I guess). At a given voltage, the output current depends entirely on the internal resistance of the flash (law of Ohm: Current (A) = Voltage (V) / Resistance (ohm)). During charging, when the load on the batteries is high, the voltage of the accus goes down a little (also depending how freshly charged the accu is), the black ones maintain their original voltage (1.5 V) a little bit better compared to the white ones, leading to the approx. 20% faster charging time...

The thing that allows higher currents in batteries is the internal resistance of the battery itself, the black eneloops have lower internal resistance which is the reason they charge faster.

13 hours ago, Davide DB said:

The comments in this thread made me curious about the difference between the two types of batteries. Since I don't feel like doing anything this century, I asked ChatGPT 😝

Well then you have a 50% chance of correct information in my experience. :P

as far as I can tell, my newest Pros are not counterfeit. Must just have a wonky batch.

My super old black Pros that are all at 60-80% give me the same results - missing shots - as the brand new ones. It is what it is, I probably should have contacted the company after the first time I noticed it and gotten swaps.

If I had access to Ikea, I'd buy theirs next time. I probably would choose the white standard eneloops over the black pros if I had to choose between them right now.

1 hour ago, Kristin said:

as far as I can tell, my newest Pros are not counterfeit. Must just have a wonky batch.

My super old black Pros that are all at 60-80% give me the same results - missing shots - as the brand new ones. It is what it is, I probably should have contacted the company after the first time I noticed it and gotten swaps.

If I had access to Ikea, I'd buy theirs next time. I probably would choose the white standard eneloops over the black pros if I had to choose between them right now.

It could also be your strobes I guess if they are slow to charge up?

20 hours ago, CaolIla said:

Hi @Oskar - Retra UWT

Can you give us your/Retra opinion over Eneloop White or Black ?

We recommend the PRO version (black color) due to its improved performance compared to the regular version (typically white). For best results, we suggest keeping a dedicated set of these batteries only for your Retra strobes.

10 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

The thing that allows higher currents in batteries is the internal resistance of the battery itself, the black eneloops have lower internal resistance which is the reason they charge faster.

See here for info on internal resistance of batteries: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/batteryir.pdf

Internal resistance is measured as the voltage drop under load and this drop is smaller with black Eneloops compared to the white ones (less voltage means slower charging up).

So this is essentially the same coin, but the different sides are viewed from different perspectives...

43 minutes ago, Oskar - Retra UWT said:

For best results, we suggest keeping a dedicated set of these batteries only for your Retra strobes.

That is exactly what I have done in the past.


I will see the improvment of the number of firing between my old Pro X and the new Pro Max II... hope that in the futur I can diving 3 muck-dive a day without changing battery

I will now order 32 new AA Eneloop Pro.. to replace the 32 "lost" last week. 😭

A few years ago, I was a Medtronic tech fellow and we had a small ($15K) grant to do anything technical that wasn't about your day job. I decided to learn about batteries, specifically about rechargeable NiMH AA batteries. I talked to colleagues who design batteries for implantable devices as their day job and they helped me build a computer controlled battery tester. I bought every AA battery I could find, lots of cheap Chinese ones, eneloops (white and black) and a bunch of no-name ones from Ali Express. Name brand batteries that were tested at low discharge currents were in fact more is better i.e., if you put them on 0.05 A discharge rates the time to a specific voltage was proportional to the stated capacity. To test utility in a strobe, I took one of my Z240 strobes to the EE boys in the lab and they pulled out the charging circuit to emulate with my computer controller. Unfortunately they were unable to put it back together and keep it dry. In any case I tested all the batteries in pairs using the charging circuit and using a fast discharge and repeated til the battery reached the test voltage. What we found was that eneloop whites (2000 mAh) got the most flashes. Eneloop Pros were occasionally a bit more and occasionally a bit fewer flashes but were quite variable. Most of the Powerex 2700 batteries got 30% fewer flashes than the Eneloop 2000s. I was surprised but when I talked to my battery inventing colleagues they said "of course, we could have told you that" internal discharge is critical.

I haven't run the tests lately (the instrument had a loud beep whenever a battery test completed and my wife got tired of 3AM beeps).

Bill

Most bang … : IKEA ladda.

47 minutes ago, Christian K said:

Most bang … : IKEA ladda.

"Most bang" I suppose means good right? 😅

18 minutes ago, canislupus said:

"Most bang" I suppose means good right? 😅

Yes, according to many testers and reports, Ikea Laddas are rebranded Eneloop batteries.

fwiw I remember reading that the Ikea NIMH were exactly the same model as the eneloops, just different outer branding layer and that they came from the same manufacturer : https://www.reddit.com/r/batteries/comments/omuns6/new_ikea_ladda_nimh_batteries/

https://www.dpreview.com/videos/8633918572/comparison-cheap-ikea-ladda-batteries-beat-panasonic-eneloop-pro-recycle-speed

1 hour ago, canislupus said:

"Most bang" I suppose means good right? 😅

🤣 Let’s not jinx any accidents. But yes, good like in the saying ”… for the buck”. Made in Japan.

On 7/8/2025 at 5:29 PM, Muellema said:

May be I bought fake ones, but anyway the behaviour of the Pros especially during charging where very strange compared to the white ones used the same charger. Some took a very, very long time (10h) to charge some got very hot. Tried to analyze but no clue what happen as they did`nt show the same behaviour at any times.

About the same experience, batteries are rather definitely originals. Maybe not 10h, but some visibly do take way longer than others. Worse, I have noticed a funny behavior of the strobe on some rare occasions - sometimes it flashed a bit "less" or took longer to be ready than the other. The only other time I've seen such behavior was when I've accidentally mixed some old and new Eneloops, i.e. what I call, batteries were "uneven".

Everything was fine at the beginning but the older Pro's got, the more visible the charging issue became.

I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with Pro's - in my opinion these are just designed for a different purpose really - heavy usage during a short period of time, i.e. few hundred charges during a 1-1.5 years max. Meanwhile I suspect, at least based on my example, these would get maybe few tens of charges during a year, and be used for way longer, where they start to degrade much more than non-Pro ones.

Either way, I am going back to normal Eneloops, especially after reading @bvanant actual testing experience. In fact just had BK-3MCDE/8HH pack delivered ;)

Edited July 15Jul 15 by makar0n

just ordered 32 Eneloop pro on Amazon 4€20 / piece

1 minute ago, CaolIla said:

just ordered 32 Eneloop pro on Amazon 4€20 / piece

In line with my other (bad) joke:

How to say you are using Retra strobes without saying it 😂

Edited July 15Jul 15 by makar0n

1 hour ago, makar0n said:

How to say you are using Retra strobes without saying it 😂

Hummm not sure. There is an other option.

2 hours ago, makar0n said:

In line with my other (bad) joke:

How to say you are using Retra strobes without saying it 😂

The courier, when delivering the batteries, asked if I was satisfied with my Retras 🤣

Interesting thread with some great links, thanks!!! FWIW I just finished refreshing and analyzing (using a MAHA analyzer-charger) two sets of 8 Eneloop Pros that I bought in early 2023 from B&H (they were in 16 packs). (Reason for refresh: Adult salmon are expected in my target creek rather soon). Batteries last used in early Autumn 2024 (before major snow). The capacities (from the analysis) were mostly in the 2400 to 2500 range with just a couple above 2500. Not too bad for oldish batteries. (These are labeled as being made by Panasonic. Near the seam is stamped 22-xxxx. The four x characters are a bit challenging read but the 22- suggests they were made in 2022.)

At the end of each cycle the batteries were barely warm to the touch. I felt them a few times during the test and at no time were they hot, just warm (like 100°F/40°C). Hot water out of the tap is much higher. The above anecdote about hot batteries suggest defective batteries or charger.

Edited July 15Jul 15 by Tom Kline

On 7/7/2025 at 10:11 AM, jlaity said:

Bill has a Powerpoint slide on this. Despite the higher power, Eneloop 2000 lasts longer in a flash than Eneloop Pro because of the way the power tapers off. I'll leave to him to explain why, I'm a musician. ;)

This contradicts the results in the link from post #2 - see 300th flash test.