Rechargeable batteries

I've notice a fair difference in the life of my 4 AA Kodac Rechargeable batteries. These 2 sets are about 1 year old. Just doesn't see like they are lasting near as long as just store bought AA batteries. Anyone have this same experience?

What chemical composition are they?
NiCad's have memory and lousy shelf life
NiMh have no memory and terrific shelf life
Li ion have no memory and even better shelf life
LiFe also same but very expensive
typically a rechargeable battery will go 1 to 2 years in use and then will exhibit poor charge holding characteristics. Sounds like you are at that point. I have no experience with the type you listed. Did you make a typo on the brand? Either way, you probably got your monies worth by now so you may want to research the latest types avail and get new. I have found some 2900mAh AA NiMh through work and so far am pleased but I admit I have only had them for a few months. Hope this helps, YMMV

My wife is a professional photographer. I bought her a PowerEx battery charger for her Energizer 2500mAH AA NiMH batteries.

She's been having great luck with this setup for a couple years now. The battery charger will charge each battery individually. Nice for when she throws the discharged ones in her camera bag during a shoot mixing totally discharged ones with half-way discharged ones. It also has a refresh feature that will cycle them thru a discharge/charge. It takes hours for that to complete but I only need to do it about every month or so. The rest of the time I set it for a slow charge. Fast charging creates heat and heat is one of the enemies of rechargeable batteries.

Yeah, the PowerEx chargers cost more than a cheap wall-wort style charge but they're worth it IMHO. The links above are to a site called NewEgg. We've always been pleased with their service and prices. NewEgg also sells other models of the PowerEx that will also charge C and D sizes.

Wayne

The batteries are Mi-MH made in China for Eastman Kodak Company. The camera company. The charger ( labeled Kodax also ) either does 2 or 4 at a time with a little switch for each. When leaving on a trip I take the extra set of batteries and charger along with me.
Thanks for the information and will check it out.

I bought 5 packs of nicads for my Vivitar 283 flash 25 years ago. None lasted more than a year and I really worried that nicads were not ready for primetime. I would like to hear that this has changed but I spent so much for those packs and charger that I have been buying alkaline since.

I had some old Sanyo commercial rechargeables and they lasted awhile. Most folks on photo forums swear by the Sanyo Eneloop. The PowerEX are good too as mentioned above and their chargers are top rate but the Eneloops still usually get the nod.

Costco has the cheapest price I've found on them. I got a second set for Christmas. Stay away fro the quick chargers too. They tend to fry the battery and reduce the lifespan.

If just powering a flash and not a digicam, I've been happy with a 4 pack of Panasonic AA at Dollar Tree. They will last me a wedding at around 200 shots.