Eclipse Super Alkaline Batteries product reviews

When it comes to batteries, I seem to plow through them. Wireless headphones, remote controllers, toys for the youngest son, power for the eldest lad's science experiments and electronics kits... there just always seems to be something needing new batteries every week or so. Could have a lot to do with me being a big kid at heart and running the RC racercars and helicopters around in the garage for hours on end most weekends. So to find inexpensive batteries that deliver good charge for a good duration can be tough.

The big-brand batteries are more than up to the task, of course, but the budget ones tend to be utter rubbish. To put that theory to the test, I went battery shopping, and came home with an assortment of brands and sizes. For each brand I wanted to test - budget and big-name - I bought a basic pack of 4 'AAA' and 'AA' batteries, a 2-pack of 'C' and 'D' and a single 9v where possible. While some brands didn't carry the whole range, I had at least 2 samples from each end of the spectrum.

Pulling out my multimeter, I tested each battery to find it's 'full charge' level, and averaged it across the pack. I then worked out the average across 'main brands' and 'budget brands' so I had some idea where this brand sat in the rankings. I was actually quite surprised. Price-wise, these sat roughly in the middle between the 'el cheapo' and the 'premium' ranges, yet the power they put out had them in various spots.

The average 'full charge' on the 'AAA' size is 1.60v for the budget batteries, and 1.79v for the premiums - this range rated 1.63v, so at the lower end of the scale. For 'AA' batteries the budgets were at 1.59v while the premiums were at 1.68v and the Eclipse batteries rated 1.64v on average, making them closer to premium grade. For the 'C' and 'D' sized the budgets both averaged 1.61v and the premiums averaged 1.71v, with Eclipse sitting at a tidy 1.65v so not too shabby, though slightly on the budget side. at 9v was the real shocker though, with budgets averaging 8.61v and the premiums at 8.99v... and Eclipse pasting them all by clocking in a stunning 9.57v!

Putting the batteries through usage tests, it was easy to see the extended lifespan of the Eclipse batteries on the 9v's, and there was some good usage from the rest of the sizes... nothing too drastic but they certainly outlasted the budget batteries. So, while I wouldn't rank these as 'amazing' I would certainly look to buy these if I was on a budget and wanted something that was going to give me a reasonable lifespan at least.

Overall, would I recommend these to others... that's a tough one. I can say that they give better life than the budget-shop varieties, and unlike some of the packs I almost bought, there's no signs of batteries leaking and corroding while still in the pack. My impressions are that you are likely to have less issues with these, and can rest assured that every battery in the pack will give you roughly the same juice - the variation in voltage across 20 of these batteries was less than 1/100th of a volt, while some of the budget batteries varied by anything up to 1/2 a volt - which is significan't. If nothing else, the lifespan-per-dollar IS better, although not always hugely so, with these than any of the budget brands I tested. I would not have expected such quality from a battery that looks like, and is priced similarly to, the sort of batteries I would use as fishing weights sooner than risk my electronics with.