Dead Tools

Radio Shack 15-minute Rechargeable Batteries

Fastest recharging batteries

Radio Shack has a new line of AA and AAA batteries (they seem to actually have been developed by Rayovac) that recharge in 15 minutes when you use their IC3 charger. The fastest rate of chargers I’d seen before this was an hour, and those were difficult to find. This acceleration makes a HUGE difference – the charge time has now passed the threshold where, in many cases, you can still have a fresh set of batteries before you leave the house even when you’ve forgotten to charge them beforehand. I’ve tested these out a bit, and they do indeed charge in slightly less than 15 minutes using their IC3 charger, and they seem to work as well as any other NiMH batteries (which is to say, very well in high-drain electronics). In a pinch the IC3 batteries can be charged in a “regular” NiMH charger, but then they take as long as regular NiMH batteries, and likewise, charging regular NiMH batteries in the IC3 charger doesn’t speed them up.

-- Adam Fields 03/11/04

(RadioShack now carries

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