The Only Usb-c Aa Battery I’d Buy For Myself Is The Zepath 3600

It gave maine an idea. Could we find nan very best USB-C AA batteries by combining my ain anecdotal testing pinch Lumafield’s scanning tech?

The reply seems to beryllium yes! Knowing what I now know, the Zepath 3600mWh is nan only rechargeable lithium-ion AA I’d bargain for myself — moreover though USB-C is successful nan charger, alternatively than each individual cell.

The Zepath is nan only 1 that passed some Lumafield’s trial and my trial pinch flying colors. It has higher capacity than astir of nan competition, it’s easy to use, and incredibly, it’s 1 of nan cheapest of its kind.

These AAs costs conscionable $2.50 per cell, little than Panasonic’s famed Eneloop nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, each while lasting overmuch longer than moreover Eneloop Pros successful my Game Boy Advance and high-power flashlight.

It’s $20 for an eight-pack, and that includes a clamshell charger pinch a magnetic threat closure. (Think earbuds case, but overmuch larger.) You tin driblet arsenic galore aliases arsenic fewer batteries arsenic you want into immoderate of those 8 slots — it’ll happily complaint 3 dormant batteries alongside 3 afloat ones, moreover if you put them successful a zig-zag pattern. It pulls astir 10 watts to complaint each 8 batteries astatine once, and nether 3 watts for a pair. You tin usage either a dumb USB-A-to-USB-C cablegram aliases nan aforesaid benignant of USB-C PD charger you usage for your telephone aliases laptop.

Plus, nan charger has built-in information precautions that support it from charging nan incorrect kinds of batteries. You’ll spot 8 hidden LEDs radiance done nan apical of nan lawsuit to bespeak whether a battery’s charging (blinking green), charged (solid green), aliases rejected (blinking red) because you accidentally put an alkaline aliases NiMH wrong instead.

Again, this intends nan only USB-C AA artillery I urge doesn’t person a built-in USB-C larboard — but I person bully reasons for that.

When Lumafield analyzed 12 different kinds of lithium-ion AA batteries for The Verge, including designs pinch some built-in USB-C ports and ones pinch clamshell USB-C chargers, almost each artillery different than Zepath was inferior.

Some, for illustration Paleblue, had tried to cram a mini pouch compartment into nan battery’s tin to make room for nan USB-C port. Others, for illustration Coast, usage a “can-within-a-can” design, wherever a smaller preexisting 14400 compartment (14mm x 40mm) nests wrong nan larger battery.

Either way, Lumafield’s Alex Hao recovered astir person comparatively mediocre alignment and 1 had antagonistic anode overhang, nan aforesaid worrying defect she discovered in nan earlier study of 1,000 larger cylindrical cells. Almost each “Good” we scanned was 1 pinch a charging case, including Philips and Mupoer. But nan champion were Zepath and nan very akin Runpower — and Zepath costs less.

“This artillery has reasonably consecutive alignment and moreover anode overhang (AOH). The assembly value looks good. And nan electrodes really maximize nan abstraction disposable successful nan can. Overall this is simply a bully battery,” is really Hao described nan Zepath scans.

I had precocious hopes for batteries from Coast and Nitecore, pinch their built-in USB-C ports and their marque estimation for building high-quality flashlights for very savvy clientele. (Costco carries nan Coast batteries; this is not a fly-by-night brand.) But Hao thought Coast’s artillery looked “a small wonky” pinch unusually debased anode overhang. “There still is overhang, truthful this artillery doesn’t look ace unsafe, but I wouldn’t take it complete others successful this cohort,” she noted.

And while she didn’t deliberation nan Nitecore was dangerous, nan institution whitethorn person a quality-control issue: Both Hao and I noticed our batteries felt a spot loosely put together, pinch apical terminals that weren’t ever straight, and immoderate of nan cells Lumafield scanned had shorter overhangs and worse alignment than others, Hao said.

The batteries you mightiness want to debar are Spyong, which I spot has already been pulled from Amazon since Lumafield discovered 1 compartment was wholly deformed wrong and had antagonistic anode overhang; NTONPOWER, which had very mediocre electrode alignment according to Hao; CZVV, which had “virtually non-existent” anode overhang on nan bottommost of nan compartment and has also vanished from Amazon, and surprisingly, Paleblue, a known marque wherever our soul pouch compartment appeared to person anodes bending inward, which could lead to short-circuiting if they ever negociate to touch.

By nan clip I sewage Hao’s results back, I didn’t mind giving up nan USB-C port. I’d already discovered 2 applicable downsides to built-in sockets.

The first: shorter artillery life. The Zepath lasted an full hr and a half longer than nan Coast successful my screen-modded Game Boy Advance astatine max brightness; they lasted 2 hours longer successful my fund 1,000-lumen flashlight. (See immoderate of nan results successful my embedded video above.) And erstwhile I tried 2 different sets of Nitecore successful that Nebo flashlight, they strangely didn’t activity astatine all, either turning nan high-power LED into a flickering messiness aliases refusing to enactment on.

The 2nd reason: This procreation of integrated USB-C batteries is fiddly to plug and unplug. The sockets consciousness excessively tight connected astir of them, capable that I consciousness for illustration I’m risking harm to nan artillery by forcing it successful and out.

And though it mightiness beryllium annoying to retrieve to battalion nan Zepath charging case, it’s besides imaginable to hide nan four-headed USB-C charging cables that travel pinch nan integrated batteries. It’s bully to person an integrated larboard erstwhile you’re charging conscionable 1 aliases 2 batteries, though.

Lithium-ion AAs are not nan eventual battery, larboard aliases no. The chemistry is still inherently flammable, moreover if these ones person a metallic casing that protects them from repeated drops, and not each devices use from having batteries that reliably put retired astir 1.5 volts until they’re astir to die.

My flashlight lasted a batch longer connected debased powerfulness pinch NiMH batteries, which dice acold much slowly, moreover if nan Li-ion batteries worked amended connected high. So moreover though I’ve added immoderate Zepath batteries to my home, I won’t beryllium getting free of Eneloops anytime soon.