1/5

posted May-16-2008

"Tenergy NiMH Batteries Have Nonstandard Size and Unacceptable No-Load Discharge Rate. I purchased two dozen AA NiMH batteries from All-Battery.com in an ebay auction on January 19, 2008 for home use. Twelve were to be for me and twelve for a friend. I purchased these specifically, because the price was good and they came in a package deal, including C and D adapters. The adapters seemed like a good idea for three reasons. 1) you need fewer types of batteries on hand, to always have charged AA, C and D cells, 2) most chargers are only for AAA and AA cells and 3) true high capacity C and D NiMH batteries are very expensive, and the cheaper ones are really just AA batteries in a larger shell. This was fine, because the particular uses for C and D cells that we have, Roomba virtual walls, are low drain and the more rapid turnover for the AA batteries would be acceptable.

Upon receiving the batteries, I charged all twelve of mine and tried them out. It turned out that they did not work in my Cateye LED bike light or in the controller for my radio-controlled helicopter, two main reasons I needed them. Comparing them with other AA batteries, it seems that the problem is that the positive terminal of the Tenergy batteries stands a little less proud from the body than the others, and the aforementioned devices happened to have plastic bosses around the positive terminals, so that the positive terminals of the batteries could not reach those of the devices. I contacted All-Battery.com about this, and they referred me to Tenergy for technical support. The Tenergy tech support person assured me that the batteries met the IEC specification and offered me a 50% refund. It was not clear if I had to send the batteries back and only 50% of my money would be refunded or they would refund 50% of the money without taking the batteries back, but I didn’t clarify this, as I thought I might add a little solder to the terminals to make them work – I did not get a chance to try that.

Fig. 1: Photos of the positive terminals of a Tenergy AA cell (left) and and Ultra AA cell over a mm scale. The positive terminal of the Tenergy cell is just about 1 mm proud of the shoulder, while that of the Ultra cell is significantly longer. The shorter terminal on the Tenergy cell prevents it from functioning in some devices.


In the applications where the batteries did work, they seemed OK initially, but lost their charge very rapidly. My friend tried newly-charged ones in her Roomba virtual walls one day and they worked, but a few days later they did not. She also put them in her wireless computer keyboards, but they only lasted a couple of days, while other brands last several months. I put a newly charged pair in my etrex GPS one weekend and went on a hike, but the next weekend they were dead. It seemed that the batteries were running down very fast between charges, so I decided to do a test. I charged 12 batteries and measured the voltages. I found that the voltages were lower than the other NiMH batteries I had (Sony and Ultra). I also found that they discharged faster than other batteries and were very weak after one week. I unfortunately lost that data, but I wrote to All-Battery.com and Tenergy again, asking for a complete refund. They never answered my email, so I decided to do another test and write this review.

I charged 12 Tenergy cells and 2 Ultra cells. The Tenergy cells were bought January 19th 2008 and the Ultra cells were at least two years old but in excellent condition. I had bought them from Globalcomputer.com. I measured the no-load voltage of all cells immediately after charging and a couple of times over the next three weeks. The results for all 14 cells are plotted individually in the graph below. Even at time zero, all Tenergy cells had significantly lower voltage than the Ultra cells, by 68 mV on average, and the discharge rate was much greater, so that after three weeks, the Tenergy cells were on average 190 mV lower than the Ultra cells. After the three week measurements I tested pairs of batteries in a 2-cell Maglite. The Ultra cells lit the bulb brightly with no noticeable decrease during half an hour of continuous operation. On the other hand, all six pairs of tenergy cells produced a very dim light that extinguished completely within 30 seconds.

In conclusion, the Tenergy cells I received are defective in three ways. 1) they have a nonstandard positive terminal size that makes them unserviceable in some devices. 2) the fully charged voltage is lower than that of other NiMH cells and 3) The no-load discharge rate is much higher than that of other brands. I can’t see how any customer could be satisifed with this performance. I think that I may have gotten a bad batch or the comments from satisfied Tenergy customers I have seen on their site were from customers who had just tried their batteries after charging them. In either case, it is unacceptable.

"

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1/5

posted May-05-2009

"I ordered two sets of "12 AA 2300mAh 12 AAA 1000mAh Ready To Use (R2U) Long Shelf Life Rechargeable Batteries with Compact Charger" (part number RTU-12AA/12AAA2822). The batteries arrived fine and appear to work.

However, none of the two chargers were in the package. I immediately contacted customer service via e-mail. No response, ever. I phoned a week later, and Lydia (customer service rep) told me that they had my e-mails on file, and saw that no one had replied.

In the same order, I ordered two "Protection Circuit Module (PCB) for 11.1V Li-Ion Battery Pack (3 cells with 6.5A limit) (item no. 320062)".

After connecting one according to its connection diagrams (and confirming with the S-8254A chip datasheet), and then connecting to my fully-charged 11.1V (nominal) 3-cell lithium-ion battery, my multimeter read ~0V across the P+ and P- terminals of the chips. I wired and then connected the second PCB, and it too failed to enable.

I sent several e-mails to customer service, filed an RMA and phoned customer service. Lydia del Real told me to talk to Kevin (technical), but I received his voice mail and it errored (didn't let me leave any message). Lydia then told me they would phone me back.

No one ever got back to me, by e-mail, phone, or otherwise. That was two months ago.

I am still trying to get in touch with them to follow through on getting my chargers and PCBs. When I phoned today, they told me they no longer had any record of my contact. Fortunately, I kept all my e-mails, including my RMA request. I also have recorded the telephone message where Lydia told me they would send me the chargers and phone me back.

Hopefully I can get my chargers and working PCBs, or a refund. Chances don't seem great, going by other reviews."

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5/5

posted Jan-12-2008

"I have been very pleased with All-Battery from the aspects of price, service, and quality of product. Over the last year, I have ordered from them about six times and all orders were shipped promptly with the correct products which worked well.

Harvey"

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1/5

posted Sep-30-2009

"Placed order on 09/14 and CC charged, received email notification on 09/16 that one of the items I'd ordered was no longer in stock. Called 09/16 to have them substitude the item and ship the order but order was not shipped until 09/23 after 3 more calls to customer service."

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1/5

posted Oct-27-2011

"Let buyers beware. I ordered combo battery charger and batteries. The charger would not work and they would not give me a RMA because they said the batteries worked and since it was a combo deal I could not return the charger. "We will not be sending you an RMA number, if you are going to keep the batteries I suggest to keep the charger too since it came as a combo deal." They ask me to check to see if the batteries worked and I told them they worked. I NEVER said I was going to keep the batteries.
I will never order from them again. I asked them to remove me from their email list."

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5/5

posted Jun-26-2008

"he price was competitive and the service was great. I ordered the wrong battery pack and had very prompt and courteous help in getting my error corrected. I will be a their customer from now on"

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1/5

posted Jul-21-2011

"This company is very bad in service. I would not recommend that you use them. I ordered a set of batteries on 6/28 and I received the wrong ones a week later. I send them an email asking for a return and never got a reply. I finally call them on 7/14 and they told me that they would send me the correct batteries. I NEVER got the Replacement !!! I finally called them and after much complaining they finally agreed to sent me the correct batteries.

Also I returned the incorrect batteries that they had sent. I never got an acknowledgement.

I missed three wonderful weeks of flying because I thought that all-battery was a good supplier. I was very wrong.

I asked them to sent the batteries the next day and they told be that they would have charge me. I explained to them that it was almost a month since I ordered the batteries and they told be sorry.

THESE PEOPLE ARE THE WORST.

"

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2/5

posted Dec-23-2009

"Bait and switch warning. At checkout clearly stated to ship FEDX ground. Agreed to their online shipping policy which nowhere stated any chance of change of shipping. Only when they confirmed shipment, they send info they are changing carrier due to free shipping promo. Package was poorly wrapped, coming apart and missing items promised as free. Buyer Beware"

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1/5

posted May-02-2009

"this web retailer set incorrectly wired battery connectors. They have been unresponsive to their "live chat" which is never "live" as well as email requests. Many other complaints on their web site about mistakes on orders. Stay away from this retailer."

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1/5

posted Jul-20-2011

"All-Battery.com Order Confirmation #299369. I purchased item T-333 Universal Battery Checker for $11.03 with shipping cost of $6.80 for a total of $17.83. I assumed that the tester would show battery voltage but it only showed if battery was good or bad. I did get a RMA # to return the item for a credit of $11.03. So I would be out $6.80 shipping plus whatever it would cost to send the item back. Now common sense tells me that I would get right at $5-$7 back for an item that was and still is misrepresented on their website. I would not have lost any money period if the item was correctly stated that it DID NOT show voltage. So I'll keep my $11.03 useless item as a reminder of their great CUSTOMER SERVICE. "

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