Rechargeable Batteries- Are they worth it?

[Hunt 365]

Well, I'm inventorying my trail cams, and doing the math on batteries for the season. I have 7 cameras, and my buddy has a few more. The majority of mine are Wildgame Innovations. Two of the older ones have flashes, so they eat 4 C batteries every two weeks. The others have 6-week cycles. And yes, I'm planning on phasing in newer cams with much better battery life as the old ones give out.
But for this season, I figured I would need 8 batteries per camera - 4 in, 4 on the charger. Even though I cringe buying the disposable alkaline ones, the cheapest I have found rechargeables is around $4 per battery. Plus I have no idea what the charger costs.
I'm running the math. I wondered if anyone has dealt with this and what their opinions were!
Thanks in advance

 

[Andy S.]

I made the switch to rechargeable AAs several years ago, but only for my homebrew cameras that I know will last several years (couple of them are 2006 models) and because I know I will put them to use after my homebrews go belly up (assuming they will at some point). The problem you run into with commercial cams is the rechargeable batteries will most likely always outlast the cam so you may end up being stuck with a bunch of rechargeable C batteries that you no longer have a use for (unless your next cams uses the exact same battery size). I have four homebrews that take AA, one Reconyx that takes AAs, many new homebrews can be built to also use AAs, and several of the newer commercial cams also use them if my homebrews were to bite the dust tomorrow. Point being I always have a use for my rechargeable AAs. I personally would not purchase rechargeables unless you are pretty sure you can/will utilize them after your existing cams bite the dust. I have a few older Cuddebacks (C-3000) that I still buy D alkalines for. The main reason I will not buy rechargeable D batteries is first the initial sunk cost for the batteries and specialized charger (my current one only charges AA and AAA), and second, once these two C-3000s bite the dust, the rechargeable Ds would be useless to me for the most part. I also use these two cams far less these days so batteries for them do not eat me up like the repeated use of my homebrews would.

Here is the website I purchase all of my rechargeables and chargers from. http://www.thomasdistributing.com/ I use MAHA Powerex, MAHA Imedion and Sanyo Eneloop rechargeables, and have had great success with all of them thus far. If you go with rechargeables, I would recommend a good battery tester. I use my battery tester more than I ever knew I would. A lot of my buds use it as well to test their alkalines. You would be amazed at how often they purchase a pack of brand new batteries and one of them be dead or only 60% charged. The battery tester has helped us avoid bad batteries which has helped us avoid putting cams out that may have otherwise not operated correctly due to less than desired power supply. Hope this helps and best of luck with your final decision.

 

[BSK]

In my opinion, if you have cameras that use C-cells, yes the rechargeables make sense. However, as Andy pointed out, are you going to be using C-cell units for several years in a row? It will take a year or two for rechargeables to pay for themselves.

Now when it comes to many of the newer cameras that run on 4 or 8 AAs, a single 8-pack of lithium AAs make more sense than rechareables, as that single set of lithium AAs will often last for a full year or more.