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Amazon's house batteries are rebranded Sanyo. I just buy those. Takes the guesswork out of it.

r00fus 10y ago
Is that their goal? To ultimately outcompete all their suppliers with an inhouse brand? How utterly banal. I remember a recent article about Rain, Inc (I had one of their beautiful 2006 iMac stands) and how Amazon essentially cut their price in half offering the same product with an Amazon logo instead.
- tluyben2 10y ago
  How can you trust a retailer like Amazon though: they are not only an e-commerce saas, they are a retailer themselves so obviously for anything they see a market they will just offer themselves. They can use the data from 3rd party sellers as market research for free (actually they get paid for their research!).
  - r00fus 10y ago
    You can't but you have little choice as Amazon rules online retail. Think Wal-Mart in the 2000s.
creshal 10y ago
Sanyo have a pretty bad reputation, however. From all the OEMs making Thinkapd batteries, theirs have the worst life expectancy.
- tesseract 10y ago
  I am not sure what other commenters had in mind but the Amazon house brand batteries I'm thinking of are AA and AAA rechargeables. They are low-self-discharge NiMH - the Sanyo brand is "Eneloop" which is the original member of this category and still well respected as far as I know.
  - jzwinck 10y ago
    Strangely Panasonic now also sells Eneloop branded batteries. I don't understand what this means...but Eneloop no longer means Sanyo: https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3MCCA4BA-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00JHKSN76 https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3MCCA4BA-Pre-Charged-Rec...
    - yskchu 10y ago
      That's because Panasonic bought them.
ry_ry 10y ago
My understanding of cheap off brand batteries (largely 20-30A cells like li-ion 18650s) is that they are generally produced by one of the big manufacturers but were b-grade (and below?) products that didn't quite make the grade but are still considered safe. It probably doesn't make much difference if you're shopping for triple As for a remote control, but with larger cells I'm always slightly wary of rewraps. I'll see if I can dig out an article about it if I remember when I'm off the train.
- janekm 10y ago
  Far from it. If you're lucky, the 18650s will be re-badged recycled cells form failed laptop battery packs (usually one cell is completely dead but the rest still have a little life in them). If you're not so lucky, it's from a back-alley micro-factory with no quality control and the cells can literally burst into flame (which has been the big issue with "hover boards" recently).
- vertex-four 10y ago
  Specifically, 18650s are commonly used in vaping. A guy who goes by Mooch once tested a large number of 18650s he could find on the market - it turns out that almost all off-brand batteries (everything other than Samsung/LG/Sony) do not live up to their stated maximum continuous power draw specifications, never mind fake ones. Vaping often draws power at reasonably close to the stated limits, and the failure mode of these batteries is venting toxic gas and potentially exploding. I assume there's similar issues with all large batteries. In a nutshell... fake batteries on Amazon can harm people badly.
- HelloMcFly 10y ago
  I don't consider AmazonBasics to be off-brand, personally. I've been using AA and AAA AmazonBasics rechargeables for about years, and they are easily the equal of the name brands I was buying (e.g., Panasonic and Sanyo, not Duracell).

Is that their goal? To ultimately outcompete all their suppliers with an inhouse brand? How utterly banal. I remember a recent article about Rain, Inc (I had one of their beautiful 2006 iMac stands) and how Amazon essentially cut their price in half offering the same product with an Amazon logo instead.

tluyben2 10y ago
How can you trust a retailer like Amazon though: they are not only an e-commerce saas, they are a retailer themselves so obviously for anything they see a market they will just offer themselves. They can use the data from 3rd party sellers as market research for free (actually they get paid for their research!).
- r00fus 10y ago
  You can't but you have little choice as Amazon rules online retail. Think Wal-Mart in the 2000s.

creshal 10y ago

Sanyo have a pretty bad reputation, however. From all the OEMs making Thinkapd batteries, theirs have the worst life expectancy.

tesseract 10y ago
I am not sure what other commenters had in mind but the Amazon house brand batteries I'm thinking of are AA and AAA rechargeables. They are low-self-discharge NiMH - the Sanyo brand is "Eneloop" which is the original member of this category and still well respected as far as I know.
- jzwinck 10y ago
  Strangely Panasonic now also sells Eneloop branded batteries. I don't understand what this means...but Eneloop no longer means Sanyo: https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3MCCA4BA-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00JHKSN76 https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3MCCA4BA-Pre-Charged-Rec...
  - yskchu 10y ago
    That's because Panasonic bought them.

ry_ry 10y ago

My understanding of cheap off brand batteries (largely 20-30A cells like li-ion 18650s) is that they are generally produced by one of the big manufacturers but were b-grade (and below?) products that didn't quite make the grade but are still considered safe. It probably doesn't make much difference if you're shopping for triple As for a remote control, but with larger cells I'm always slightly wary of rewraps. I'll see if I can dig out an article about it if I remember when I'm off the train.

janekm 10y ago
Far from it. If you're lucky, the 18650s will be re-badged recycled cells form failed laptop battery packs (usually one cell is completely dead but the rest still have a little life in them). If you're not so lucky, it's from a back-alley micro-factory with no quality control and the cells can literally burst into flame (which has been the big issue with "hover boards" recently).
vertex-four 10y ago
Specifically, 18650s are commonly used in vaping. A guy who goes by Mooch once tested a large number of 18650s he could find on the market - it turns out that almost all off-brand batteries (everything other than Samsung/LG/Sony) do not live up to their stated maximum continuous power draw specifications, never mind fake ones. Vaping often draws power at reasonably close to the stated limits, and the failure mode of these batteries is venting toxic gas and potentially exploding. I assume there's similar issues with all large batteries. In a nutshell... fake batteries on Amazon can harm people badly.
HelloMcFly 10y ago
I don't consider AmazonBasics to be off-brand, personally. I've been using AA and AAA AmazonBasics rechargeables for about years, and they are easily the equal of the name brands I was buying (e.g., Panasonic and Sanyo, not Duracell).