paleblue Lithium USB Rechargeable AA & AAA Battery: Real Quick Review 

Welcome! They don’t heavily advertise that their batteries hold less power than the standard, they really like to push that you can keep recharging them. Hopefully with future updates they will increase the cap as well as add USB C.

Great to hear! I love that they can be solar charged, totally feels like free energy and cheating the system haha. Long term, I’ve put these batteries in a lot of devices around home and have purchased several more sets. Any time normal batteries go out I try to convert over and I’ve not had any issues yet! I just try to shop the sales Pale Blue has to save more money.

That’s an excellent take and it’s great to do that research for yourself and decided what works best! I fully agree, the capacity is the main pain point and I really hope they work on upping that for the future. Things can only get better from here, especially since they just added USB-C. There are some good uses to still keep standard batteries on hand for, but for most of my items around home that die from either quick use like remote controls/laser level or long term sitting like computer mouse, my door locks, TV remotes, these have been excellent. When they get low I just pull them out, charge in about an hour, then they are good to go for months. Not really caring about the cost, for me the annoyance of items being dead then having to get new batteries is worth it especially when I can top the batteries off in a headlamp or items I know I want fully charged and ready. I just bought some more on sale, but you are right, they are not for everyone yet. Keep up the diligence!

Sweet! I’m about to purchase some more because I’ve started putting them in most things around the house. I’ve had no complaints on any daily household items, they just don’t last as long for things like head lamps.

Most consumer headlamps (Coast, Black Diamond, Petzl, etc) are running AAA batteries. I’ve got two headlamps running these, they do not last as long as your capacity is less, but for most use I have I can re-charge between needs. If you’re doing a longer multi-day trip normal batteries may be handy unless you’re taking a power bank and can top them off. If I was to get a new headlamp though I’d probably get one with rechargeable batteries like the Black Diamond Storm 500 R. (Waiting on Black Diamond to make it USB-C, won’t buy anything micro-USB anymore!)

Well that’s nice then! But that’s a good point, the price is actually becoming less a con as well, just saw 4 regular AA batteries for $10 at the hardware store and these are doing great so I think I’m going to pick up another set soon.

Excellent question, mine are still going strong! The capacity is less though, so you would have to recharge more often than you would replacing disposable if you do direct comparison. I’ve found a balance between the two that I am very happy with. For the PaleBlue, I use them in most long-term devices, door lock, scale, laser level, keyboard, and things that actively draw high power. I also use them in anything my kid play’s with that will be left on and the battery drained such as remote controls, powered Lego’s, and little legos. When they are inevitably left on, they will drain and the next time he wants to play with it I’ll make sure I charge it back up and that’s worked great because I hated throwing away batteries that were in a device that was left on. For cheap Amazon disposable, I usually put them in my wife’s devices because she doesn’t like to recharge batteries, items with very little power draw such as a TV remote, or things that are more easily lost such as a cheap flashlight or random outside device. Finally I also try to not purchase devices that need external batteries; so lanterns, flashlights, speakers, etc I try to buy only USB-C rechargeable devices to reduce the need for batteries in the first place. I would recommend getting a single set of the new USB-C ones ( on sale though, paying full price is steep) and try those out before diving in. I’ve sunk in over $150 on their big sales over the years and have not gotten rid of any yet, just slowly phasing out any non-rechargeable except for above cases. Hope my book of a comment helps!

Good to hear! That sounds like a good use! I just got some of the USB-C ones, hope to review those soon.

Q: "During charging, are the poles 5 volts like on batteries from SmartTools?" Great question! I’ve not used SmartTool batteries personally. When I get back to the US I’ll charge one of these up and measure the poles to see. Hang tight!

Good find! These do spike to 5V when charging, I just measured. That means if you charge them while they are being used by a device it could have some side affects or hurt the device. I’d probably recommend charging outside of a device if it does not have a direct power cutoff.

Regular AA’s have about 2400 mAh and these have 1560 mAh, so you do get about 65% the potential capacity off the bat. The flat power drop and charge holding capabilities help compensate to make them feel they last a bit longer, but for for almost everything around home you can top them off quickly or swap them out with charged ones and keep them on rotation. They would be less ideal for traveling where you can’t charge them easily, but for computer mice, baby toys, remote controls, lights, and random things around home I’ve not noticed any difference in the time they last compared to normal.

@@PhilipBlank thank you for the response. I’ve tried finding that answer everywhere it seems the company has been avoiding that question lol. 65% seems reasonable enough to make the switch.

@@deewadefan3408 no problem! They do have to pack a control board and charging port into it plus lithium cells are typically flat and rectangular where a normal Alkaline sell can be cylindrical and fill up the entire space but I’ve not opened one to see. I do have a feeling it won’t be long until they put out a USB-C version with higher capacity so I’m waiting on those but who knows!

Yeah that would be a good test to run, I may on the new USB-C versions

Online, look for sales!

Aye, they do use Micro USB. I know it stinks but the design of the current batteries came out in 2019 before the big push for USB C everything, (even Bose is still making products with Micro USB now). Pale Blue is starting to transition to USB C, their 9V battery just came out with it. Hopefully soon all the products will get converted but it’s not been a major issue for me so far since I charge them on their multi-cable all together. Excited for the future updates though!

Interestingly, the Pale Blue D batteries have a micro USB on one side of the battery and a USB-C on the other side. Very cool 😎 👌

@@radiohobbyist13 the change has gotta be coming, I’m excited for them all to be USB-C soon!

@@PhilipBlank do the usb-c version have a better capacity ?

I just checked their website and found this: “Our early batteries were red when charging and green when fully charged, more recent batteries will flash green when charging and be solid green when charged.” Hopefully they are fine, but if they are not email support@paleblueearth.com and they should be able to help out!

Good question! The batteries are not solar them selves, they can not convert sunlight to power. But if you have a portable solar panel you can charge them off of this, or a solar battery bank. Has been nice if you use these out on a camping trip, but I’ve also sometimes just opted to use non-rechargeable since they hold more capacity for certain things.

​@PhilipBlank ahhh... makes sense now. I don't have solar panels on my house so my mind didn't go that way. Thanks for explaining

@@kevinkennedy3242 happy to help! Sorry I was not clear to start with.

Hi Jennifer! That’s interesting. If you plug them into the wall and they don’t flash green I’d first try a few different power blocks or plugging it into a laptop port. Then if they do not flash green for charging I’d contact PaleBlue and try to work with them to see what’s up!

They look available on their website!

Ditto! They are always running sales though so I’ve never paid the full amount. When you first visit the site a 15% discount pops up for email, you can also wait for sales of 20% or more. Also I don’t buy a single 4 pack, just the big kits which makes the cost per go down. At this point I’ve bought and used them in most my devices, especially anything remote control so I’ve not bought new batteries in a long while.

That’s actually pretty interesting! I’ve not used these in one but makes perfect sense though. All the emc on these systems are what’s killing AM radio, that’s why it’s not being put into electric cars as it would pick up so much interference!

For sure man, I am not impressed by the capacity and they really have to up it for future version to stay competitive to disposable lithiums. They are not the answer to everything BUT the value in them to me has been the ability to stop buying standard batteries and just swap these out and top them off when something dies. I have them in wireless wall lights, remotes, Legos, baby toys, and lots of random devices around home that don’t use a high power draw. I still have a few standard batteries on hand just in case but have just about swapped over to these and I’m content plugging things in every couple months if needed. They are especially handy for some flashlights I have since I can top them off and keep it always charged in my truck, never have to deal with low batteries on that since I rarely run it for long times at once. Again though, not for everything or everyone.