Normal batteries no longer play such a big role in our everyday lives, but they are still needed from time to time. These are still used especially in things like remote controls etc.
But what kind of batteries to buy? Every discounter has its own brands, which are extremely cheap compared to the “big ones” like Varta and Duracell.
But which discount store has the best AA batteries? Aldi with its Active Energy? Lidl with Tronic? REWE with yes? Or maybe another discounter?
To clarify this question, I bought AA batteries from 7 discount stores and compared them with batteries from VARTA and Duracell.
Who has the best AA batteries?
The batteries in the test
I am sending the following batteries into this comparison:
Price per battery
Aldi / Activ Energy
0.18 €
DM / Paradise
0.19 €
Duracell Plus
0.86 €
Edeka / Power Cell
0.18 €
Lidl / Tronic
0.18 €
Net / Star
0.20 €
REWE / yes!
0.18 €
Rossmann / Rubin
0.21 €
VARTA Battery AA
0.40 €
I bought the house brands of all the big discounters, Aldi, Lidl, REWE, Rossmann, Netto, Edeka and DM.
I also ordered a set of Duracell and Varta batteries from Amazon.
In terms of price, however, there is no discussion here as to who is cheaper. Depending on the set composition, the prices can of course vary somewhat, but I paid €0.86 per piece for the Duracell batteries, which makes them clearly the most expensive.
In second place are the Varta at €0.40 per piece. The batteries from the discounter, on the other hand, were all about the same price +-. So we only had a price difference of a few cents.
How were the batteries tested?
I tested the batteries in a SkyRC MC3000. Here I have this discharged with 0.1A load (a light load) and 0.4A, a slightly higher load.
I tested 2 batteries from each provider, or if a value seemed suspicious to me (which happened with 3 batteries), I would take a 3rd one with me.
The batteries were discharged to a voltage of 1V, then the test stopped.
Below you can see the average of the respective measurements.
Which discount battery has the highest capacity?
Let’s start with the measurement at a low load of 0.1A.
I was very surprised here! First of all, all the batteries are quite close together. The worst achieved an average of 2226 mAh and the best 2477 mAh. In practice these are not big differences.
But who was best?
DM / Paradies Edeka / Power Cell Duracell Plus Netto / Star Aldi / Activ Energy Lidl / Tronic Rossmann / Rubin REWE / yes! VARTA batteries AA
This is a ranking that I did not expect. 1st place goes to the “Paradies” from the DM market, 2nd place to the “Star” from Netto, 3rd place to the Duracell batteries and 4th place to the “Star” from Netto.
It is probably no surprise that the batteries from Netto and Edeka are very close to each other, because these two companies belong together. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if these were the same batteries just with different names.
But I wouldn’t have thought that the DM Paradies would be so strong. Duracell still comes in third place.
Varta once again takes last place, a little behind. This is a bit sad, since Varta actually stands for quality.
The same picture under higher load?
But if we put a little more strain on the batteries, will the image remain the same?
Mostly yes. However, the ranks are shifting somewhat.
DM / Paradies Netto / Star Edeka / Power Cell Duracell Plus Lidl / Tronic Aldi / Activ Energy REWE / yes! Rossmann / Rubin VARTA batteries AA
The “Paradies” from the DM remain the best batteries. The “Star” from Netto +- moved into second place with the “Power Cell” from Edeka.
This once again reinforces the assumption that we have the same batteries here, just under a different name.
Duracell, on the other hand, slips to fourth place.
Varta once again remains in last place, followed by Rossmann and REWE.
Voltage curve
Finally, let’s take a look at the voltage curve. Were there any abnormalities here?
The first noticeable thing concerns the Varta battery, which clearly had the lowest voltage. Otherwise the picture to be expected, DM just ahead of Edeka.
Perhaps the Duracell is still exciting, as it has a slightly lower tension at the beginning, but then makes up ground again towards the end.
Conclusion
The conclusion from this test is: buy batteries from a discount store! It makes no sense to pay attention to brands like Duracell or Varta. Varta in particular really didn’t do well for me.
Duracell sold a little better, but didn’t get past 3rd or 4th place at 4x the price.
Which AA batteries would I buy now? First of all, the differences in practice are not large. But I would tend to choose the following models:
Active Energy from Aldi and Tronic from Lidl also didn’t do badly, but ended up in the middle of the field.
Yes! and Rubin from REWE and Rossmann, on the other hand, consistently landed in last place.