Which AA Battery Brand Wins?
In our test we compared 10 aa battery options head to head. Energizer came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Energizer
Price shown in test: 75 cent
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Amazon Basics
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The quick take
The short version of why each pick lands where it does, built straight from the measured results.
“So, which battery would I buy? I'd likely buy the Energizer just because it seems to be a good balance between price as well as producing a lot of energy.”
Placed top three in 2 of 3 measurements.
Best in 2 of 4 measurements, including Value Per Penny 100 M A and Value Per Penny 300 M A.
The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
Discharge Test 300 M (A)
- 1Energizer Lithium723 minutes
3,317 milliamp hours, described as beating all the alkaline batteries by a long shot
- 2Energizer411 minutes
1,888 milliamp hours, described as beating the regular Duracell, the Duracell Quantum, and every other battery tested up to that point at this rate
- 3Rayovac Fusion410 minutes
1,884 milliamp hours, finished nearly in a tie with the Duracell Quantum in a head to head test where both brands claim no alkaline battery lasts longer
- 4Duracell Quantum405 minutes
1,850 milliamp hours
- 5Duracell
two units tested: 381 minutes/1,747 milliamp hours and 380 minutes/1,738 milliamp hours, described as significantly outperforming the Dollar General battery it was tested against
- 6Rayovac347 minutes
1,589 milliamp hours
- 7Eveready303 minutes
1,384 milliamp hours
- 8Amazon Basics301 minutes
1,382 milliamp hours
- 9Dollar General
two units tested: 26 minutes/117 milliamp hours and 35 minutes/158 milliamp hours, described as significantly worse than the Duracell it was tested against
- 10Harbor Freight Thunderbolt28 minutes
125 milliamp hours, explicitly called out as worse than the dollar store battery
Discharge Test 100 M (A)
- 1Energizer Lithium2,081 minutes
3,152 milliamp hours, described as lasting twice as long as the competition
- 2Energizer1,329 minutes2nd
2,026 milliamp hours, second place behind the Duracell Quantum
- 3Rayovac Fusion
ambiguous, see notes
- 4Duracell Quantum1,363 minutes
2,064 milliamp hours, the best result of any brand at this rate, narrator says the Duracell Quantum barely beat out the Energizer
- 5Duracell1,315 minutes
2,012 milliamp hours
- 6Rayovac
reported as 1,205 minutes/1,844 milliamp hours in the main sequential retest of previously tested brands, but a second, much lower figure of 958 minutes/1,465 milliamp hours appears shortly after in a block where the narrator says he is redoing a mistaken Amazon Basics result and also testing the Rayovac; it is unclear whether that second figure is a correction of this same plain Rayovac reading, a mistake of its own, or actually belongs to the separately named Rayovac Fusion tested earlier at 300 mA. Both figures are recorded here rather than picking one.
- 7Eveready837 minutes
1,279 milliamp hours, described as finishing behind the Amazon Basics in the closing value recap despite being a more expensive battery
- 8Amazon Basics
an initial test result was called a mistake by the narrator and redone; the corrected/final figure given is 1,043 minutes, 1,593 milliamp hours
- 9Dollar General128 minutes
193 milliamp hours, described as not even as good as the Harbor Freight Thunderbolt at this rate
- 10Harbor Freight Thunderbolt181 minutes
275 milliamp hours
All measurements (2 more)+
Value Per Penny 100 M A
- 2Energizernearly28 milliamps2nd
per penny, second best value behind Amazon Basics
- 8Amazon Basics37 milliamps
per penny, again the best value of all brands at this rate, ahead of the Energizer's nearly 28 milliamps per penny
- 1Energizer Lithiumnot tested
- 3Rayovac Fusionnot tested
- 4Duracell Quantumnot tested
- 5Duracellnot tested
- 6Rayovacnot tested
- 7Evereadynot tested
- 9Dollar Generalnot tested
- 10Harbor Freight Thunderboltnot tested
Value Per Penny 300 M A
- 8Amazon Basicsover32 milliamps
per penny, the best value of all brands tested at this rate, ahead of the Energizer's nearly 26 milliamps per penny
- 1Energizer Lithiumnot tested
- 2Energizernot tested
- 3Rayovac Fusionnot tested
- 4Duracell Quantumnot tested
- 5Duracellnot tested
- 6Rayovacnot tested
- 7Evereadynot tested
- 9Dollar Generalnot tested
- 10Harbor Freight Thunderboltnot tested
How it was tested
- bounce test methodology demonstration (a battery charge state diagnostic using new versus used Duracells, not a competitive brand metric)
- discharge test at a 300 milliamp drain rate, measuring runtime in minutes and total milliamp hours delivered
- discharge test at a slower 100 milliamp drain rate, measuring runtime in minutes and total milliamp hours delivered
- cost efficiency (milliamp hours produced per penny of purchase price) at both discharge rates
“So, which battery would I buy? I'd likely buy the Energizer just because it seems to be a good balance between price as well as producing a lot of energy.”
Data notes and caveats
Products array is ordered by 300 mA discharge test total milliamp hours, the one metric narrated for all brands, cross checked against the narrator's own comparative statements (e.g. Harbor Freight Thunderbolt explicitly called worse than the Dollar General despite a slightly lower raw average for Dollar General across its two units); rankings shift somewhat at the slower 100 mA rate, most notably Duracell Quantum overtaking Energizer for first place there. The video's central intro question, is Energizer that much better than a 5 dollar generic store battery, is answered narratively rather than with one single crowned winner: the Energizer Lithium was the best raw performer at both rates but explicitly not the best value, the Amazon Basics was explicitly the best value at both rates despite near bottom raw capacity, and the Energizer (regular) is the narrator's own personal pick as the best balance of price and performance, used here as the winner field. A genuine data ambiguity survives in the transcript around the Rayovac brand: the description and affiliate links list only one Rayovac product, but the transcript separately introduces a Rayovac Fusion by name with its own 300 mA figure, then later gives two different, hard to attribute 100 mA figures (1,205 min/1,844 mAh, then 958 min/1,465 mAh) in a passage where the narrator says he is correcting an Amazon Basics mistake and also testing the Rayovac; both figures are preserved and flagged rather than assigned with false confidence to one Rayovac line or the other.
