Deals on Rechargable Battery Pack for X360 Controller?

I never really understood the point of those things. I've been using individual rechargeable NiCad AAs and they're cheap and fine.
 
I would say get the official ones but don't get the "Play 'N' Charge Kit." Pay the extra money and get this:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383511&pf_rd_i=915398

You get one battery pack with it and trust me the battery lasts for hours. I believe that my battery packed lasted through my whole entire 26hrs playthrough of Mass Effect 2 and past that. The only thing is you should buy a second pack with it so you always have one charged up and ready.

When I got my Xbox 360 it came with the Play 'N' Charge Kit and I found that the battery lived for a very short amount of time before I had to use the wire again to charge it. So yeah from my experience the Quick Charge kit is the way to go.
 
$30 for the official charger totally isn't worth it. The external charger completely defeats any convince the official batteries offer, making them uselessly overpriced. Go for cheap NiCads, you can occasionally find something like this with 4 batteries for ~$10 (I got several from NCIX for $8 each). I don't offhand know of any specific deals on NiCads running this instant though.
 
I wouldn't go for NiCad simply because it's an older technology and does offer much battery life. Go for newer low discharge NIMH such as Eneloop, Duracell Precharged or Imedion. Obviously get a good smart charger if you don't have one already.
 
I was about to suggest the same thing. The rocketfish charge pack is pretty good. The battery is much better than MS's PlugNPlay. But the cable isn't as good IMO, but it still does the job. I like the cable for re-syncing my controllers as well.

Has anyone heard/tried an induction charger before? Looks interesting, but don't know if I want electricity travelling through the air.
 
I would say find yourself a pack of Sanyo Eneloops and don't bother with any proprietary battery packs again. They haven't done me wrong yet, on my 360 or Wii.
 


end thread.


[quote name='No One']I would say find yourself a pack of Sanyo Eneloops and don't bother with any proprietary battery packs again. They haven't done me wrong yet, on my 360 or Wii.[/QUOTE]

Eneloops are recommended so highly, Nintendo even packaged two pairs of Eneloops in a box and is selling them themselves. Saw this at my local Costco and was surprised. For pretty cheap too, can't remember if it was 15 or 20 but it came with a charger as well. However, regular Eneloops and a charger will more than suffice.

Found an article on it, and it even recharges via static electricity (like my Oral B electric toothrbrush). Nice.


Back on topic: Get Eneloops for your 360 controllers.
 
Ok I'm sold on the eneloops as they're very good batteries, but I'm still gonna pick up a third party ones just cause of the cable.
 
As an avid game for many years I have all three. the play n charge, the quick charge, and I have over 40 eneeloop batteries. I'll list the pros and cons:

eneeloops:
Pros: Can be used on different things. Charges Quick. Relatively cheap if you can find it on sale.
Neg: They last a LOT less than the official MS battery packs

Play N charge:
Pros: U can play and charge at the same time. Batteries last pretty long when they're fully charged. You can also use the cable to plug it into your PC for PC gaming.
Neg: Something about the Play N charges that is slow at charging and I think doesn't give a good charge. Can only charge when xbox is on :(

Quick Charge:
Pros: FAST charging. Full Charges. Batteries last over 20+ hours easily. Can charge two at time. Can charge when xbox is off.
Cons: Kinda expensive though I got mine for $20 at FS years ago on sale. Cannot play and charge at same time

Anyways Im all about helping abuot the CAG community but we can move these type of Q&As into the right thread from now on please?
 
[quote name='vibinvo']
Play N charge:
Pros: U can play and charge at the same time. Batteries last pretty long when they're fully charged. You can also use the cable to plug it into your PC for PC gaming.
[/QUOTE]

Good points, but the one in bold is sort of wrong. You can plug it in to your PC and charge via USB, but you will only be able to use it for playing on the PC if you have a wireless gaming receiver (one of these -- http://www.xbox.com/en-ca/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/).
 
I just bought this: http://www.thesource.ca/estore/prod...&category=XBOX360_Accessories&product=5815509

It has a 2100mAh compared to the regular 3600mAh from the official version, but it lasts pretty much as long (so far)

I've gone through 2 official ones in about a year so I bought the $4 warenty for these ones which allows me to swap the batteries within three years when they also inevitably die (and I don't need to keep the receipt)
 
There are a couple major cons of the battery packs that would make me not want to use them, other than the fact they are generally more expensive than NIMH AAs.

First of all, I've never had a pack outlast quality AAs, rechargeable or not. If you do a google search, you can find some articles about people opening these things up. Whats inside? 2 no name brand NIMH cells, which are only 1200MAH. (I've heard some newer packs have 1800mah cells but I'm not sure, guess it depends who is providing them to MS) On top of that, they are non LSD cells, meaning that if you let the battery pack sit for about a month, it won't have any power left until you charge it.

Secondly, they batteries degrade very quickly. These are not quality cells you are paying for. MS gives the contract to the lowest bidder. I once owned an MS battery pack, and when it was brand new I did get 15-20 hours out of it. That lasted for maybe a year, at which point I was lucky to get half that. By 2 years I was getting around 2-3 hours out of it and then it died a few months later. Now it' a paper weight.

Thirdly, and I can only vouch for the official MS pack although I assume others would be similar, is that when the pack is plugged into the controller, it is always on. There is always a VERY faint light on the controller with the pack inserted, and it will continue to use a little bit of power all the time. If you leave it plugged in to your controller, it wont last more than a few days. This does not happen when you put AA batteries in the controller.

Now, does all this apply to every battery pack? I don't know. But why waste time and money finding out when you get get 4 Eneloops plus a charger for around $25? Keep one set charged at all times while the other is being used. And the best part is when the Xbox 720 or Wii 2 come out, these same batteries will likely work just fine for those too :)

Oh, and if you still would prefer the battery pack for whatever reason, don't get the plug and charge kit. It will kill the battery pack very quickly. The official Xbox 360 charger may be expensive but it should properly charge the pack.
 
[quote name='ass-assassin']Thirdly, and I can only vouch for the official MS pack although I assume others would be similar, is that when the pack is plugged into the controller, it is always on. There is always a VERY faint light on the controller with the pack inserted, and it will continue to use a little bit of power all the time. If you leave it plugged in to your controller, it wont last more than a few days. This does not happen when you put AA batteries in the controller.[/QUOTE]

Err, I've bought 3 MS packs and have had 5 controllers around, and I've never experienced that. Whenever I deplete a pack I charge it with my play & charge cable, then set the controller aside till I need a fully charged one. The average sit time is probably a month till I use it. The packs are always full when I pick them up.

Maybe there's something wrong with your controllers or packs?
 
[quote name='ragnar14']Err, I've bought 3 MS packs and have had 5 controllers around, and I've never experienced that. Whenever I deplete a pack I charge it with my play & charge cable, then set the controller aside till I need a fully charged one. The average sit time is probably a month till I use it. The packs are always full when I pick them up.

Maybe there's something wrong with your controllers or packs?[/QUOTE]

Well, mine was an early version (bought it in 2006) so it's possible they fixed it. Out of 3 other people I know who bought the same product they all had the same issue. It was a known issue when they first came out however I've never heard if MS bothered to fix the issue or not. A lot of people don't ever notice it happening because they play and charge their kits so frequently it never becomes an issue.
 
It's possible, I think my first Xbox was 2007ish. At any rate the answer is still clear, just buy AA's. I think most of us suggesting em have tried packs, and have found NIMH batteries to be clearly better.

Oh, one downside of the Play & Charge cable that I don't think anyone's mentioned yet. Playing the 360 with a corded controller is lame. I only had to do it a handful of times, and it just doesn't feel right. I don't mind corded controllers, I still have all my old consoles and enjoy them. But you get used to the 360 being 100% wireless, occasionally getting chained down with it is annoying.
 
I hated the play and charge kit. I could never get it to work properly. The battery would say they were fully charged when it wasn't I couldn't get it to charge more. I gave up and stated using batteries.
 
Count me in for more negative experience with Play & Charge. I think the 360 stays on while it's connected, even when you turn it off. You know, like if you've set it to download stuff even when it's off. It really bothers me since my 360 is under my desk in my room so I can hear its fan still going. I ended up turning off the power bar I had the 360 plugged in. Then I noticed that I couldn't turn on my 360 with my controller, despite the fact that the batteries appear to be charged when the system is on. It's so bizarre that I just bought some Duracells.

Then I found eneloops at Costco last year and bought the one with the charger for like $18 or something. My local Costco doesn't carry the batteries anymore, sadly. I managed to grab another 4 pack of AAs from Dell.ca for $10. These things are pretty awesome.
 
[quote name='vibinvo']As an avid game for many years I have all three. the play n charge, the quick charge, and I have over 40 eneeloop batteries. I'll list the pros and cons:

eneeloops:
Pros: Can be used on different things. Charges Quick. Relatively cheap if you can find it on sale.
Neg: They last a LOT less than the official MS battery packs

Play N charge:
Pros: U can play and charge at the same time. Batteries last pretty long when they're fully charged. You can also use the cable to plug it into your PC for PC gaming.
Neg: Something about the Play N charges that is slow at charging and I think doesn't give a good charge. Can only charge when xbox is on :(

Quick Charge:
Pros: FAST charging. Full Charges. Batteries last over 20+ hours easily. Can charge two at time. Can charge when xbox is off.
Cons: Kinda expensive though I got mine for $20 at FS years ago on sale. Cannot play and charge at same time

Anyways Im all about helping abuot the CAG community but we can move these type of Q&As into the right thread from now on please?[/QUOTE]
Seconded. The official battery packs last forever in terms of life too, my originals from three years ago are only just finally dying off, after pretty much daily usage. If only the consoles were so reliable! (Although I must admit, of the four I've bought this year, two are already dead... Maybe it's just the old ones that are tanks.)
 
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