[wpearse]

We switched to buying USB-rechargeable AA/AAA lithium ion batteries. The brand we buy is Pale Blue, but there are many other brands.

These batteries have a regular form factor, with an added micro USB (and USB C on some larger battery sizes) port for recharging. They work really well for us and charge quickly (and conveniently — everything has a USB socket nowadays).

The price may seem expensive, but after 10 or so charge cycles they should have paid for themselves. I expect these batteries will be good for many hundreds of charge cycles.

[fnimick]

I wouldn't recommend this personally, having had bad experiences with poor charge circuitry in integrated chargers like these (in my case it was in a 18650 battery). Get a good charger (e.g. eneloop), and then you can get generic rechargeable batteries incredibly inexpensively for it, without risking poor charge management causing overheating or battery failure.

[_carbyau_]

The same little charger circuit built into the batteries also converts the lithium battery chemistry voltage to 1.5v making them a drop in replacement for AA and AA batteries.

Or are you saying you can get 1.5V lithium rechargables that work with an external charger?

[ClumsyPilot]

Why use those instead of 'normal' rechargeables? Invest in a battery charger once and each battery will be cheaper.

The only USB chargeable ones I use are 9-volt batteries, those are awkward and I dont want to replace my charger

[_carbyau_]

"normal" ones are usual NiMH which put out 1.25v. Standard alkaline batteries put out 1.5v.

Some devices care about the difference.

The tiny electronics that allows the lithium battery chemistry to be charged via microUSB also converts the 3.?v output to 1.5v.