Aftermarket Batteries vs. Impres Batteries

I got an email yesterday from our Assistant Chief regarding a department in Illinois that wanted some advice about whether or not to go with aftermarket batteries, standard Motorola rechargeable NiCd batteries, or the new Impres batteries and chargers. I tried to offer as much advice as I could in the area, and I hope I sufficiently answered their questions.

My thoughts on the matter was to go with the Impres batteries and chargers. Simply for the fact that in the long run it would save their department time and money since the bank chargers automatically recondition the batteries after 90 charging cycles. Granted, the Impres batteries cost almost twice as much, and they'll have to replace their current chargers with the Impress chargers (which are pretty comparable in price). But they don't have to contract with a radio service for reconditioning their batteries, nor do they need to have a substantial amount of spare batteries on hand to accomodate the loss of the batteries during the reconditioning process.

The differences between our departments is this: the majority of our portables are HT1000's (about 225) with about 70 more being the new PR1500. They're using the HT1550-XLS.

I have about 30 of the PR1500's outfitted with the Impres batteries since they are assigned to bank chargers here at HQ. The rest are take-home units or assigned to officers in seperate offices, thus the need still for the NiCd batteries since they're using the single-unit chargers. I've had no problems with the Impres batteries so far, plus I like the fact that I don't have to constantly keep up with the reconditioning of at least those units.

Has anybody ever had any experience with the HT1550-XLS aftermarket batteries? I've heard some don't fit the radio properly, like the contacts don't even line up right. All I've had experience with is those for the HT1000. Interstate's RAD1830 is good, but doesn't fit our radio holders. Alexander's H7143 is a great battery, with a long life and a perfect fit.

Well, at least I got an "Attaboy" for puttin' my $.02 in, and maybe it was some good PR for the department (I hope).