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Duracell = DuraLeak?

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Ohio Andy

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Notgrownup said:
We sell Pro Cell at work . Been selling them for years and have not had any complaints. We sell them to nursing homes for all the devices. I use them at home .
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We used to sell Pro Cell at work to employees, I don't know if employees can still buy direct from the company anymore, I think they shut that down, but, they were telling me how much better Pro Cell was over the Copper top model, so, I contacted Duracell to ask the difference since the specs looked the same online.

They said they were identical products with different packaging / marketing. I bought a lot of Pro cells though because the price was great. Now I only buy Lithium because they are less prone to leakage and I need to change them less often.
 
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rust in the eye

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Duracells have leaked in my devices one too many times. F'ing up my favorite old Maglite was the last straw.
The lesson here may be not to leave these cells in infrequently used devices as they seem to ALWAYS spill their guts after they die. That said I've had other brands die without soiling the bed.
I've been buying Energizer, Ray O Vac or even those rediculously inexpensive yellow jobs from Harbor Freight and not had these issues, yet anyway.
 
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tak1313

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+1 on Energizer over Duracell for being less leak-prone. For awhile, Amazon was sourcing their branded cells from Japan that was renowned for being leak free, and I never had a leak with those. I don't remember what brand it was, maybe Panasonic or Hitachi, a lot of guys on EEVblog used to buy them in massive bulk, but they switched their sourcing years ago for typical cost-cutting reasons (thanks Jeff Bezos!).

Edit - the source was FDK/Fujistsu (not to be confused with Fuji)
 
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Rabid Badger

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Any alkaline battery can leak. Eneloops or Energizer lithiums are all I use anymore.

You have to be careful with the Energizer lithiums, though. They have a substantially higher starting voltage and can damage some devices.
 
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JDtime

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Rayovac is my to go battery brand or Energizer if they are on sale. I no longer buy the brand you mentioned.
 
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cbracer

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Duracell owns Energizer. I agree with everyone that the Costco Duracell are the worst at leaking. Couldn't believe it, yeah about 15 years ago it started. I do Rayovac now, although any Lithium even Energizer Lithium's have never leaked on me. I even tried to file a claim on Duracell's anti-leak campaign and got nothing from it. Costco quality in general has gone downhill just like Duracell. Corporate greed (shareholders) are the root cause.
 
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BIGTOY44

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cbracer said:
Duracell owns Energizer. I agree with everyone that the Costco Duracell are the worst at leaking. Couldn't believe it, yeah about 15 years ago it started. I do Rayovac now, although any Lithium even Energizer Lithium's have never leaked on me. I even tried to file a claim on Duracell's anti-leak campaign and got nothing from it. Costco quality in general has gone downhill just like Duracell. Corporate greed (shareholders) are the root cause.
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Not true.
 
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RTM

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S

Schurkey

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Duracell leaks.
Energizer leaks.
Ray-O-Vac leaks.

I bought a multi-pack of Ray-O-Vac AAA cells, threw out about half of them because they were leaking in the package, before they were ever installed in a device. Haven't had any (excessive, unusual) problem with Ray-O-Vac AA, C, D, or 9-volt. Just that pack of AAA.

EVERY brand leaks, and in my experience--other than those R-O-V AAAs--they tend to leak more after they're discharged.

Yeah, I remove batteries from stuff I don't use every day. It's a pain in the ***. We put a man on the moon, millions of transistors on a lil' chip of silicon...but can't/won't make a battery that doesn't destroy whatever it's been installed in?
 
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boom10ful

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visionguru said:
Recently, I kept finding battery leaks:
  • Snap-On 1/4" Techangle. 3 AAA batteries were in the battery holder, not in the torque wrench. 2 out of 3 leaked. Voltages were still more than 1.5v
  • Bosch Laser distance measure. 2 out of 4 AAA leaked. Voltages were all above 1.5v.
  • Coast Headlamp. 2 AA leaked. Rotted the circuit board.
  • Nikon camera flash. 4 AA batteries made a mess.
  • Gardner Bender voltage meter (cheap meter from Menards), just found out this morning:
IMG_20251024_090955.jpg

IMG_20251024_095026.jpg
Same pattern, leaked batteries are not discharged. They can still power a flashlight.

I suddenly realized that all those are DURACELL from Costco. I used to use no-name batteries, rarely had any leaks. This reminds me that last year I had to throw out some unused DURACELL because they leaked in storage. It seems that DURACELL is designed to leak, regardless of usage!
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I've had them leak regardless of where they are purchased. Been done with Duracell for some time now and use rechargeable Lithium AA AAA now.
 
M

M.Jay

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Southern Germany
Steve_P said:
Dunno why people aren't only using rechargeable batteries in 2025- never had one leak.
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Same. I switched most of my devices to Eneloop. They're more expensive initially, but save money in the long run. Plus, you don't have to worry about leaks anymore.

For the few occasions i need normal batteries, i get Varta.
 
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Ohio Andy

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Buster21

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Anything that is going to be stored for any period of time like meters or emergency lights get Energizer Lithium, I only use alkaline in things that get used up quickly and get swapped out frequently.
 
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