I'd settle for a chart of the top ten, or even three. But I have a feeling that it would change regularly as companies race each other to be at the bottom of the quality pile.

 

It has been many, many years since I have had an alkaline battery that has leaked. Even in stuff in which the battery sat for years without being used. But in the last week I've encountered three of them -- two Energizer and one Duracell -- and all in items in which fresh batteries were installed within the last three or four months. The latest is my wireless mouse. It will usually go well over a year on a set of batteries and the last time I changed them was around Christmas. It worked fine until today when it started not tracking movements reliably -- the classic sign that the batteries need replacement. I pulled them out and one of them had a thick layer of corrosion (nearly 1/4" thick) on the negative terminal.

Has something changed? Have they altered the battery construction to, perhaps, make them "greener" or meet some new regulation?

Has anyone else experienced an increase in leaking alkalines?

Negative terminal corrosion is a big problem...the only solution that I am aware of is to gold plate the attaching electrode. This problem became evident to me on temperature sensing apparati (thermostat). Due diligence is the only solution.

 

I'd settle for a chart of the top ten, or even three. But I have a feeling that it would change regularly as companies race each other to be at the bottom of the quality pile.

Yep. We'd be looking at a chart on a weekly basis just before buying something, something that we could verify lot manufacturing date, kinda like buying lots of ceramic tile.

 

It appears my battery woes extend well beyond the Duracell and Energizer alkalines.

I have a cordless phone that I replaced the NiMH battery in a couple years ago -- the prior one finally gave up the ghost after more than twenty years, so it definitely didn't owe me anything. I knew it was time to get a new battery when the charge wouldn't last more than a day, as opposed to more than a week (when there was no actual usage) before. But already the new battery won't last more than a couple hours off the charger and less than an hour when in use (and you can't have it on the charger when you are using it, which is poor design).

Then my cell phone needed a new battery about a year ago -- it was only a few years old at the time -- and the new one is already being flaky. It will show a charge of nearly 50%, but as soon as you try to use it, the phone shuts down and when you turn it back on, it claims only a couple percent and shuts down again. This started about two weeks ago and last night it did the same thing, but was showing 73% charge when I picked it up. My guess is that abnormally high internal resistance is leading to misinterpretations of the battery state.

None of these are cases where I bought a battery off Amazon or Ebay. These were all name-brand products procured by as official a source as I could find -- the cellphone battery was obtained from a Verizon store.

I can't help but blame all of this on a general cause of every manufacturer going out of their way to use the crappiest materials and construction techniques they can find and having no interest in actually making a quality product.

With this experience, there is NO WAY I would consider buying an electric vehicle -- not too sure I'm even comfortable riding in one. If those batteries aren't already going down this same road, give it time.

I blame Amazon.

How long can Duracell or Energizer charge 75¢ per cell when an off-brand on Amazon sells for 22¢?

The only way to stay in business is to cheapen the product and sell at a lower price or higher margin.

 

I blame Amazon.

How long can Duracell or Energizer charge 75¢ per cell when an off-brand on Amazon sells for 22¢?

The only way to stay in business is to cheapen the product and sell at a lower price or higher margin.

Yep. It's why NASA pays about $25 for quality 1/4-20 1" bolt, but a 1/4-20 1" at ACE is 13c.

 

I buy large packages of Energizer alkaline and Ni-MH batteries on sale on Black Friday at grocery stores.
Sometimes one grocery store has a "tax free" day.
I recently bought Alkaline, Made in USA, 12 years shelf life guaranteed, Kirkland batteries at Costco for a low introductory price.

 

I thought you guys might find this interesting.... I found this battery today laying around in and old box:

​

If the date shown on the battery is its expiration date, then it means that it was probably manufactured more than 20 years ago.

 

I worked with a component engineer who specialized in batteries with a large consumer computer manufacturer. He once told me "If it has a battery it will eventually leak." The only question is when it will leak.

 

I worked with a component engineer who specialized in batteries with a large consumer computer manufacturer. He once told me "If it has a battery it will eventually leak." The only question is when it will leak.

As long as it is a few days after the heat death of the universe, I am OK with that.

Which reminds me of a joke...

In Jewish tradition a full life span is 120 years. It is also traditional to give “brachos” (blessings), among them would be “IYou should live to be 120 years old”.

One day after one having been help by Shmuel, his neighbor, Chaim offered a bracha, “You should live to 120 years and 6 months!”. “Why the six month”, a bemused Shmuel inquired. “I wouldn’t want you should die suddenly”, offered Chaim.

 

As long as it is a few days after the heat death of the universe, I am OK with that.

Which reminds me of a joke...

In Jewish tradition a full life span is 120 years. It is also traditional to give “brachos” (blessings), among them would be “IYou should live to be 120 years old”.

One day after one having been help by Shmuel, his neighbor, Chaim offered a bracha, “You should live to 120 years and 6 months!”. “Why the six month”, a bemused Shmuel inquired. “I wouldn’t want you should die suddenly”, offered Chaim.

"Not suddenly! ... but make it a quick death" I would have added.

 

"Not suddenly! ... but make it a quick death" I would have added.

”I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my uncle, not screaming in terror like his passengers.”

 

 

The run of the mill consumer batteries are junk today.

That is wrong. Should say :
All batteries are brutally expensive junk today.

If batteries were cheap as in past decades; I would understand a match with their performance today. But making them in the orient for a tenth of the production cost is to ripoff the consumer to fill the corporations pockets.
It is not about providing a battery for consumers. It is about making money by any means.

 

That is wrong. Should say :
All batteries are brutally expensive junk today.

If batteries were cheap as in past decades; I would understand a match with their performance today. But making them in the orient for a tenth of the production cost is to ripoff the consumer to fill the corporations pockets.
It is not about providing a battery for consumers. It is about making money by any means.

Not all. My 10 year fire alarm batteries are just fine and brutally expensive.

You can get quality products from places like China but there will be little price difference on the quality stuff so most people go cheap sourcing from there.

 

All batteries are brutally expensive junk today.

I bought a large pack of Energizer Max AA from amzon, reviews of the real thing on other sites seemed good. The batts I got had good expire date, but they are only lasting about 1/2 the time a std Duracell AA from walmart. I probably got junk, or fake.

 

I thought you guys might find this interesting.... I found this battery today laying around in and old box:

View attachment 294459​

If the date shown on the battery is its expiration date, then it means that it was probably manufactured more than 20 years ago.

Try doing the Alkaline Recharge trick on it, see if it comes back to life.

 

I got a vivid reminder of how things used to be.

I pulled out a DMM that hasn't been turned on in over 15 years. Fully expected the battery to have leaked and to have to spend time cleaning up the terminals.

When I turned it on -- the damn thing came on!

I pulled the battery out (a 9 V Kodak alkaline) and it looked pristine. The terminal voltage was only 7.6 V, so definitely at end of life. The expiration date on it was Mar 2015, so I probably bought it back in the 2005 time frame, which seems about right for when I got that meter.

On the other hand, I bought a ten-pack of Energizer 9 V alkalines when we moved into the house four years ago intending to replace the batteries in the smoke detectors. Only got a couple of them done before I got sidetracked and, after that, just replaced them as they started beeping with new-bought batteries. I organized my batteries last week and tested the remaining eight in that package and only one of them still had a moderate amount of charge left, even though all are still years away from their expiration date. At least none of them were leaking, which I can't say for all of the batteries I've bought. Many have leaked in the original package after just a couple years and, in one case, a couple months.

 

I used Duracell 9V batteries for years...they don't leak.
But I have noticed the life expectancy doesn't seem to be as long as it used to be.

 

Another option would be to use Lithium (non-rechargeable) batteries. Like the Energizer Ultimate Lithium.

They are significantly more costly, thus I would only use them on expensive electronics..

 

Has anyone else experienced an increase in leaking alkalines?

Yeah, lately I've seen an excess of leaked batteries. Rayovac was the worst. I stopped buying those 10 years back. Went with Duracell and Energizer. But lately - yeah, I've seen some of my energizers leak

A long time ago (talking 30 or 40 years ago), you couldn't beat Radio Shack's Enercell batteries. But even if they were still around, I'm sure they would have cheapened them up to the point of uselessness by now.

Interesting note: I knew a woman who worked for Duracell. She told me Duracell made the Radio Shack batteries AND that the RS batteries were held to a higher standard. AND AND AND they were cheaper.

Duracell started leaking atleast 3 years ago.

Seems about the time I started seeing Energizer leakage.

How long can Duracell or Energizer charge 75¢ per cell when an off-brand on Amazon sells for 22¢?

Bought a pack of 10 button cell batteries (CR2032's) on Amazon. Used one. A few years later I needed another. The remaining 9 were all dead.

It's why NASA pays about $25 for quality 1/4-20 1" bolt, but a 1/4-20 1" at ACE is 13c.

The reason why Ace Hardware is cheaper is because their bolts have not gone through hardening processes whereas the NASA hardware MUST meet very high standards. Those are "Mission Critical" hardware whereas if your bolt on the lawn mower breaks - you can just go get another. Few years back I replaced a part on the snow blower. The bolts originally were class 8 bolts. Several of them had to be cut off. I replaced them with hardware from Home Depot. The next few years I started replacing those one by one because of rusting and breaking. You can't just pull a satellite over and fix it on the side of an asteroid.

You can get quality products from places like China but there will be little price difference on the quality stuff so most people go cheap sourcing from there.

Going to get worse if we levy a tariff on China. Cheap is going to become an extinct word.

The most responsible factor in the cheapening of ALL consumer goods are "Bean Counters". Or "Efficiency Experts". A local restaurant went out of business because they started increasing their profit by buying sub-standard products. People didn't like the drop in quality and stopped going there. It's going to be the Bean Counters who bring the country to our knees.
[edited per request]