Early failure of Amazon Basics AA alkaline battery

[kenny91]

I had another failure of a Amazon Basics Alkaline AA battery. My flashlight has 6 batteries, inserted from a fresh package. The flashlight eventually went dim and rather than chucking all six batteries, I checked all the voltages. One battery was down to 0.1 V. The others were about 1.3 V. I replaced the bad one and got bright light again. Glad I checked.
I’m finding Amazon Basics has problems like this once in awhile.

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I've run into this a few times with bulk battery packs too. It's usually a single defective cell in the batch that drains down to nothing while the rest are perfectly fine. Checking them individually with a multimeter saves so much money compared to tossing the whole set.

 

[Pablo]

AAA's in 2025-26 seem to have an increased failure rate, regardless of brand!

 

[berniedd]

Almost all alkalines leak, I avoid them.

 

[PandaBear]

I have not gotten worse Amazon Basic quality than say, IKEA, Rayovac, Energizer, Kirkland, etc. So far my luck is that only Duracell leak before their expiration date in my device. They are supposed to be name brand but they seems to not get the leak problem solved yet.

Indonesia made huh? I guess they are mainly to supply as OEM to toys made there. Most likely some factories are leaving China and moving to Indonesia and their suppliers went with them.

I don't think anyone is making any new products in US that would be powered by AA or AAA cells, so I guess that's why no new battery lines here as OEM.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

I've read that Duracells are known to leak, as well as the Duracell made Kirkland batteries. I don't use a ton of them, but have experienced them leaking in a smoke detector after many years. I've since switched to Energize Lithium for my smoke detectors.

I pay the price and make a point to always use the Energizer Lithium for specific items. Things that are slow drain that a battery may go without changing a year +. Some examples, my Harbor Freight gun safe, The Energizer Lithiums last years with me unlocking a few times a week. I have a La Crosse indoor / outdoor wireless weather station, The outdoor transmitter is mounted on my porch and uses 2AA batteries and will see below freezing to 90+ in the Summer.
If I use the Lithiums I get years before I need to replace the batteries!
I find anything that goes this length of time needs the lithiums and knowing the battery wont leak and damage my expensive items is worth the price!
I use Duracells, Amazon, etc for flashlights or wireless microphones or things I know I will be changing every month or so...