Leaking Dry Cell Batteries - Any that Don't Leak?

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ZeeOSix

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Does anyone make dry cell batteries (ie, C, D, AA, AAA, etc) that don't leak when discharged? I think Eveready claims their batteries don't leak anymore, but I don't know if I believe that or not. Seems I have so many devices that use batteries that it's almost impossible to keep track of how old the batteries are in them. And if it's something I don't use very often, then the day I do use it I discover the batteries went dead and pukes all over the terminals.

I've never seen a watch type of battery or a 9 volt battery ever leak. What is the mechanism that makes a battery leak out the corrosive juice? It just seems like this could be prevented.

All I know is I don't like finding corrosion inside where the batteries reside. Happened on a $300+ Tekronix DMM ... luckily I got the terminals cleaned back up pretty good, but there was some slight corrosion damage on the metal tabs where the batteries connect.
 
Duracell has always been better to me than Energizer, but I believe all will leak (esp. alkalines). That said, I haven't seen the 1.5V Lithium AA leak yet, but I also have learned to put date tags on everything and change them out, so I can't say it's been just due to the chemistry.
 
In AA or AAA high dollar devices like DMMs, the Lithium batteries are the way to go, i have also never seen one leak. With Alkaline its always a gamble, just stick with Made in USA and hope for the best.

9v won't show leakage easily, because the cells are assembled specially with the metallic casing over top of each individual plastic casing.
 
I hate corrosion as well. I don't have a problem with name brands for the most part. The non name brand ones are more likely to leak IMO.

I tried AGM batteries in cars using Optima red top because of the corrosion problems. But did not have good luck with that experiment.
One leaked at a seam, and the other 3, or 4 just did not last.
 
Leaking alkalike AA batteries have destroyed a few low power-consumption devices of mine over the years, so this is an interesting topic to me. For expensive devices this is a serious problem. I haven't had dura$ell batteries leak, but I don't care the pay that price all the time so in devices that will exhaust batteries in a short time I'll use various brands. And as spackard wrote, Lithium primary cells are excellent, if the price is worth it to you. Not only do they not leak even over a long period, they also last several times longer than alkaline in high consumption devices.
 
Oh, I've seen the 9V batteries leak. I just replaced a battery connector on a little LED checker because the battery was bulging and caused corrosion on the terminals.

Nothing was worse at leaking than the old carbon zinc cells. It seemed like they would always leak if they were spent and left in a device.
 
I've had more problems with leaky (Made in USA) Ray-O-Vac alkalines, than I've had with some of the Made in China store brand alkaline batteries.

sad, but unfortunately true.
 
all NA brand name alkalines leak these days.Doesn't matter if they are made in USofA, China, etc. fact is: I have worst luck with Duracell regular (even though they touted 5yrs shelf life for 9V; 10yrs for regular AA, A, C,D, etc.) and ditto with bunny ones (both C and D cells leaked after a couple of years, even though they still have at least 4+yrs of shelf life left). Ray-o-vac no better, ditto with a lot of other off-brands.

Duracell in my application was particularly notorious for sudden reverse polarity: happened to me 6+time already.

For low drain application, I now go back to using Zinc-Manganese type of any brands (my fave is Fuji-Novel), and for thermostats, etc. I use PAnasonic eVolta alkalines.

Q.
 
I have had both Duracell and Energizer leak on me; unfortunately, those are the two brands which I have purchased the most :-(

Occasional, I pick up drug-store brand alkaline and they do leak too.
 
I've never had a Lithium AA or AAA battery leak. We've given up on alkaline batteries in our aircraft fleet equipped with Bose headsets. It seems as soon as the alkaline batteries go dead, and are left in the heat, they leak.
 
I stock up on IKEA's batteries when I'm there. Never had one leak before. Very inexpensive to boot.

For any pricey electronic thing that I only use every now & then, I always remove the batteries. Just makes sense.
 
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