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So, I'm moving stuff around in my basement to make room for a new tool chest. I run across my toolbox that has my testers & multi-meters in it.
I use a cheapy little tester/multi-meter for around the house.
The ones in the toolbox are my calibrated Fluke MM's.
A lot of money worth of specialized MM's & attachments from my working days.
I haven't used them in years, so I figured I better check the batteries in them.
All dead, took them out. They expired in 2011.
Where I got lucky was that there were none of them had exploded. I have had Eveready Energizers explode in at least 4-5 things lately.
I will never buy another EE again. From now on, it's copper tops all the way.
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My experience lately is the exact opposite. Tossed and repaired a couple units with leaking Duracells. Best plan I suppose is pull the batteries out if anything you don't use regularly.
Blackhat
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Yup - I've had Duracells go kaflooy.

Haven't ruined anything very expensive, Maglites and such, but the best plan is to take the batteries out if you aren't using the device.
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Same here have had Duracell leak way more than anything else.
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LIL
It is called "confirmation bias." You have a perception that E. batteries leak and D. don't. So when E. leaks your perception has been confirmed. But when D. leaks, you exercise cognitive dissonance, reinforcing only the experience that confirms your bias. Fact is, both leak. Both use the same chemical reaction. Both are made in the same shape with the same thickness can.
When you buy a battery, the product you are buying is the power that is in it. Power doesn't have a brand name. Buy whatever is on sale.
There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
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Seems like every one of them will leak if you leave them long enough. I just tossed an old multimeter and a temp sensor for weather monitor because the Duracells exploded. I've had similar problems with Eveready batteries too.
Mike
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But not today...
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yep my fluke sees use rarely but the battery is not in it in between uses. copper top have killed many a maglite. I have come to conclusion check you stuff regularly or pull the batteries so when you need it all you do is add batteries instead of needing a replacement
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women have trouble understanding Trump's MAGA theme because they had so little involvement in making America great the first time around.
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my guess is that darn near all of those batteries are made in the same factory and all seem to fail the same.
the mfgs have gotten away from the "we will repair or replace" in favor of "don't leave 'em in there."
YMMV.
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Patsfan said:
my guess is that darn near all of those batteries are made in the same factory and all seem to fail the same.
the mfgs have gotten away from the "we will repair or replace" in favor of "don't leave 'em in there."
YMMV.
The factories are in different places but the materials used in the batteries are supplied by the same two suppliers. I visited the factories and was told (and shown) this in a former work life. That was 11 years ago and I doubt very much anything has changed because the companies have not changed. What is remarkable the number of batteries that don't work right off the factory line. They just toss those and recycle the components.
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Alaric said:
It is called "confirmation bias." You have a perception that E. batteries leak and D. don't. So when E. leaks your perception has been confirmed. But when D. leaks, you exercise cognitive dissonance, reinforcing only the experience that confirms your bias. Fact is, both leak. Both use the same chemical reaction. Both are made in the same shape with the same thickness can.
I got mighty tired of alkaline batteries destroying my devices. Some are the kids favorite toys, some are irreplaceable, and a couple were too expensive to risk messing up with little steel canisters of caustic corrosives.
I originally bought a few sets of AA Eneloop rechargeable batteries for the camera flash. Since then I've been buying a few at a time and putting them either in high drain or the favorite kids toys. Sanyo(now Panasonic) claims 1500 charge cycles so over time they will save money. And since there is no liquid inside the batteries, they will never leak.