My uncle just told me yesterday that he had a nice flashlight trashed by Duracell batteries that swelled/leaked. He called Duracell and they asked for pictures. They sent him fresh batteries and a check for the cost of the flashlight.
Then he emailed the flashlight company and they sent him a new flashlight for free 
I lost a non-contact voltage detector to them leaking a couple years ago.
One of these.
https://www.grainger.com/product/SALISBURY-Voltage-Detector-5ZV84
I gather that Duracell, Energizer, perhaps RayOVac all offer similar support. But itās not worth the hassle of being out a tool and this nonsense with alkaline cells now happens so often that along with the costs and constant material logistics of new cells I all but donāt use them any more. And tools that refuse to use NiMH cells - or behaves poorly with them - are many points down when Iām considering a purchase.
Whatās a good way to clean battery leakage from the metal contact points of an object it leaked on? (I hope that makes sense!) A couple Duracell batteries leaked inside an external flash I have and I want to clean up the mess. Whatās the best way to do that so new batteries get good contact?
Iāve had good luck using a toothbrush, a mild abrasive like baking soda, and warm water. I typically wear nitrile gloves out of paranoia.
Since Energizer (Spectrum Brands) acquired Rayovac, out of dozens of batteries I had purchased, every one leaked.
I agree strongly with @ESmith ā¦ NiMH is a far better choice for most applications.
As someone wrote back in the hazy mists of time relative to TALK:
Back in ~1990 when you might have paid $1 per cell ($1.99 in 2020 greenbacks) there was enough margin to make a quality product. Now that they can be had for less than a quarter per unit (RayOVac) or less than $0.50 per unit (Energizer), somethingās got to give.
I got mine at Home Depot 
I know this is old by now and you may never see this but I was reading your comment mentioning CFLās. Yeah Iāve never looked into this but when they first came out I loved them. I went through whole house and switched over. Every single one if this bulbs made it at least 6-7 years and some even got close to 10. Well along comes LED, I try a couple. Idk what it is but I just kinda donāt like the light and they are not lasting very long. I had them burn out a year or little more. So since the original CFLās were starting to come to the dnd If their life instead of going LED I went with full CFL replacement. Ohhhhhhh man was i disappointed, they lasted longer then the LEDās did for me but nowhere near what the original ones I got. Fast forward to current times. Iām replacing my porch light every 6 months now smh ugh lol
Odd. Iāve had better luck with LEDs than I did with CFLs - even when they were good.
At my dadās house in Sanger the power fluctuates so much that LEDs last mere weeks. In hard to reach locations I had to use rough service bulbs. So much for energy efficiency!
Dang. When you canāt even enjoy garden-variety incandescent lampsā nominal ~15 lumens per watt.
I have switched to LED bulbs but have an entire ālargeā Home Depot moving box with unopened incandescent bulbs in it.
Between that and unopened ammo I have a retirement plan.
check the voltage rating on your lamps. Some come rated 120 volts and some are rated 130 volts. Typically, the most common voltage reading I see on the meter/tester is 125 volts around DFW. I just tested 124 volts on a receptacle at makerspace this past weekend. That being the case, the lamps rated 120 volts are going to burn out much faster if youāre getting over 120 volts from the power company. I recommend buying 130 volt rated lamps for all of your light fixtures, indoor and outdoor, even if your voltage only reads 120 volt on the meter/tester.
also, lamps go in light fixtures, bulbs go in the flower bed lol 
Indeed. But when it comes to LED, do note that 100-277V LED drivers are ubiquitous - Because Global Marketsā¢. DMS installed untold number of mains-driven LED tubes rated as such and they were happy with the ~208V feeding the troffers; I bought some of the same model for home usage and they operated A-OK on 120V.
oh definitely. If itās a multi-volt driver 120-277 that should be fine. I was mostly talking the A19 style residential lamps someone would use in a porch fixture as described above in @Chris_Brown 's post.
I donāt recall seeing those as other than 120v or 130v. If so, thereās no reason I can think of for an LED to keep burning out every 6 months unless itās a cheap lamp or voltage issue. Could be some issue from the power company like constant surges and variations in supply, but heād need to put a data meter on it to record for a while. I have this issue at my house, lights pulsing. Hasnāt affect lamp life at all, and they replaced the transformer, and it was fine for a while, but this week with the cold itās doing it again. lol good times!
Unless engineered exclusively for the North American market odds favor a 100-277V driver under the skin so as to limit BOM deviation for regionalization.
Cheapness, voltage issue, or itās an enclosed fixture that theyāre not rated to operate in.
Oh, thatās a really interesting thought. Could be. Iāll have to ask one of the manufacturerās reps about that one. But definitely makes sense.
Was definitely terrible power in Bolivar/Sanger. Rural electric with interruptions due to high winds, unbalanced legs etc.
It is interesting to me that this problem has been going on since 2015 and perhaps before. I buy Duracells in sufficient quantity that a 48-pack will usually be gone in two years. My experience with various battery brands, as of this writing, Ray-o-vac was almost universally prone to leakage. They almost destroyed a graphing calculator, LED flashlight, and smoke detectors. That may explain why their prices are that much lower than Duracell or Energizer. I had been using Duracell for years, but it has only been within the last year that I experience ANY leaking from Duracell. That is enough to convince me to switch to Energizer. I can live with a battery that might have a slightly shorter life. I CANNOT put up with any kind of leakage. As others have stated, just one device destroyed by leakage is one device too much.
I am curious where these various brands are made. My current AA package of duracells say they are āassembledā in the USA. What does that mean? Parts of the battery are manufactured overseas and the raw materials are shipped here?
P.S. The package of Energizer AAs just purchased says the company is based in Missouri, but assembled in Ontario, and the individual batteries says they are Made in China for the Missouri- based company.
