Feels familiar. At some point in the past few years I had one battery leak after the other. Never saw that happen for a long time before that.

Only using NiMH rechargeables now anymore where possible, they simply don't leak.

All batteries will leak eventually; it's simply fundamental to the chemistry of batteries. Some do leak much faster than others, though.

Personal experience -- Duracell sucks now (I heard the chemistry changed when they were bought out) and have ruined more than a dozen of my devices, well before the battery expiration date.

But so far I've found only 1 leaking Energizer in the past 10 yrs. Been swapping out for these, and Eneloops, depending on the use.

I even started a personal photo gallery of just leaking Duracells; maybe I'll finally start that Instagram account...

Today when shopping for AAAa I found non-duracells for 7.something, and another brand for 5 Euros for 4 batteries.

I picked up the duracell (it's a good brand, right?) to see that it's alkaline. Iirc Duracells "didn't leak" and lasted longer because they weren't alkaline. It's possible they offer better batteries elsewhere, but I bought the cheaper ones.

I really wish i could find the article i got it from, if i recall the gist was that they've always been alkaline, but the company removed an additive that reduced or delayed the leaking in an effort to save money.

A bunch of OEM companies got upset that their products were being destroyed, and thus two tiers of battery were created, one for OEM devices, and one for off-the-shelf