Duracell Brand Batteries Suck

Since 1998, I started experiencing Duracell brand batteries exploding inside my electronic devices. The first incident destroyed an Excalibur 3D-cell flashlight that was a predated the MagLite flashlights. It was the first of its kind in high intensity halogen flashlights and it was special to me because I bought it was my birthday money when I was 16 or 17, back in the late 80s.

Soon afterwards, other devices started suffering these catastrophic failures. No less than 3 mini-MagLites were destroyed by these batteries, because there was no way to get the exploded batteries out of the battery compartments of the flashlights. Other devices started to fail only to find that the batteries exploded and left their gritty white residue all over the battery compartment and battery terminals upon opening the cover. Once the offenders were removed and the residue scrubbed off with a toothbrush, they were good to go again. The latest device to suffer this failure is my favorite portable CD/MP3/FM/AM player. With a bit of elbow grease and a toothbrush, I was able to clean it up and get it working again, but I'm done with Duracell brand batteries. No longer will I buy them again.

I have since switched over to Energizer brand batteries. I have never experienced such epic failures from Energizer before and I am surprised that I even stayed with Duracell brand batteries for this long. I guess I bought into their hype too much.