On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:21:10 -0800, Dave Platt wrote:
In article , Michael A.
Terrell wrote:

So do I. They rarely last more than a year before they leak, and some
brands even less. Before they changed from some anonymous Chinese
manufacturer to GPT, the Office Depot brand sold here lasted 3-4
months.

Are you storing them in an oven? I have used Alkaline cells that
were over six years old.

Are those times for cells that have been stored in unused condition, or
for cells that are in a device which is in occasional use?

I believe that the former (shelf life when fully charged) is often a good
deal better than the latter (lifetime once partially discharged). I've
read that even a modest partial discharge of an alkaline cell starts an
electrochemical reaction that can lead to corrosion of the case after a
year or so.

I have a Fujicam that takes AAs - I used to use NiMHs, but they turned
out to be crap, so I got a couple of alkalines, which have lasted now for
at least a year in intermittent duty - the camera is a real current hog,
even when it's off, so I just store the cam with the battery door open.
This means I have to set its clock every time I use it, but I consider
that a small price to pay for the kind of reliability I'm getting.

YMMV, of course.

Cheers!
Rich