On Wednesday, 19 August 2015 08:40:21 UTC+1, Brian-Gaff wrote:

What does puzzle me though is how any dry battery goes down if its just for
back up and not used very much.

Well batteries are made from chemicals which age just like everything else.
It;s lioke my grommet draw where teh grommets have 'metlted' the plasic draw and sort of stuck to the plastic, wierd.

It implies it is being used, or that the
battery is a heap of crap in the first place!

Virtually everything ages except gold it seems.