On 5/22/2019 7:26 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 22 May 2019 17:52:10 -0700, Mike wrote:

Conspiracy theory notwithstanding...

I just hate it when someone ruins a perfectly good conspiracy theory.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained
by stupidity. Hanlon's Razor.

Standby/parasitic current drain of various flashlights (including
leakage current and estimated battery life):
https://lygte-info.dk/info/standbyCurrent%20UK.html

I suggest that some designer made a bad decision to use a cheap
part to manage the flashlight modes. Some manager made an uninformed
decision to remarket the result. Everybody saved a penny, except the user.
Caught with their pants down, some vendors are now advertising flashlights
with zero parasitic drain.
It's unlikely that Duracell had any malicious intent in this.

There is already a class action suit to prove otherwise:

"Duracell Class Action Says LED Flashlights Drain Batteries Quickly"
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-products/877506-duracell-class-action-says-led-flashlights-drain-batteries-quickly/
https://www.classaction.org/blog/in-the-dark-allegedly-defective-duracell-led-flashlights-drain-batteries-when-turned-off-class-action-lawsuit-claims
https://www.classaction.org/media/siddle-et-al-v-the-duracell-company-et-al.pdf
(12.4MB)
The case seeks to cover a proposed nationwide class of
consumers who bought Duracells 250, 300 or 350 LED
flashlight models from Duracell, Costco, Home Depot or
Amazon during the to-be-defined claim period.

You can sue anybody for anything. Sometimes you even win.
BUT
I don't expect anybody at Duracell ever sat down with the evil
intent to sell defective flashlights as a means to increase battery sales.
It's much more likely that someone in purchasing decided they could
make a buck on flashlights and did zero evaluation.

I skimmed part of the attached links.

Should they be punished for not recalling them? Probably, but what
is the appropriate punishment? We all have stuff that performs
less than expected. Where do you draw the line?

I'd bet that Costco took back any presented for refund.
Don't know about the others.

The people with flashlights ain't gonna get rich, but the lawyers sure
will get rich off this lawsuit.

I have several of these that I bought at garage sales. Didn't take long
to discover why they were almost free. I probably won't be able to make
a claim without a receipt. Stick a piece of plastic between the battery
pack and the spring.
They'll be fine when needed in an emergency.
Another strategy is to leave batteries in the flashlight, wait for
them to leak, get reimbursed for leaky batteries.

If I were to sue Duracell, it would be over leaky batteries that ruin
the devices they power. I'd get behind serious punishment for that.
Although I've had them replace seriously damaged devices on demand.

It's all about the Benjamins. If replacement cost is less than the
additional profit, that's what controls the decision. In this case,
they ****ed off the wrong ambulance chasers. ;-)

There really is no clean fix for this. If you use your flashlight every
day, it won't affect you much. If you use it infrequently for emergencies,
you absolutely, positively want it to work when needed.
About all you can do is put an insulator somewhere in the battery
assembly and remove it when the emergency happens.

With alkaline cells, I like to store them outside of the device in a
plastic bag. I've had too many problems with alkaline cells leaking
all over the inside of flashlights, radios, and toys.

Next time, buy one that advertises zero parasitic drain.

Probably a good idea. I guess I've been lucky as none of mine seem to
have the problem. However, I haven't measured it, so I'm not really
sure.