I just lost the second good flashlight to leaking Rayovac D cells in six months. (yes, I do check them periodically). The expiration date was 2018.
Irritated.
Must be the humidity in Brokezakistan! I hear its bad!!! 
Is it possible to Lock Out the tail cap? or head? If you can sever the contact, it will reduce the odds of this happening. Btw, I you can send it to Rayovac and the will warranty/replace the item.
http://www.rayovac.com/Contact-Us/Warranty-And-Guarantee.aspx
Good luck.
dont feel bad…
had a rash of leaking rayovacs here too.
they were in crap lights to use on jobs where they might not make it back.what pissed me off though was cleaning up a bell system/western electric linesmans light that these junkers had only been in for a month.tested it out and forgot them.
sure rayovac replaced them but its just another reason for me to stop using alkaleaks altogether!
Alkalines.
In future you should take the batteries out of seldom used devices, i know thats little consolation, but perhaps you can find an identical replacement on ebay?
I want to use up a batch of AAs that expired in 2013 by using them in Sanyo AA to D adapters, does that seem safe to everyone?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the battery aisle, I will fear no leakage: for thou flashlight shall be with me; used and checked every day. Amen.
I am past tired of tossing or repairing lights due to leaking alkalines. So now, energizer ultimate lithiums in AAA, AA, or 3*AA parallel in D adapters is all I have in my lights. So far no leakage. I don’t have a good soluton for C, other than leave them in the package in the same drawer as the light
AA and C are both 50mm long so you just need a sleeve. I've used 3/4 inch black plastic irrigation pipe, 2 pieces cut to length. Slit one lengthwise, removing enough (about 3/8 inch, IIRC) so you can insert it inside the other piece without overlap. Just about perfect. It comes coiled, so it tends to curve but not a problem in short lengths, especially if you orient the inner one so the curve is 180 degrees to the outer one. I'm using one in 3AA to 3C configuration in a DST right now using 'Duraloops'.
The best way to go for a D cell light is Tenergy Premium or Centura D cells. They’re cheap, powerful, have sky-high capacities, and will NOT leak.
Rayovac is such an old and trusted brand name that it would seem very stupid for the current owner of that brand name to sell an inferior product with that label.
My oldest flashlight says “RayOVac Patent 1928” on it. The last light I purchased in a US store rather than on Internet also says Rayovac on it.
I am biased because I like particle accelerators. I think the name might have originated when battery powered vacuum tube radios were common.
Mine too, do you have a photo?
Almost all of us have seen more than our fill of leaky alkalines, of all brands.
Those of us in hot climates probably see it much more, when I was on the coast and temps stayed cool, it was a rarity for me, it happened, but I thought it was rare at the time.
Around $10 on Ebay. It needed the corrosion worked off the switch and contacts before it lighted up.
That is just like mine, except mine is brass/nickel.
What do you think it would cost to do a cheap, non-cutting edge mod to it, without touching the outside?
I am more inclined to modify plastic Everedys and Rayovacs and keep the old one more or less as it was. I don’t know. I did slip copper braid over the rusted steel spring. I can’t recall seeing a screw (Edison) led drop in replacement.
Brass/nickel sounds good. Don’t know why they used copper.
Mine does not appear to have much connecting the bulb to the case, so for high power one should add a thermal path to the outside case.
This also happened to my 6 D Maglight. Good thing I brought it back to where I bought the Maglight and they took it apart and clean out the switch and tube. I only use rechargeables now.
Doesn’t matter what you do or where you store these things (in a device or otherwise), they WILL leak. Happened to me several times now and made a real mess out of the devices in which they were kept. The expiry date of mine are DEC 2018 and sure, Rayovac has a such lovely warranty. They will replace the batteries and the ruined device but I must pay to ship all the stuff back to them… They don’t care if the shipping costs exceed the total value of the shipment. The best move is to stay away from Rayovac batteries altogether.
C adapters are readily available. I bought 6 that I use in my 3C Mag and another old al light. Otherwise I don’t worry about it if I am using the light at least occasionally.
Jerry
I vaguely recall seeing a screw-thread LED replacement long ago, don’t have a link (and it’d be a weak little LED in today’s terms).
I still have a few lights that would benefit from one if I ever find one again.