Is this a fake, and if so how can I avoid in future?

They are Duracell made for factory’s and a bit of a cut price as they are bulk
We have 100s of them in our factory

I do hope there are no trolls on this fine forum, especially in the section reserved for consumable batteries :slight_smile:

Seriously, I remember a golden age when alkalines never leaked. After the horrible zinc-carbon batteries of my childhood, that was a great relief.

More recently I’ve had bad experiences. I’m wondering if this is at least partly related to counterfeits, since I assume it needs a decent level of manufacturing quality to give good protection against leaks.

Oddly enough I don’t remember any leaks from the dubious-looking Chinese brands that often come pre-installed in electronic gadgets…

Thanks, but I know these are supposed to be Duracell Industrial – used to be marketed in the UK as Procell, I think? – rather than the standard consumer ones.

What I was asking is whether they’re genuine Duracell Industrial. Do the ones you see at your work have that fuzzy printing? The full-res photo makes this clearer.

Thanks – I didn’t try to embed that one because half the time my images just don’t show up. That’s to say, earlier today the one at the top of this thread was fine, now I can’t see either of them. Is the forum software being picky about where images are allowed to be posted?

No trolls, but there are definitely some opinions. My opinion, alkaline >>>> ALL brands—-will leak.
Over enough uses, and enough time you get plenty of opportunities to be disappointed and royally pissed.
I’m there. Given up on them.

Can’t help you with the counterfeit part on those cells, but buying from unknown sources and weighting price point heavily is a way to more likely get counterfeits.

I gave up on Alkaline batteries many years ago. I keep them around exclusively for cheap kids toys.
I also had to give up on the Energizer Lithium cells when they leaked in a few different devices a couple of years ago.

I’ll take a photo after my dinner

looks exactly like cell we buy at work, and where we buy them, they do not sell fakes. there are red\black industrial, and there are these.
how do they perform?

Always buy things “sold by” Amazon. Greatly reduces chances of fakes.

We call ’em “alkaleaks” for a reason…

Hateful, hateful little things. They exist to ruin electronical goodies.

Much appreciated. The print does look fuzzy, though I’m not sure the edges show quite as bad a screen pattern as on my pic. Still, both the batteries and the packaging look pretty convincing so I will assume they’re OK. I have not tried to measure capacity, but so far I’ve had no duds.

Thanks everyone for advice about reputable suppliers. I’ll pay attention to that in future.

Thanks also for banging the drum about leaks*. I use alkalines in remotes, stuff that gets given away – toys for Christmas, for instance – and items that are used only occasionally, such as my laser level and distance meter. Y’all would go for Eneloop-type cells, I guess?


Many years ago I used to be a caver, and in those days that meant wet-electrolyte NiCds salvaged from telephone exchange UPSs jammed into old miners’ lamp cases. A leak meant a tablespoon of potassium hydroxide down your trousers. I’d almost rather have an exploding LiIon…

It’s more likely your website hosting the image. Lot of time websites don’t allow sharing of photos outside the site itself. Sucks up their bandwidth when hundreds of people pull up the image on the forum. Here’s your photo hosted by imgur. Right click to view larger.

Ah, thank you. I’ll ask my hosting company. And probably sign up with imgur.

Imgur is quite good, and there are no limits on the number of photos

Most here will probably agree that the Eneloop rechargeable low self discharge battery is the best AA battery ever made and AAA battery for that matter.
Some of us have had them for 10 to 12 years or more and still perform well with no leaks.
They do cost a little more but you get what you pay for.
They go on sale ever once in awhile, just a few days ago for a few hours I saw these go for $28 bucks and some change.
https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3MCCA4BA-eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable/dp/B00JHKSN4O?th=1

Where possible I use NiMh cells, I find the IKEA AA and AAA cells to be reasonably good value for money.

Clocks and smoke/CO alarms get alkaline as capacity much greater than NiMh at low current levels. IKEA alkalines don’t perform the best in tests, but they’re fairly inexpensive (£2.25 for 10 AA).

Edit to add: the other reason the above devices get Alkalines is that they’ll draw a cell down below 0.9v which is bad for NiMh rechargeables.

On the subject of buying- I had success in the past (2 years ago) ordering Duracell procells from Amazon, since then, Amazon feels like it’s now awash with absolute crap products, and it appears there is opportunity for orders fulfilled by Amazon to still deliver fakes.

Shops are indeed expensive as they’ve overheads and staffing, rents, etc.

If I were to order alkalines (or primary lithiums) online, I’d be looking to order direct through a company rather than through Amazon or eBay.

Thanks for that, @moderator007. Embarrassed to say I’ve just discovered 8 Eneloop AAAs in my battery box. I’ll start using them.

That's interesting. I checked back at my Amazon order for the Duracells, and it seems they came from a company called Battery Warehouse. There were many bad reviews, but one reviewer said theirs were from a different supplier, and that Amazon lumps together all reviews for Duracell Industrial AAA, regardless of supplier. So if you judge by the quality of reviews, that system's completely broken.

Your other points are great too. Several clocks and smoke alarms here. IKEA is a good idea, though I don't have one within about 100 miles. Amazon Basics ought to be OK, but I think I had a leaky batch of those once. Probably ordering a box from a reputable electronics supplier is best. Or maybe just supporting my local shop, who are lovely people.

Amazon also lumps together (“commingles”) all suppliers’ products in the warehouse, so what you see advertised may not be what you get in the mail.

https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/wsj-article-commingled-inventory-and-brands-getting-frustrated-with-amazon/166188