Anyone using the stock AAA battery holders knows that they are not very well built. I have cursed them many times.
Well, I stumbled upon the Dorcy replacement part site and found all of their 3AAA and 6AAA battery holders are only $2.00 each with free shipping. (USA only? I do not know).
I purchased two holders, just to see what they are like. They arrived 2 days later!
I am Impressed! These holders are made of a thicker wall plastic and a different plastic, than the cheapie counterparts. The metal is still base metal but the contacts are thicker and so are the springs. The holders are screwed together, not glued together and overall I will be using them as replacements for my 3AAA holders!
The 6AAA holder is 3S/2P !! I was amazed at that. It was just what I was looking for and it's solid as a rock. The batteries hold in tightly and many of the joints are soldered! It is an odd holder, as the positive and negative are both on top. The positive is a pin and the negative is a metal band. The top is screwed together, so I could take it off, turn it 180 degrees and the negative is now not in contact. Then I just soldered a tab on the bottom, to get my negative where I wanted it.
I really needed a 6AAA 3S/2P holder and I got it for $2.00!
If you go to Dorcy's site, they have a bunch of holders and not much in the way of descriptions, so you might have to get a couple before you find the one that will work. I bought these 3AAA and 6AAA and the 3AAA seems like a stock replacement for any 3AAA holder using a "top pin" style holder.