Kirkland and Duracell are the worst leakers I've encountered so I'm inclined to think Duracell must be the mfg of Kirkland.
I am a little late to the party on this, however, I wanted to CONFIRM that Duracell batteries from the past 10 years or so to current production are PROBLEM and HABITUAL leakers. I have had more equipment damaged or ruined by Duracell batteries.
I have had some Kirkland batteries leak, not sure if this is more or less of an issue than Duracell, but this might be because I have not purchased as many Kirkland brand batteries.
I recently had a very expensive piece of Fluke test equipment ruined due to batteries that leaked. Luckily I had Rayovac batteries in the device. I happened to check Rayovac website and Rayovac has a Leak-Proof Guarantee which I was unaware of. Rayovac does not require proof of purchase, they base everything ff the battery expiration date printed on the battery. I recently shipped my Fluke device to Rayovac and I am hopeful I will get a satisfactory resolution to the damage due to battery leakage.
http://www.rayovac.com/support/warranties-and-guarantees.aspx
After this incident, I started to look at other battery manufacturers Leakage Warranty/Guarantee. What I found is it appears Rayovac has probably the best overall Leakage Warranty/Guarantee when compared to the other manufacturers. Many manufacturers require proof of purchase for the batteries. I mean come on, how many people keep all their receipts for batteries purchased 5-10 years ago??
But I am starting to LEARN to either remove the batteries from almost all of my devices that have batteries or to spend the additional money on Lithium batteries. If Rayovac comes through with a satisfactory resolution to the damage to my Fluke device, I will likely convert to a Rayovac customer due to their Leak-Proof Guarantee which appears to be better and with less outs when compared to competitors. Why having a proof of purchase for batteries is required seems to be more of a way to get out of a responsibility than anything IMHO.
Hopeful Rayovac will have a good solution to my damaged Fluke device in the next few weeks.