Duracells, Energizers, Surefires, Titaniums are all known good brands, personally Im a surefire 123A user.
Despite the popular method of draining cells to squat I take general caution when discharging cells and usually seal them for discarding when the remaining capacity falls below a certain level....to the point where my ZTS fails to click [even with no LED indication]. Even though the lights regulator circuit can continue providing light I consider it unsafe, to each his own, you decide whats best
all we can say is yes theres a possibility that they will vent if the conditions are right. and no, under no circumstances should a battery [of any kind] vent without a load in which the cell is being discharded in. If your concerned with the recent accidents involving batterys that exploded, I would say the chances are quite slim considering the products produced that uses them worldwide.
Most of the accidents have either been linked to bad cell design, defective components, or varying capacity of cells that causes unbalanced discharge in multi-celled lights. Theres a couple links already, read up and most of your questions will be answered.
If your using multi-celled lights with direct drive high intensity xenon or an LED light with current regulated circuits. I'd recommend investing in a ZTS battery tester if you dont have one, its the only load tester I know that displays the remaining capacity of individual cells, bin cells with different levels separately and use the cells with non-repeating results in single celled lights only and you should be fine.
