More Alkaline Woes

[Toulouse42]

My wife shops early for Christmas and had bought some Mario RC cars for our grandchildren. Being well organised, these were wrapped some weeks ago (before I got a look at them). So come yesterday, the kids open them up to find that they are both DOA. I looked inside to find that they came with GoldenPower brand batteries all dated Feb 2024. They were all dead but once I replaced the batteries in No. 1 it worked fine. No. 2 was not so lucky. Several had leaked and that Kart was toast. No amount of cleaning up made any difference. It really bugs me when manufacturers put Alkaline batteries in products that may have a long life on the shelf before some poor soul buys them. To make matters worse, we are beyond the returns date on Amazon, so I guess we have to swallow the cost.

 

[bridgman]

Ouch - getting equipment damaged by alkaline leaks is bad enough the other 364 days of the year but it really sucks at Christmas.

I guess we can call it a learning experience for the grandkids ("this is an alkaline battery - don't touch it, it's pure evil") but I didn't start to appreciate learning experiences until I was much older.

 

[BillBond]

I gave up on alkaline batteries years ago and only use Energizer Lithium.
If I purchase something new that comes with alkaline batteries, I just throw them out.

 

[The Hawk]

That sucks for sure. Thanks for posting this. I will start checking any electronic purchase and remove the batteries before gifting it.