[stuarth]

Those with a memory less leaky than certain battery brands will recall that I have been keeping records on battery leakage for several years now.

My highly scientific method is to go through my jar of used cells before they go off to recycling, and note the total numbers of each brand and how many show signs of leakage. By this point, some cells may have some signs of life left, others may have been completely flat for a few weeks, just like forgotten cells in our equipment. I don't count cells which are past the date printed on them.

The latest results show

Panasonic Pro Power - 281 cells, 7 of which leaked (2.5%)
Duracell Power Plus and Ultra - 99 cells, 17 leaked (17%)
Lidl Aerocell - 65 cells, 1 leaked (1.5%)
Aldi Activ Energy 51 cells, 1 leaked (2%)

I come across a handful of cells from miscellaneous other brands, not enough for meaningful statistics, but none strike me as particularly leaky.

A well known consumer magazine shows life test for AA and AAA cells with the Aldi cells topping the Alkalines, and the other 3 not far behind.

Lidl and Aldi cells cost £1.99 for 8 cells (25p each), Lidl sometimes have Panasonic cells at the same price. Duracells are 4 to 5 times that at £4 to £5 for 4 cells.

So you make your choice, they're all quite similar for performance, the difference is in cost and leakage.

Lithium cells are worth considering for very high drain applications such as digital cameras, less so for low and medium drain applications. Lithium AA cells have a capacity of 3.0AH. Good alkalines have a slightly lower capacity of 2.7AH, but only at low drain. At high drain, the available capacity of alkaline cells (not just run-time) falls dramatically, so that at 1A drain the capacity is below 1AH. Battery manufacturers try to minimise this loss of capacity at high drain, but for anything with a short run-time, it's worth considering Lithium cells. With Lithiums costing 7 times the Lidl/Aldi alkaline price, it may be more about convenience than cost.

Stuart