Surprisingly, the only batteries I’ve had problems with leakage in recent years have been rechargeables. I took a set of those out of a little used Zoom Recorder yesterday and threw them away.

The other problem with rechargeables is that the single cell type (most of them should be called cells as a “battery” comprises multiple cells as the name implies) produces only 1.2 volts as opposed to the 1.5 volts which a disposable one gives out.

It’s not much but y’er average digital device will switch itself off when the voltage drops below a certain level whereas an anologue device, say a radio, will simply loose volume and become increasingly distorted.

By way of example, we used to have a digital radio in the bathroom and I had to re-charge the batteries every couple of weeks. I swapped it for an anologue one several years ago and use the same set of rechargeable in it. It gets exactly the same level of use and I re-charged the “cells” about a fortnight ago. I well remember the time before - it was last Xmas.