Recently I decided it was time to change the batteries for my various household remote controllers. I have tried many brands of batteries and still found Panasonic batteries still the best!

Wireless remote controls may be useful, however if ever you went round counting the number of remote controls in your house you would be surprise at the number of them that you have! Apart from the usual home entertainment in my usual living room which consist of TV, DVD, Astro aka satellite cable TV decoder, my old still barely functioning VCR, there are the household fixtures such as air-conditioners and remote controlled ceiling fans in the various rooms and of course Hi-Fi cum DVD player and TV in my bedroom, that amount to quite a many remote controllers in my house!

Not to forget, there are also many alarm clocks and a wall clock and those too, the batteries needed to be changed. I think I don’t have enough batteries so I will skip that to another round.

While changing the batteries I noted that I have used various brands along the years such as Eveready or Energizers, GP batteries, some OEM branded batteries like Ikea, Tesco, Carrefour, First Choice, etc which are usually made in China, and of course Panasonic batteries.

Some of the old batteries were already leaking battery liquid and some has turned green from the leakages. The worst of the lot were of course those cheap made in China types. Usually those should be change at least within the year.

Eveready or Energizer and GP batteries fare a little better with some battery contacts turning dark or black. A few started to leak too.

But the best of the lot were the Panasonic batteries. Even after 3 years, there were still no leakages! And get this, I found a set of batteries in my obsolete VCR remote still bearing the Panasonic old brand name of National for 9 years and still without a leak! I’m going to leave this one in there and see how much longer it will last since my VCR is already half working and on the verge of breakdown. Besides I’m using a DVD recorder now. Just that my wife still prefers this VCR because it is simple to record. So far it is pretty much unused as she hasn’t got any show to record at this moment.

And how I know it is nine years old? I mark all my batteries with the starting date of usage. Marking dates on almost any item gives me a fair idea how long I have used the item and provides a way to gauge how long I will use any particular item in future and even provide a way to have some nostalgia on some of my very old stuffs too!

Conclusion: based on my observation, Panasonic batteries are the clear winners in terms of durability against battery chemical leakages!

From now on, I should just use Panasonic batteries since they are the best in terms of long period usage. And if Panasonic is not available, my second choice would be Eveready batteries.

They may or may not have a higher capacity power charge; that would require a different kind of benchmark if you want to find out which batteries has more power charge to get the best bang out of your buck. What I mean here is for those devices and equipments that draw very little power such as remote control and clocks and the likelihood you won’t ever change the battery till the device and equipment don’t work that you start changing the batteries. And that’s where you have to use battery that has a better durable casing against battery chemical leakages.

Since these remote controls and clocks only trickle drain your battery, it is best to use ordinary heavy duty batteries if you can find them. If not second choice would be the super heavy duty or extra heavy duty batteries whichever way the Panasonic company wants to label them.

Alkaline batteries is best avoided as they are meant for high drain equipment such as cameras, photography equipment, baby toys, flash lights, etc.

You would notice I didn’t use Duracell batteries at all. That one should be lump in the same category as those cheapo batteries despite being a well known brand and sold at a premium. The Duracell batteries don’t seem to be produced according to specification, it is slightly larger than the standard AA or AAA batteries so sometimes it can’t fit into the equipment if the device has no allowance for slightly out of spec bigger batteries. And yes, it leaks like crazy after a year. Perhaps their bad record of gas leakage in India seemed to trickle down to their products as well.

So if you need to change batteries for your household devices such as remote controllers and clocks or any equipment that trickle drain your battery, the best is still Panasonic batteries!