****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
It was time to change the batteries in our smoke detectors so I decided to give these a try. I installed them about a month ago so I can't say much about longevity as yet but they appear to be working well. I think they will be fine.As many others have said, poor packaging but appears unharmed. Have had good luck using these batteries around the house in years past in things like smoke alarms and garage controllers.The product is great, first class. The vendor has cheated me out of two batteries! I ordered two boxes of twelve 9v batteries each. When I opened the box there were only 22 batteries. It's a small cheat, but it is a cheat nonetheless.The only thing I generally need replacement 9V batteries for are my Smoke Detectors. I have 12 foot ceilings and 9 detectors so I'm not anxious to replace them more than necessary. I know the "rule of thumb" is to replace the batteries every year on your birthday (easy to remember). But, at my age, I'm not wanting to be on a ladder much any more.So, what I have been doing is to wait for "one" of the detectors to start squealing the "low battery" tone. Then, I replace all 9 at the same time. I do use a marker to record the replacement date on each battery for whatever later reference. The last time I replaced these was about January 2017. They then have lasted about 3 1/2 years before the first one started "squealing". The "use before date" on the pullouts was "March 2019", about a year before this recent replacement. Therefore, I have been quite satisfied with the longevity of these batteries.Longevity is one thing but "leaking" is more important as it can damage, sometimes permanently, expensive devices. I have never had a Duracell Procell leak. I do use "cheaper" batteries, including Amazon Basic cells, in some things without trouble. I don't really have any quantitative data, but, over the years I would say that Duracells leaked less and "Bunny" batteries more. I'm sure manufactures are continually trying to improve battery performance, but, there's always cost-reduction efforts and "outsourcing" which can affect performance.When possible, I remove batteries from devices not in frequent use. Then, I tend to only use cheaper batteries in devices I really don't care too much about, like home Christmas displays.I've used Duracell Procell 9V batteries as the backup batteries for my hardwired smoke/CO detectors for many years. I try to replace them every 2 years before the winter because I hate getting woken up in the middle of a cold night to a smoke detector chirping from a low battery. These discharge inconsistently and after sitting in the detectors for 2 years, some will have barely lost any charge (-0.1-0.2V) and some will have gone down by 0.5-0.7V. I've kept track and it's never the same detectors discharging faster.Any battery that's being used for smoke detectors really should be checked with a multimeter first. I just got a box from a third party seller that expires in less than 1 year after the purchase date. The expiration date is usually at least 4 years into the future. I didn't notice and stupidly installed them without checking them first. Two of my 10 smoke detectors started giving a low battery chirp within 30 minutes. I pulled them all and found that more than half were reading less than 9V! The rest were just barely above 9V. Nowhere near a full charge for these batteries and completely unusable for smoke detectors.The box was pristine and the batteries were obviously unused (the black terminal guards were very snug), so I bet these sat in some warehouse in extreme temperatures for years before someone noticed they hadn't been sold and pulled them for my order. I'm not going to name the seller because it could happen with any of them and honestly don't remember if was a "fulfilled by Amazon" item or not. Just a word of warning that you should check all of these while you're still in the return window and don't accept anything with a quickly-approaching expiration date.EDIT: Received new batteries from a different seller with an expiration of 4 years and 11 months into the future. These are manufactured with 5 year expiration dates, so they are as fresh as I've ever received. The batteries have been redesigned, now all in black and branded with "PROCELL" and no mention of Duracell anymore. The voltage of each battery measured between 9.9-10.0V. If you are still getting the yellow "PROCELL by Duracell" packaging after early 2020, you are getting old stock and should be weary of their charge.Bad: Amazon’s padded mailers are not suitable shipping material for these. I got lucky none of the batteries were damaged aside from small dings; the USPS got lucky they all stayed capped and didn’t start a fire.Good: March 2026 date on the batteries probably fine for my needs. All measured a healthy 9.6v. And I was able to tape the smashed box back together so I’d have something to store them.Delivered quickly, a letter was enclosed in the box explaining that the batteries are genuine Duracell, but in the latest company colour and design which I think is good customer service from the seller. Amazon need to change the photo on their web site!! The old photo is not the sellers fault. Too soon to give a full review yet, but as they are Duracell assume they will be good.I was buying the DURACELL Procell (yellow batteries) for my Medical pump. the medicall HAS to have the Duracell Procell. I received the black and grey procell batteries (noname brand) which do not last more than 12 hrs in the CAD pump. When you buy a product and it is described as what you need, it is wrong to receive a different brand of product. the batteries received will work in other things like smoke alarms, yet the Medical pump needs the battery that is shown on the picture... Not happy! it does make a difference.An excellent deal to help with replacing those fire detector devices batteries each year.I was happy with the general transaction. My only comment is that the self life on the batteries is June 2024.A lot of the batteries I have ordered have a shelf life of 2028+So it seems like it may be old stock ?With batteries, everything depends on longevity but so far, so very good.
