Duracells Leaked in my 580EXII....

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Niloticus1

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Dave
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Hi,

I just checked the batteries in my 580EXII and the bloody things have leaked (Duracell Plus dated to 2015). The display screen on the flash is damaged (big black area of discolouration) but the flash will power up with a set of rechargeables (it won't fire but the batteries may be low).

I've contacted Duracell and they are sending me a returns envelope for the batteries and flash so they can inspect them.

I really don't want this thread to descend into a "you don't want to do that" diatribe re leaving batteries in a flashgun (they hadn't been in for long anyway), I'm really looking for other people's experience/advice regarding sending a valuable flash off to Duracell so they can opine on the performance/liability of their own product... Should I have them independently tested?

Would be really grateful for any advice as to how to move forward with this.

Thanks and regards

Dave
 
Are you sure they are gen Duracells? There are a lot of fakes knocking about, even from rep sellers.
 
Hi Dave, l recently had a similar experience with long dated Duracell batteries leaking and damaging my Apple Magic mouse, l too contacted Duracell [Procter and Gamble]they wanted to know the replacement value of the mouse, and they then sent me a returns envelope, which was picked up by courier at no cost to me.
The mouse was sent to Cincinatti in the USA for evaluation, it takes ages, up to 6 weeks to get a report, my advice to you is send the leaking battery back, along with all of the others from the pack, then wait ,they have a very efficent customer service team and if you ring every once in a while on their free phone ,they will keep you updated, my report came back inconclusive BUT they did refund me the cost of a new mouse, but no replacement batteries,hope this helps.
Chris.
 
Does it say on your battieries where made? I gather theres 2 places, one better than the other but can't recall the details now.
 
wontolla said:
Are you sure they are gen Duracells? There are a lot of fakes knocking about, even from rep sellers.
Click to expand...

I'm 99% certain they came from 7dayshop. There's an outside chance I might have bought them from Tescos if I needed batteries quickly but I don't recall having done that recently.

They say "made in EC" on the body.

Wrinklyrocker said:
Hi Dave, l recently had a similar experience with long dated Duracell batteries leaking and damaging my Apple Magic mouse, l too contacted Duracell [Procter and Gamble]they wanted to know the replacement value of the mouse, and they then sent me a returns envelope, which was picked up by courier at no cost to me.
The mouse was sent to Cincinatti in the USA for evaluation, it takes ages, up to 6 weeks to get a report, my advice to you is send the leaking battery back, along with all of the others from the pack, then wait ,they have a very efficent customer service team and if you ring every once in a while on their free phone ,they will keep you updated, my report came back inconclusive BUT they did refund me the cost of a new mouse, but no replacement batteries,hope this helps.
Chris.
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Thanks Chris, did they ask you to send the mouse back?

Cheers

Dave
 
Hi Dave, yes they did ask, and yes l did send it because they have to see the extent of the damage, l suspect that your damage is pretty evident as was mine, they will arrange for a curier to pick your flash gun up, and the offending batteries, and he will give you a receipt for it.
Please let me know how you go.
Chris.
 
I had the same problem but with a wii remote last year. I bought the duracells from costco so they should be legit. Luvkily theres not much damage caused, just some deposits on the contacts which is easily cleaned.
 
Do they cover replacement hire for a flashgun. 6 weeks is a Lomb time to be without an expensive flash.
 
mastertrinity said:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=262092&page=1

A quick google search came up with another problem with may be very similar to yours, not sure whether there's an answer on there as I haven't read through all of it but it could give some valuable information.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, sounds like a recurring problem....

Byker28i said:
Do they cover replacement hire for a flashgun. 6 weeks is a Lomb time to be without an expensive flash.
Click to expand...

That's covered, I had to buy a 270EX at Heathrow :bang:

Cheers

Dave
 
same thing happened to me with my nikon SB 600 made a right mess inside...was not amused , i had only used it once...and they were genuine Duracell bought from tesco...
i didnt think at the time ,about complaining to duracell , thought it was my fault for leaving them in there in the first place...i managed to clean the contacts inside, and thank god it worked...i take the batteries out when not in use now, and use rechargeable ones only...mark
 
If you do a google search your not alone with this problem they have a contact page on their website http://www.duracell.co.uk/en-GB/contact.jspx theres also a 0800 phone number on there give them a call you've got nothing to loose.
 
Buying from a reputable retailer is no guarantee that the batteries are genuine. This topic came up locally about 2 years ago and our local trading standards office found counterfeit Duracell batteries at B&Q, ASDA, Tesco, Costco and Makro.

At that time, the Duracell web site had a page about counterfeit goods and how to identify them I've just had a quick look around the current site and can't find one now.
 
Hi folks,

Just a brief update; I contacted P&G and they sent a courier to collect the flash (early March). They contacted me last week to confirm that they would settle up for the new flash.

It was a very weird conversation as the person who called me said that the batteries leaked as a result of over discharge rather than any fault with the batteries. I think this was their way of not admitting liability??

The main thing is that they've stumped up to replace the Flash.

Fair play to P&G/Duracell and a lesson learnt for me...... Lithiums or eneloops only from now on!

Hope this helps anybody in the same situation.

Cheers

Dave
 
Probably a bit excessive for those of you not on expense accounts, but we used to recommend our photographers bin all batteries at the end of a day's shooting regardless of whether they were exhausted or not.
New job = new batteries. Always.
We operated a collect and recycle policy at our London office via London City council, so that photographers on either full or part-time payroll could swap used batteries for new ones on a weekly basis.
We also found that Energizer lithium batteries were better than Duracell for longevity.

Disposables were found to be better than rechargeable due to the lower power output of rechargeables - 1.2v as opposed to 1.5v.
 
cobra_lite said:
Disposables were found to be better than rechargeable due to the lower power output of rechargeables - 1.2v as opposed to 1.5v.
Click to expand...

I do tend to favour lithiums over rechargeables as I've found them too inconsistent, although I haven't really given Eneloops a proper tryout yet.
 
Had no problems but going to remove all my batteries now :thumbs:
 
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