I can understand old batteries leaking in something that hasn’t been used in a long time, but in a remote I use several times a week and the batteries had not even become weak yet? Damned lucky I caught it in time before any real damage was done.
I stay the heck away from cheap no name batteries, (got a mild burn from leaking batteries in a remote back in the '80’s) but even Duracell seems like it can’t be trusted now.
Been slowly replacing batteries in the umpteen remote controls I have around with rechargeables as the original batteries go dead, but I need to accelerate that timetable.