Tonight I was taping Gomer Pyle off MeTV when I noticed my hand holding the remote started to burn. I looked down and noticed a goo oozing from the back of the remote,the batteries had burst open. I had them in there since the early 90s, I can't believe they lasted that long. I finished editing out the commercials by using the pause button on the vcr. I cleaned out the remote with a rag dipped in alcohol and replaced the batteries, it works fine now. When was the last time you changed the batteries in your remote ? I never even think about it.

What brand of batteries were they? I've never heard of batteries being in a device that long and not going dead or corroding before now.

The only english writing on them was KPN, the rest was all in japanese. I bought that vcr in 92-93 and that was the only time I put batteries in the remote.

Thats mental. Since the early 90's? Which means they have been in there for like 16 years at least. I really don't think that is possible. Maybe someone else changed them without you knowing, because I dont think there is any battery that could last that long. They usually dont even last a year if used relatively regularly.

I never changed them, they are the original batteries that came with the remote when I bought the vcr.