I have some AA and AAA batteries that are sitting on my desk - I decided to test them before throwing them out. Some are Duracell "Duralock" brand, the others are Kendal "Super Heavy Duty - Pile Saline".
I recently bought a Fluke 115 multimeter, so I decided to use that to measure the voltage between the positive and negative poles of the battery.
I set the multimeter to DC V mode; when I attach the probes to the battery (red on the positive terminal, black on the negative terminal) the display reads 1.329 V
for about 5-10 seconds, then the number suddenly drops to 0 V
over about 2 seconds, then it stays there.
This happens consistently with the other batteries on my desk (the initial voltages are all around 1.3-ish Volts) except one, which stays at 1.329 V
and never drops.
What is happening?