This evening the GF noticed that the remote control wasn't working &
was hot.
I pulled out the extremely hot AA batteries.
It looks like the spring contact in the remote control, on the
negative side had worn away the plastic covering on the side of the
battery & shorted the side metal battery casing to the negative
contact, thereby causing the overheating.
In my many years of battery dissection, I've never seen the side
casing of a battery being positive before!
These were "Golden Power" alkaline batteries, made in China.
They were the original batteries that came with the remote ( for a
Shaw digital cable box).
Anyone ever seen a positive case AA battery before, or is this a new (
dumb) idea?