I don't have an electric toothbrush - should I feel deprived? Anyway, if I did, I'd go for rechargeable NiMH AA batteries, same as I use in my digital camera. I have a small lightweight charger that will charge 4 at a time, or it will do 4 alkaline batteries (not both types at the same time), so when I am away, everything I have that takes AA batteries, including torches, can be kept going, and I always have spare fresh batteries. I got sick of throwing away dead batteries out of my torches. Rechargeable is much better!

I had a similar experience to yours Jerry. When I go away I take a small travelling alarm clock which takes one AA battery. It has a button on top which you pull up to activate the alarm, which is quite a loud piercing little beep beep beep. Unfortunately the button moves up and down a little too easily, and one time on my way back from a camping trip, I heard this beep beep beep noise at the back of the car buried deep in the luggage somewhere. It took me a while to realise what it was, and a lot longer before I could get home and dig it out from the suitcase at the bottom of the pile of luggage. With the clock I'd rather not take the battery out because I'll lose the time, but I make sure now that it is somewhere handy, and that it is not in a position where the button could work its way up.

In general though, I agree about taking batteries out. I've experienced some dead torches through not doing that, and camera batteries seem to discharge if left in the camera too long as well.