They don't leak would be why I would choose these over an alkaline battery. The draw of an airtag is so low that the shelf life becomes very material.

I also put lithium AA/AAA batteries in remotes these days - anything that might get stuck in a drawer for years at a time and needed again for a random task. My A/V receiver remote is rarely touched, but when I need it I really need it. Too many times have I went to grab some device like that only to find the batteries have leaked and corroded a critical component on the PCB.

Those are the same batteries that come with Nest smoke alarms, which say they last 10 years. Energizer says they'll last 20 years in storage. https://energizer.com/batteries/energizer-ultimate-lithium-b...

Yep. That recommendation is weird. They should recommend NiMH batteries like the Eneloop series from Panasonic.

I think in this case it’s shelf life. Very little discharge for a very long time.

Doing some math, looks like a CR2032 is roughly 200mah while AA is 2000mah. So if CR2032 lasts one year, then the AA will be 10 years, two AA would be 20 years. I guess in that case lithium would be the way to go.

I just know for your typical wall clock that takes a single AA, whether it is lithium or alkaline, both won't make it much further than a year.

These have 3500mAh capacity: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf