The package usually has a “yucky face” cartoon image.

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Originally posted by HRK:

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Energizer CR2016, 3 volt, lithium batteries

Found nothing in the specifications about being coated

Mine weren't. Popped one out of the packaging, measured it, installed it.

I'm trying to understand the downside of just trying to wipe the battery down with alcohol to see if it works. Just too much effort involved?

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Originally posted by Paten:
I'm trying to understand the downside of just trying to wipe the battery down with alcohol to see if it works. Just too much effort involved?

Well, if you don't have any alcohol in the house it could be...

No... alcohol? People do that? Okay. No Isopropyl. What about vodka, gin, whiskey? Nothing? I'm assuming there are guns in the house. How about some solvent or degreaser? Anything like that would probably be just as good.

Uhhhhhh...Windex??

Is it possible the new batteries are thinner and not making contact?

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Originally posted by mark60:
Is it possible the new batteries are thinner and not making contact?

I've had the issue in my garage door remotes where the little metal prong got bent out of shape at the solder joint where it didn't fully make contact.
Maybe him taking out and swapping the batteries back and fourth coincidentally bent the tab to where the new battery didn't make contact, and when swapping back the old one, it bent again, but making it back to normal.

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Originally posted by mark60:

Is it possible the new batteries are thinner and not making contact?

A 2016 battery should be 20mm diameter and 1.6mm thick.

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Originally posted by 83v45magna:
There's a metric sh*t ton of button cells that are for sale out there on the web that are old. Also counterfeits are rampant, especially on Amazon.

I have bought several packs of differing types and sizes from amazon, mainly cuz they were cheap. It seems cheap usually equals crap when it comes to button cells.

I'm certain that the bulk of the counterfeits are Chinese in origin.

Same experience here. I don't buy ANY batteries from Amazon, I've had so many purchases of otherwise high quality batteries turning out to be fakes, and the only way I could tell, was their sucky (and worse) performance. Personally I don't buy any batteries off the internet. I buy only from a reputable brick and mortar retailer who get their stock from bona fide distributors.

The battery size spec is a set dimension. Is it possible that the battery you took out was sufficiently bulged to have weakened the spring contacts for the new 'thinner' replacement?

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Coincidentally: I just opened a 2-pack of Energizer CR2016s I bought for an old stopwatch I'm reviving. The one I installed measured 3.288 VDC, open load, with my Fluke digital multimeter.

As others have suggested, maybe voltage drops excessively under load. If your multimeter measures current, check to see if that suspect 3V battery will drive 3 milliamp through a 1 K ohm resistor.

I'll vote for the voltage drop under load... this is obviously not the problem but a number of years back my father bought some DVD players from one of those 'Fred's' cheap discount stores... we hooked one up to his TV and after installing the batteries the remote it would not work... put in some he had and the remote worked.. checked all the other units he had bought and all the batteries were dead... some kind of gold bond or such brand. he went back to the store and complained to the manager who gave him some free batteries.... a year later I bought some device with a remote and sure enough the same brand of battery was dead... then I looked closer... each battery was individually shrink wrapped....

IMPORTANT UPDATE

I got the Panasonic 2016's a few days ago and put them into my keys today. They worked just fine so I tossed the Energizers. I guess the Energizers couldn't work under load even though the static voltage was ok.