Cordless phones advise needed

[MiamiCuse]

I don't have much luck with cordless phones. I have three in my house. I bought them from stores when on sale like $49, or $60 etc... for each, brand name - Panasonic, GE etc...

But most of them don't last more than a day before batteries run out. I usually keep them in the cradle and when I pick it up for a call, talk for an hour and the light will blink...low battery. This is like the forth phone I have bought within 2 years that is doing this.

Should I get a more expensive $150 phone? Will that work better? How about those that comes in a set of 3 or 4 for like $200? I always thought those are not a good deal because if one breaks you can't easily replace them.

I need recommendation for good, reliable, basic cordless phone!

Thanks,

MC

[Doug Miller]

Radio Shack 43-3908 -- battery life is excellent. Headset is a bit fragile, so handle it carefully.

[RichK]

Not sure I can suggest a brand or phone model. One thing that you can do, see what capacity the battries have. The phone normally use 2-3 AA cells, which are re-chargable. These cells come in variety of capacities, which are expressed in Milli-ampere hours. Get a battery with a higher rating.

I have a 2-line cordless from Panasonic, that no matter what I do the battries do not last. Very poor design from a company that was doing well for many years. All the phones try to sell distance, but fail in voice quality and battery life.

Doubt it, I and others I know, have gone that way and if anything the expensive ones had shorter battery life.

I could recommend one that works for me, but it's several years old and you can't buy it anymore. Battery lasts a good week, with light use. Panasonic KX-TC1701 - very simple cordless, but good. Try e-bay if get it, buy new rechargeable batteries of max capacity and it will work for you.

RichK

[tnom]

43-3908 is a typical ni-cad battery. The same battery I just purchased from Radio Shack. The same battery that would not hold a charge. The same battery that I misplaced the receipt for. The same battery that was most likely was a returned battery that was repackaged by a Radio Shack employee because their packaging is not sealed.

[tnom]

Sorry the above link is mis-leading/incorrect however the actual

43-3908 phone uses a typical 3.6volt ni-cad (23-9037) that is no better than other ni-cads.

[tnom]

Try a phone with Lithium-ion batteries instead. Here's one.

[Chris Friesen]

I have a Panasonic Gigarange Extreme. One of the early 2.4GHz models. It's now 8yrs old and still on the original battery. It's about time to replace it...can't talk for more than a couple hrs.

When new I could talk for 5-6 hours on a charge.

This phone cost about $200 when new.

If your phone uses a NiCd battery, you'll want to charge it up and then

*not* put it on the cradle until the battery is dead. With NiMH you can leave it on the cradle.

I generally just charge mine overnight.

Chris

[mgkelson]

One problem might be that the batteries that come with new phones aren't that great. I don't know. In my case, I have two of the old-style, AT&T, 900 Mhz, digital phones and replaced the factory batteries on them a couple of years ago--I think it was a couple of years ago--and they still work fine. I bought the batteries from Target. The batteries probably last at least 2 hours on a single call and maybe more like 3 hours or more.

I am extremely fussy about sound quality and I've found that most old

900 Mhz, digital phones have excellent quality. My suggestion would be to stick with AT&T or Lucent, or Panasonic. Sometimes you can get slightly used or new, 900 Mhz, digital phones for a very low price, maybe about $30 on eBay. To get a phone of equivalent quality with the new technology, that has the higher frequencies, I would guess you would have to spend at least $150 and maybe more. 900 Mhz phones do have the disadvantage, by the way, that they require in-line filters if you have DSL.

[Chris Friesen]

As far as I know, *every* phone requires line filters when using DSL...even basic corded ones.

At least they do in my house.

Chris

[tnom]

Another Lithium ion phone

[Rob Mills]

Don't think I've ever paid more than $20 - $25 for a cordless. I am still using a Radio shack 900 mhz one that has "Spread Spectrum" (can't be monitored on police scanners) that is probably 9- 10 years old. It has probably had 3 sets of batteries in it during that time. I purchase close out batteries (el-cheapo) that have odd connectors on them, cut off those connectors and splice on my original connectors. Right now it has a set of lithium ion batteries that have been in it for probably 2 years and it's still going strong. I also have a pair of Uniden 2.4 ghz phones (the normal police scanner won't get here either) that I purchased from Big lots for $9.95 that still have their original nicads that are over a year old and still working fine. Regardless to what anyone tells you, after the initial charge on nicads don't put them back on the charger until they are partly run down and don't let them fully run down. RM~

PS, I personally stay away from combination type phones with built in answering machines.

[tnom]

Is this to say that you replaced the original Ni-Cads with Li-Ion? If so is your house insurance up to date?

[Steve Barker LT]

an HOUR?!?! good god man! I can't imagine being on the phone for more than

20 seconds at a time.

[Rob Mills]

They don't even get warm, have them in a hand held pro-94 police scanner also. I've had them in the scanner for probably 3-4 years with no problems at all. RM~

[HeyBub]

It's not your phone that's the problem - it's the batteries. If you get a new phone with the same power system, your problem will remain the same. (Hint: With NiCad batteries, DO NOT put the phone back in the charging cradle until the batteries go dead)

Replace your existing batteries with Lithiums.

[Mark Lloyd]

A couple of years ago I bought an AT&T phone (model 2230, has 2 handsets). A few days later a friend called me and we talked a long time. It was about 7 hours before the handset beeped (low battery).

[cm]

Don't put your phone back in the charger until the batteries are almost dead or dead and you will get a longer talk time.

We buy the cheapest cordless we can find. Always under $16.00 and we get about 2 years out of them with good sound quality and no problems. I don't talk on the phone much but I do have two teenage daughters who can talk for hours.

We used to buy more expensive phones and they were no better and sometimes worse than the cheap ones we buy now.

cm

[tnom]

Li-ion batteries are proprietary for a reason. They can overheat or blow up without a proprietary charger.

" No trickle charge is applied because lithium-ion is unable to absorb overcharge. A continuous trickle charge above 4.05V/cell would causes plating of metallic lithium that could lead to instabilities and compromise safety."

The above from:

A cordless phones generic Ni-Cad charging system maintains a trickle charge above the 4.05 voltage.

[Doug Miller]

You may have gotten a unit with a bad charger. We've had a 3908 for three years now, and have had no problems at all with short battery life.

[Jim Redelfs]

Correct. In fact, with the exception of the DSL "modem" itself, *literally* everything else connected to the DSL pair MUST be filtered. (period) The most overlooked (unfiltered) equipment I've found when troubleshooting DSL service are a security system and digital TV set-top box.