18 hours? We were lucky to get 30 minutes on speakerphone or about an hour without the squawkerphone turned on. And that's when the batteries were new (the original set and our replacement set). I thought that was normal.
Spec for the first Gigaset turned up by google is 'up to' 18 hours talk /
220 hours standby. Your BT8500 claims 'up to' 21 hours talk and 310 standby.Sounds like something is wrong...
Theo
NY laid this down on his screen :
Yes! The original cells sold with my BT8500's were the very lowest capacity AAA's available. They latested several years, but when they finally needed replacing I opted for some much higher capacity ones - they have worked fine since.
Yes, I don't know what the gigaset charging regime is but it seems to work better with lower capacity batteries on ours. When our original batteries finally wore out (after several years) I put 'standard'
1050maH or 1100maH batteries in and they only lasted a year or so. I have now put 700mAh batteries which are (supposedly) specifically for DECT phones and they seem to e lasting well, two years at least so far.
So it's a trade-off between larger batteries to give enough talk time for a phone call on squawkerphone (in the absence of Bluetooth or socket for a headset), or smaller batteries so they don't stop holding any charge after a year or so. The Philips HR03 1000 mAhr batteries have lasted about a year before getting to the stage where they will give about 15 minutes talk time before cutting out without even any warning - and that's in normal mode, without the extra power for speakerphone. Interesting that all four handsets have started to fail at the same time, having all been upgraded at the same time from the unbranded lower-capacity ones that were supplied with the phones. And I've checked that after being on charge "forever" (ie whenever the handset is not being used) they aren't hot, just very slightly tepid, barely warmed that ambient.
At my desk I think I'll go back to the wired phone that I keep for emergencies.
I don't know what I do to rechargeable batteries. Laptop batteries only last about 2 years before stopping holding much/any charge (*). And that's keeping the laptop plugged into the charger only while using it and/or until the battery is fully charged, and I often let the battery discharge to about
20% even when I have mains, so the batteries experience discharge cycles rather than remaining permanently at or near 100%. One laptop went through three batteries (original one it was supplied with and two cheap Chinese clones) in about 5 years.(*) I'm dreading when my present laptop's battery stops holding charge because they've succumbed to the modern trend for sealing the battery in the case (as for my mobile phone) rather than creating an access door so it can easily be swapped out.
Fundamentally it's discharge/recharge cycles that wear batteries out. So letting it discharge repeatedly to 20% and then recharging *will* wear the battery out. If leaving the laptop on charge most of the time wears the battery out then it's because the charging regime (i.e. the way the charger works) isn't ideal IMHO.
If my memory serves correct LiIon batteries are 'happiest' at around
80% to 90% of full charge so a charger should stop at around this level. Maintaining a battery at 100% full (whatever that might mean) is probably not very good for it.
Really? My near seven-years old laptop battery still holds around 75% of its new charge spec. It's plugged in almost permanently - I doubt the laptop is used on battery for more than a dozen hours a year.
AFAIR the previous laptop was still on the original battery when I had to replace the laptop as it had a faulty screen connector and keyboard.
I didn't know that was being done with laptops too. Which brands/models does it apply to?
Whilst not claiming too really know, I'm sceptical. My suspicion is that the Gigasets recharge AAA batteries to ~1.45 volts. which seems higher than my smart battery recharger, about 1.3+. Batteries often feel hot to touch in the Gigaset. Overcharging reduces battery lifespan.
I even tried some special batteries with higher recharge cycles (800mAh), they were no better than anything else.
So I think buy cheap, buy often is the strategy I will go for.
Amazon has 16 AAA for a £10.
See if the laptop has a way to set the charger to only fill the battery to 80% full. I just found an example.
In the example picture it's called "Battery Care Function".
When you set it to 80%, it just does Phase 1 charging and does not bother with the slower "topping up" Phase 2.
Paul
I had a not cheap laptop which fried the battery if left on charge. So removed it, and only used it when needed.
Not something you can do with a cordless phone.
it surely can't be that difficult to design a charger which shuts off when the battery is full?
As I said to Chris Green, I'd been working from duff information: I thought it was actually a *good* thing to let the battery partially discharge every so often.
It's the case for my HP Omen 15-EK0003NA, and I think it was the case for various Dells when I looked a while ago.
The laptop has no access doors for battery, HDD or RAM. It does have a lot of screws, but I wonder whether there may also be hidden clips and pegs which have to be pushed aside with a spudger even after you've removed all the screws. Laptops really don't seem to be designed with maintenance/upgrade any more. Gone are the days when you could easily remove an HDD from a laptop that failed to boot so you could access the data via a caddy on another computer (I'm assuming that the laptop hasn't been configured to encrypt the HDD).
I'm wondering whether my mistake is to use my laptop at all on battery. I'd always understood than it was permanent charging (whether or not booted up) which reduced the life of a battery, and that it was a *good* thing to let the battery run down (though ideally not to 0%) every so often.
OK, with this laptop from now on I'll use it on mains whenever practicable to keep the charge near "full" (whatever percentage the charger stops charging), but disconnect it from mains when it's not in use. And I'll still use it on battery for the times when I can't use it on mains.
Let's see if the battery lasts any longer...
I used to do the same with one of mine. The battery was only used when mains wasn't available and lasted years and years that way.
I have the belief - can't support it with evidence - that my present laptop (elderly HP Somethingorother) stops trying to charge the battery once it's full and the machine runs from the PSU when it's in that condition. It's over six years old and still holds 75% of it's original charge so I'm not complaining.
Nick
Our Panasonic handsets came complete with Panasonic 550mAH NiMH cells. They are no longer holding their charge for more than 2 to 3 days (including at least one 30 to 60 minute speakerphone call per day), but have served for something like 10 years. I'll definitely look for some Panasonic replacements!
The charging circuit within the laptop should be stopping charging at that level, but labelling it as 100% anyway - i.e. 100% of safe charging level.
Well they were reasonably reputable makes. From memory, I think Acer, HP and Samsung (Win XP, Win Vista and Win 7 respectively). The battery on my old Fujitsu Win 3.1 laptop lasted a *lot* longer before eventually entering the "leaky bucket" won't-hold-any-charge state. No idea what brands of batteries were used - as in the battery manufacturer rather than the laptop manufacturer who had put his branding on them.
The latest version of the Apple laptop operating system tries to determine how you use the battery. If you usually run it on battery the mains charging system charges it to 100% but if you usually use it connected to the mains it routinely only charges the battery to 80%. The algorithm cannoot please everybody and I think a user configuration choice would be better.
+1
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