Rechargeable batteries for DECT cordless phones

[Simpo Two]

I need to get some more AAAs, and someone who used to work in teleoms says I have to have special phone batteries, and that normal rechargeable ones won't work. Something to do with the discharge rate he said.

The one I have already are NiMH and have been fine; surely all I need is more of the same or Li-ion?

[netherfield]

We got Siemens phones, never had a problem fitting some off Ebay.

[Hoofy]

Guess it depends on the phone. I bought ones that permit generic rechargeable batteries after buying a phone that required specific batteries and having a problem trying to find suitable replacements!

[Johnnytheboy]

They have different mAh ratings - is that what he meant I wonder?

[marshalla]

I use these in our Philips handsets whenever Mrs. M. manages to kill them : http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/panasonic-aaa-dect-phone...

They seem to work OK and we haven't been killed to death by exploding telephones yet.

[Simpo Two]

Thanks for the responses.

Something might be wrong with the two extra handsets I bought s/h from eBay. The seller said the batteries needed changing (Energizers); when they arrived they were down to abut 0.7V. So I recharged them so they showed 1.4V, but when placed back in the handsets they don't show the max of three bars; one shows one bar and the other two, and the 'recharging' symbol is going round.

I then swapped the current, good, batteries from an existing handset into the new ones and the same happens - suddenly not charged. Could it be that the handsets are knackered in some way? They seem to be in very good condition.

[Pip1968]

Maybe he put the wrong batteries in and blew something inside. The main thing is to get the right rated voltage and then the amoerage does not really matter. Most of these phones come with 500/750mA but a larger Amperage will mean they last longer oitside of the charger and will take slightly longer to charge fully.

I looked for larger Amp ones when mine started going flat to quickly 1000 or 1500 mA I seem to remember.

Pip

[Simpo Two]

These are 1,000mAh, but that shouldn't make a difference. It may have had alkalines in before, which I think can hit 1.7V, but surely a Panasonic phone would be designed to cope with that possibility?

[eldar]

Simpo Two said:

These are 1,000mAh, but that shouldn't make a difference. It may have had alkalines in before, which I think can hit 1.7V, but surely a Panasonic phone would be designed to cope with that possibility?

Check if old type nicad rechargeables are needed, rather than something more up to date. Some old designs for DECT phones atill fairly common.

[blueg33]

We have Panasonic phones. The original batteries had the rating marked on them. I bought NiCAD with the same rating from Amazon. They work fine. I think they are Duracell.

[Countdown]

Just had a look in the back of ours (Panasonic) and they've got the original panasonic branded AA batteries in them. We've had then nigh on 17 years. They recharge when you put them back in the holder thingy.

Thinking about it, even though they don't get a lot of use, they never seem to fully charge. Maybe they're knackered...

[Jonesy23]

Just replace them with whatever NiMH (or NiCad if really old) AAA's you can get with a reasonable brand and price, extra capacity is usually worth going for over the tiny ones that come from the OEM.

They spend their life on a permanent float charge from a very basic charger so they end up knackered after a while anyway, so there's no real point in going overboard on the batteries.

One thing that does help a bit is to actually use the batteries so cycling the handsets around to even out the usage keeps them all going much longer. A handset that's never used tends to end up with stuffed batteries long before the one that sees regular use.