Ordinary NiMH (ie like Eneloops) in cordless phone?

[StorminMatt]

A friend of mine has a cordless phone that uses replaceable NiMH batteries in the handset. But hers seem to be at the end of their useful lives - talk time is getting REALLY short. She wants to replace them. But replacement batteries are very expensive from the manufacturer. And they are only 900mAH. This got me wondering. Could ordinary NiMH batteries such as Eneloops be used instead? They would be cheaper, have more than double the capacity, and would not need to be special ordered. Has anyone tried Eneloops (or any other general purpose NiMH batteries) in a cordless phone? Is there any reason why they wouldn't work as well as these low capacity batteries (like maybe charging conditions)?

 

[TinderBox (UK)]

You must be talking about low capacity AA battery`s i have got 700mah and 1000mah with my cordless phones before, normally they come with AAA battery`s nowadays.

I would not use double the capacity, it might cause a problem for the phones charging circuit, you could buy some AAA to AA adapters then you could use 800mah AAA Eneloops in the phones as you will have a problem finding low capacity ni-mh AA battery`s

John.

 

[StorminMatt]

How about Nicads? Fry's sells a four pack of 1000mAH Nicads for around $5.00 - FAR less than the $20 that Vtech wants for two 900mAH AA batteries shipped. The capacity is very much the same. You don't need adaptors. And compared to NiMH, Nicad is actually MORE tolerant of less than ideal charging algorithms.

 

[SilverFox]

Hello StorminMatt,

If the phone came with NiMh or NiCd cells, you can try to replace them and they should work.

The issues are if the replacement cells are the same size and will fit the space, and if the charger will work with the replacement cells. The fit is easy to check. The charger may take some experimenting to determine how well it will work. Some phone chargers are timed and shut off after the charge. Others are very low rate chargers that never shut off but don't charge at a high enough rate to immediately destroy the battery pack. If your charger is a timed charger, you will need to charge it a couple of times if the the capacity of the replacement cells is higher than the original pack, but other than that there shouldn't be any issues.

Tom

 

[BVH]

I replaced my Panasonic handset OEM AAA's with Eneloops and all is well for over a year now. I just soldered a small gauge wire to the Eneloops to make the Series connection and soldered the + and - leads from the original connector.

 

[Yamabushi]

Consider using Eneloop Lite batteries. They were designed for this type of application.

 

[StorminMatt]

The batteries are actual button top AA batteries. They can literally be replaced with any other type of AA batteries. And I even tested her batteries in my EA4. They can't support turbo. And the rapid blinking that indicates a dead battery comes on at the git go in high. So they are definitely dead. As far as the Nicads, I thought they might be a good choice since they are about the same capacity. And Nicads are actually BETTER than NiMH when it comes to being able to tolerate a float charge - they last significantly longer under these conditions. As for Eneloop Lights, these may work as well. But they're not available in stores, which would mean not being able to use the phone for a week (or more).

 

[nanotech17]

I replaced my Panasonic handset OEM AAA's with Eneloops and all is well for over a year now. I just soldered a small gauge wire to the Eneloops to make the Series connection and soldered the + and - leads from the original connector.

Yup.Same thing to me.

Sent from my GT-N5100 using Tapatalk 4

 

[samgab]

Works well for me:

They're AAA's, incidentally.

I don't know what sort of charge rate or protocol it uses, but I'm not really too fussed. From time to time I'll run a discharge/charge cycle on the cells with the C9000, but just to amuse myself really, the eneloops seem to perform very well in this application.

 

[Etsu]

Yeah, you'll be fine with any battery with a higher capacity. The phone will treat it as a lower capacity cell that it expects, so it won't fully charge it. That's fine, and better that trying to over-charge it.

 

[n3eg]

I use eneloops in all my cordless phones, and they work fine and have no problem charging.
Except, of course, when your charger has two shorted diodes like mine did...

 

[samgab]

PS, eneloop's own FAQ's recommend eneloops in DECT phones. Well, eneloop lite to be precise:
http://www.eneloop.info/eneloop-products/faqs/faqs-eneloop.html near the bottom of the page.

 

[funkychateau]

Should work fine. I have rebuilt a number of old NiCd cordless-phone packs with NiMH cells. The only difference I've noticed is a doubling or tripling of capacity. I'd say a lower chance of reverse-polarity damage also, as the higher-capacity pack is more likely to make it back to the cradle with remaining charge after a long call.