Cordless phone batteries not lasting?

Question

I have a client who has gone through three cordless phones in one year (help desk kept sending new units!). He keeps claiming the batteries won't hold a charge after a couple months. He swears they are charging them all the way before first use, returning it to the cradle, etc. There is no battery "refresh" button on this unit; it's a simple cordless phone that uses a rechargable ni-cad battery pack. Is there anything he could be doing that would keep causing this to happen? Or his electrical be to blame? I can't believe this could be a "defect" with three seperate, brand new units. None of our other clients (over 50 with this phone) have this problem.

Answer 1

Maybe your client uses the phone so much that it goes through more frequent charging cycles, wearing down the ni-cd pack sooner than normal.

Answer 2

The problem is that he probably put the phone right back on the charger every time he uses it.

He should leave the phone off the charger and only put it on the charger once the battery is low.

Each time the phone is put back to the charger = 1 cycle.

The more cycle you go thru the less time the battery will hold a charge.

Also the memory effect could be the big issue here:.

NiCad batteries have one bad characteristic in that they can develop a memory. If a NiCad battery is repeatedly fully charged and then used an amount that is less than full capacity, after a period of time, it may not be able to deliver any more than the capacity frequently used. This is called NiCad memory.

I think it's best if he switch to a Lithium ion battery equipped phone

Here some excellent info about Ni-Cad batteries and their memory issue :

http://www.sentex.net/~mec1995/hobby/tec...

Answer 3

If this is a repeat problem, if possible, charge battery fully, test it and inform the client that the phone has been tested and is fully charged, ready to be used.