TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone?

Re: Can I Substitute a NiMH Battery for NiCd in a Cordless Phone?

Michael D. Sullivan (userid@camsul.example.invalid)
Mon, 18 Apr 2005 03:07:59 GMT

curious@nospam.com wrote:

> I recently bought a cordless phone, which came with a NiCd battery.
> In the manual it says:

> "To reduce the risk of fire, use only 3.6V 850mAh Nickel Cadmium
> (Ni-Cad) cordless telephone replacement battery pack."

> I've heard about the dreaded "memory effect" with NiCd batteries, so
> I'm interested in replacing it with a NiMH one. Someone who is
> selling a 3.6V 1000mAH NiMH battery on Ebay claims it works with my
> phone, but will it really be safe? Wouldn't want to install a NiMH
> battery and have the house burn down.

The NiMH battery will power the phone just fine, once it's charged.
But you need to have a charger designed for NiMH batteries. Some
Ni-Cad chargers also are designed to charge NiMH batteries, but some
are not. (I assume there is a difference in charging current or
something.) Don't use NiMH batteries in a charger designed only for
Ni-Cads. Since you will undoubtedly be charging the batteries in the
phone, not swapping them out into a charger, you shouldn't use NiMH
batteries in a phone that says to only use Ni-Cads.

The only exception I would make to this is if the phone vendor sells a
NiMH replacement battery specifically intended to be used in the phone
in question. And I would go with the vendor's battery, in that case.

Michael D. Sullivan
Bethesda, MD (USA)
(Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.)

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