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?

Scott Dorsey (kludge@panix.com)
18 Apr 2005 13:42:03 -0400

In article <telecom24.168.5@telecom-digest.org>, <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.

Memory effect basically has not existed for many years now. It used
to be a serious problem, but today most NiCd failures are caused by
people reverse-charging cells as they overdischarge packs in an an
attempt to avoid nonexistent memory problems.

If you put a NiMH pack into the thing, you will get more capacity at
first because the energy density of the pack is higher. But because
the charger is not designed for NiMH cells, you will find that the
battery pack doesn't last very long before it fails.

If the phone works, why screw with it?

--scott

"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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