Advice about cordless phones keep cutting out

snuffalilly

Hope someone can help.....this is driving me mad. Bought my nan a new phone a couple of years ago that had two cordless phones to go with it so she could have one in her bedroom and one in the living room, meaning she could have a phone near her at all times. She liked to be able to have one of the cordless ones on her lap while sitting down so she didn't have to get up to the phone.
She soon started having problems where the cordless phones started to cut out. We didn't know why and thought the phones were faulty so took them back for a refund.
We bought her a Binatone Speakeasy combo, again with two plug in cordless phones. The same thing happened. I thcompany who she pays the phonebill to and they told me to test the line. I did all this and it showed there was nothing wrong with her external line. I had an electrician friend check her wiring but he couldn't see a problem. All she kept getting was a beeping and then the cordless phones would cut off during the calls.
We called a telephone engineer who suggested it may be the battery life and asked if we had fully charged both of them before first use. I wasn't sure that we had so we took the set of phones back to the shop and explained and they swapped them for new ones.
So, we tried again. We charged them fully for 24 hours before first use and hoped for the best....but on her first use,it cut out straight away. Again, she got the beeping and it cuts out. I looked in the manufacturers instructions and it says the beeping can occur if battery runs low or if the signal strength is low. Well, it can't be the battery so I'm wondering if it's the signal? The main phone is in her hallway, and bearing in mind she lives in a small bungalow, the other 2 cordless phones are not that far away from the main phone. However, I know that the walls in her bungalow are thick and wonder if this interferes with the signal?
If it is the signal, how can we solve this? This is the 3rd phone we have tried now so it can't be the phones themselves.My nan is 90 and is quite poorly at the moment so it is vital that we can sort something out for her. I have no idea what else to try. We bought the cordless phones to make her life easier but this is proving to be such a headache.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Premier_2

The beeping sound is typical of a low battery level warning.

Most cordless phones use cheap Ni-Cd (or possibly Ni-MH) rechargeable batteries nowadays.
Just like all rechargeables of this type, they require careful use to ensure maximum performance. They should be fully charged before initial use and deep cycled (allowed to fully drain and then recharge) a few times before maximum performance is achieved.

They should also be deep cycled at stages during their use to avoid the dreaded memory affect. Although this was said to be less of an issue with newer NI-MH batteries, it still exists.
The deep cycling of phone batteries is often something that is overlooked as the tendancy is to put them back on charge as soon as a call is over.

You should be able to get replacement batteries for most cordless phones; look at maplin, specialist battery suppliers or direct from the OEM if the handset doesn't take normal batteries.

Heinz

Although far less-knowledgeable than Premier about battery technology, I've always worked on the premise that 2 years' use from a (good quality) cordless phone battery is the absolute limit.

Bearing in mind that phone manufacturers probably bulk buy batteries down to a price, it's likely that, although they may bear the logo of a respected battery manufacturer, they are not top drawer items.

What is a little worrying is the ".. soon started having problems" part of the OP though.

I'd say buying good quality replacement batteries and following Premier's advice on conditioning ["They should be fully charged before initial use and deep cycled (allowed to fully drain and then recharge) a few times before maximum performance is achieved"] is the best way forward.

Buzby

You don't give enough information to ascertain whether the 'beeping' before shut down is due to there being no stored power in the cells - indicating that the internal batteries or pack need replacing.

There are situations were interference from adjacent WiFi routers cause the speech path to fail - so - find out if the battery is your problem, or interferences from other transmitters, with those two resolved, you should be back in business!

snuffalilly

Thanks for the replies. I don;t think the battery sign starts flashing on the handset when the beeping starts but I will have to test it out myself to double check.
I know batteries don't last a lifetime, in fact, our cordless handset seems to be having battery issues but we have had it for a couple of years so I can understand that. However, when we set my nan's phone up, we fully charged them for 24 hours, and I think it was the second phonecall that nan had, the phone cut out. Surely the batteries can't have run out of charge that quickly?
Also, she has had the same problem with 3 different phones now.....can it really be the batteries on all of them?
If we buy some new batteries, then a) what is the best way of charging them to ensure best performance and b) what if the problem continues, what could it possibly be?
Does anyone know what sort of gadgets can interfere with cordless phones? Bearing in mind my nan is 90 so she doesn't have laptops, broadband, ipods etc etc!!!!

Premier_2

snuffalilly wrote: »

... when we set my nan's phone up, we fully charged them for 24 hours, and I think it was the second phonecall that nan had, the phone cut out. Surely the batteries can't have run out of charge that quickly?

That can happen.
A couple of months ago I fully charged 3 brand new AAA batteries whiich were 700mAh capacity.
I then deep cycled them to get maximum capacity.
The initial charge showed the batteries only had 39mAh & 113mAh (and the third had 631mAh)
It took about 4 deep cycles to get them all to about 700mAh

snuffalilly wrote: »

If we buy some new batteries, then a) what is the best way of charging them to ensure best performance

What type of batteries does the handset take? If it takes common AA or AAA batteries, then this is a great charger that can automatically deep cycle batteries to provide optimum capacity (and give readout of the results)

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-BL700.asp

Otherwise, if the handset uses a special battery, you can only use the handset to charge them. Once charged, deep cycle by not recharge (place handset back on base station) until the batteries are completely dead. A two or more handset phone is best for this so that you've always got at least one handset charged.

snuffalilly wrote: »

and b) what if the problem continues, what could it possibly be?
Does anyone know what sort of gadgets can interfere with cordless phones? Bearing in mind my nan is 90 so she doesn't have laptops, broadband, ipods etc etc!!!!

What I think Buzby was suggesting was possible interference from any other local radio signal that interferes with the handset signal.
As suggested this could be a WiFi router, or possibly a video sender or even some radio controlled toys etc. Whilst your nan may not have any of these, could it be that a neighbour has one?
I suppose it could even possibly be interference from a neighbours cordless phone?

I still think low battery level is probably the cause. You need to reproduce the fault when you are there, see if the low battery icon displays when the beeping occurs ... or if the phone switches off too soon to check, try switching it back on again before it is put back on a base station. If it's a low battery, either it won't switch back on or will show the low battery level icon then.