Do rechargeable batteries eventually "die"?

bigpat

Hi,

Sorry if this question is completely daft, I know you can't go on recharging batteries forever and yet the following puzzles me.

We have one of these Gigaset trio home phones and it's approx three years old. Base and three handsets were all bought together.

One of the handsets is dead and when you put it on any of the chargers it makes an odd crackling sound, every 5 seconds or so. I've swapped out the batteries for those in another handset and then it's fine, but the other one starts crackling instead, so I'm convinced it's the batteries at fault, i.e. they won't charge up. The other two handsets are absolutely fine.

So I took some other rechargeable batteries we have at home for cameras and so forth and put two of those in. I know those batteries are charged up, yet they have no effect on the phone handset. And why would one set of batteries be so completely dead, when the other two sets are absolutely fine, even though they were all bought together?

The batteries are marked NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride I think) if that makes any difference and that's the same as the rechargeable Energisers we use in our cameras.

I can go out and buy some new batteries I suppose, yet being a moneysaver, I don't want to waste it, if I'm missing something else.

Any ideas? Thanks!

katejo

bigpat wrote: »

Hi,

Sorry if this question is completely daft, I know you can't go on recharging batteries forever and yet the following puzzles me.

We have one of these Gigaset trio home phones and it's approx three years old. Base and three handsets were all bought together.

One of the handsets is dead and when you put it on any of the chargers it makes an odd crackling sound, every 5 seconds or so. I've swapped out the batteries for those in another handset and then it's fine, but the other one starts crackling instead, so I'm convinced it's the batteries at fault, i.e. they won't charge up. The other two handsets are absolutely fine.

So I took some other rechargeable batteries we have at home for cameras and so forth and put two of those in. I know those batteries are charged up, yet they have no effect on the phone handset. And why would one set of batteries be so completely dead, when the other two sets are absolutely fine, even though they were all bought together?

The batteries are marked NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride I think) if that makes any difference and that's the same as the rechargeable Energisers we use in our cameras.

I can go out and buy some new batteries I suppose, yet being a moneysaver, I don't want to waste it, if I'm missing something else.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Yes they do. i have a cordless landline phone with such batteries. Mine have just died and been replaced. Their charged up life gradually got shorter and shorter until I couldn't use the phone at all. Now with new ones it is fine again.

[Deleted User]

Regardless of when the batteries were bought, it is the amount (and manner) of re-charging that determines battery life. If the batteries are used wisely, i.e. charged only when required, their life is considerably extended.

Jnelhams

Sadly nothing lasts forever. Ni-Cd batteries die quickest of all the rechargeable types and so you should look for Ni-MH , Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries which have better life spans. The other thing to look for is the mAh rating the higher the better in terms of charge length. For example a 3300mah Ni-MH AA battery will last a good while longer before it needs charging compared to an 1800mah Ni-MH AA battery, but in terms of overall number of times it can be recharged both would out last the same power in NI-CD batteries.

Hope that helps.

bigpat

Thanks for those replies, it's more or less as I expected. But then why won't that handset work when I put other freshly charged batteries in? Those batteries run my camera OK, (so long as I don't overdo it with the zoom lens) and I'd have thought that was a heavier load than the phone. I could be wrong though, maybe speakers take a lot of battery power?

Garetha

Jnelhams wrote: »

Sadly nothing lasts forever. Ni-Cd batteries die quickest of all the rechargeable types and so you should look for Ni-MH , Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries which have better life spans. The other thing to look for is the mAh rating the higher the better in terms of charge length. For example a 3300mah Ni-MH AA battery will last a good while longer before it needs charging compared to an 1800mah Ni-MH AA battery, but in terms of overall number of times it can be recharged both would out last the same power in NI-CD batteries.

Hope that helps.

But don't buy a different battery from the type the equipment came with.
i.e. Replace Ni-Cd with Ni-Cd.

Jnelhams

bigpat wrote: »

Thanks for those replies, it's more or less as I expected. But then why won't that handset work when I put other freshly charged batteries in? Those batteries run my camera OK, (so long as I don't overdo it with the zoom lens) and I'd have thought that was a heavier load than the phone. I could be wrong though, maybe speakers take a lot of battery power?

Well your phone uses aaa size NiMH batteries and Gigaset are recommending batteries rated between 450 to 800mah only, so check these are the same as you are using and that of course you have them installed correctly. If the phones still won't charge it's possible they are just plain broke, and so search fleabay for some replacement handsets.

forgotmyname

They are usually sold with a charge upto 1000 times.

So 3 years is not too bad. As mentioned stick to the same type Ni-Cd or Ni-MH. The higher the number the longer it will last. But get something similar to those fitted originally. If they were 600's go for 750's, 750 go for 900.

But beware cheap batteries. They may say 900 but may last less than a 300.

Enterprise_1701C

If you want to try it first before you buy new batteries, you can actually put ordinary non-rechargeable batteries in it, if you put fresh ones in and it does not work then you know the handset is dead rather than just the batteries.


However, if you do put non-rechargeable ones in DO NOT put it on the base as this is liable to cause problems.

roddydogs

The ones "Dead" wernt by any chance in the "Most Used" handset?.

Stompa

My Panasonics, with 550mAh NiMHs are still going strong after 6 years. However, they do play up occasionally, and cleaning the battery contacts in the phone (as well as on the batteries themselves) has so far always resolved the problem. Worth a try, you've nothing to lose by doing so.