Cordless Phone Battery Question

[Mike]

Hi All!

Seasons Greetings ...

I have a quick question regarding my 900MHz Uniden Cordless phone. The
handset is using a 3 cell Nickel Cadmium 3.6V 600 mAh battery pack which
essentially dead now. I found a replacement at a local retail store
however I was also looking at a comparable Nickel Metal Hydride 3 cell pack
boasting 1300mAh of capacity. ... and at the same time won't suffer from
"memory" loss.

Now the question:

Without having more technical data on the cordless handset and its current
requirements (i.e. current slew rates, etc), should I be able to use a NiMH
pack in this phone with the same basic characteristics (ie 3.6V and at least
600mAh)? Are there any other considerations, like the charging circuit, etc
that I need to address? The charging circuit would be designed to charge a
NiCd pack. Are these charging circuits generic enough to charge a NiMH pack
safely?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

 

[Dan Hollands]

Unless you know that the charger was designed to charge both NiCd and NiMH
batteries it is NOT a good idea to replace one with the other. Unlikely that
the phone charger would have been designed for both.

Dan

--
Dan Hollands
1120 S Creek Dr
Webster NY 14580
585-872-2606
[email protected]
www.QuickScoreRace.com

 

[Rich Grise]

Hi All!

Seasons Greetings ...

I have a quick question regarding my 900MHz Uniden Cordless phone. The
handset is using a 3 cell Nickel Cadmium 3.6V 600 mAh battery pack which
essentially dead now. I found a replacement at a local retail store
however I was also looking at a comparable Nickel Metal Hydride 3 cell pack
boasting 1300mAh of capacity. ... and at the same time won't suffer from
"memory" loss.

Now the question:

Without having more technical data on the cordless handset and its current
requirements (i.e. current slew rates, etc), should I be able to use a NiMH
pack in this phone with the same basic characteristics (ie 3.6V and at least
600mAh)? Are there any other considerations, like the charging circuit, etc
that I need to address? The charging circuit would be designed to charge a
NiCd pack. Are these charging circuits generic enough to charge a NiMH pack
safely?

The NiMH should work in the handset, but disable the base-unit charger or
replace it with a smart NiMH charger, or get two sets and swap them out
into a stand-alone charger. And still disable or rip out the base-unit
charger.

I wouldn't try to charge a 1300mAH NiMH with a 600mAH NiCD charger.

Sorry,
Rich