More retail therapy (first the webcam, now this!) 
A slightly frivolous purchase as our old livingroom phone is still working, but it’s in an awkward position to use as it needs to be next to the phone jack beside the bookshelves . And anyhow, it’s quite cool having a second phone that works – we did have one in the bedroom but you couldn’t make calls on it because the buttons were stuck. Actually, we’ve put the ‘main phone base’ in the bedroom and the extra ‘remote’ one in the living room, as the remote one just needs to be plugged into the mains.
But having never had a cordless phone before, I have a question.
The instructions say that once the batteries are charged you get 10 hours of ‘talking use’ before it needs to be recharged again. And apparently you don’t have to wait until the batteries run out before recharging them. But is it okay to always leave the phones in the bases? Will this somehow screw up the batteries? I’m wondering because the main base gets quite warm and so the phone does as well. And since this is the one in the bedroom it’s really not going to get used much and will probably spend most of the time in the base.
Anyhow, it doesn’t say anything about this in the instructions and so I thought someone out there might know the answer . . .
casa azahar 
I never leave the cordless phone in the base on purpose. I´m quite sure that our first died due to overcharging. Maybe batteries are better now than ten years ago, and can stand long rests in the base. Usually I put my cordless phone in the base for the day before leaving for work, and then it´s OK for use for another 3-4 days at least.
However I mostly use mine as alarmclock… It´s quite handy though, since it gives me the opportunity to have a phone in the bedroom.
LikeLike
Hmmm … so I probably don’t need to use the second base at all as it’s simply a recharger and isn’t connected to the phone line. Or else just use it as a place to set the phone in the living room without it being plugged in. Then we can keep the set-up with the main base in the bedroom and use it for recharging both phones.
We probably didn’t even need two phones, except they came as a kind of two-for-one deal, for the same price as the other single phones in the shop.
LikeLike
I always leave my cordless phone on the base when I am not using it. According to the manufacturer, it is not possible to overcharge its battery, and they do not recommend running the battery down before recharging. Leaving the phone off its base when not in use will eventually run the battery down to the point where it can no longer be recharged.
Cordless phones are charged by trickel charge and there is no way for the battery to be overcharged by leaving it on its base when not in use.
LikeLike
Sorry- typo: “trickel” should read “trickle”.
LikeLike
Is the same thing true of laptops? A friend of mine has a laptop which he has used only on AC power for years and now his battery is totally dead. I’ve been making sure to use mine on battery as well as AC power so that this doesn’t happen. Maybe they use different technologies?
Anyway, I have a phone pretty similar to the one in az’ picture above and I almost always leave it on the base and it still seems to be working fine 3 years later.
LikeLike
My husband the electronics technician says that every once in a while you need to let the battery run down, not all the way but almost out. He says that these rechargeable batteries have a “memory”, and if you always charge them up when they have discharged maybe 25%, then after a while they will tell you they are all dead when they have only discharged 25%.
So, we either keep the cell phone fully charged or let it discharge various amounts before charging it.
I do not have a cordless phone because they have a very short life when I use them. Like watches, they die quickly in my hands. So we have a boring princess phone with a cord and it always works.
I refuse to have a phone in my bedroom. If I am sleeping, I do not need to have the phone ring next to my ear at 3a.m. because some drunk has mis-dialed the number for the Hampton Inn and wants to talk to Jeremy in room 210.
LikeLike
I have a cordless phone primarily because we only have a single phone jack in our unit and I like having the option of bringing the phone into another room as opposed to standing in front of the front door. But I totally agree about not wanting to be bothered by the phone while I am sleeping- I usually shut the ringer off.
I think my cell phone manual said to let the battery run down before charging it. I’ve had this new one for three weeks now and it hasn’t even discharged 30% yet. Can you tell I don’t like talking on the phone?
LikeLike
Well, the guy at the shop did say that we didn’t have to let the cordless phone batteries run down before recharging them (as we do with our mobile phones). But I didn’t ask him about leaving them in the bases all the time. It’s just the easiest place to leave them and you also know where they are. Many’s the time I’ve had to call my mobile phone from the landline to locate it in the apartment. 🙄
I’m not sure about laptop batteries, Dan. A friend of mine who’s had several laptops says the battery always fucks up rather quickly, though she didn’t say anything about it going totally dead. Maybe your friend just had a dud battery?
When Nog first got his laptop it would last a couple of hours on the battery and within a few months that went down to about an hour or so. He tends to keep it plugged in most of the time but when I use it in bed (like now) and know it’s only for a short time I use the battery. But that’s just cos I’m too lazy to drag the cord in here as well as the laptop.
LikeLike
One of the reasons I always plug my cell phone charger into the same outlet is because I know I’ll never find the thing unless it rings… that, or I forget to take it with me when I go out.
I’ve had the same cordless phone for six years and, except for when I was moving, have never had the phone off the base except to use it. I’ve never had to replace the battery, and haven’t had any charging problems.
It’s been a few years since I got rid of the laptop, but I seem to recall being able to use it in the neighborhood of six hours or so before the battery would run down. The sales person I bought it from told me to expect somewhat longer battery duration because the laptop had 512MB of RAM and therefore didn’t have to write stuff for temporary memory as frequently, or something like that. It was really nice having the wireless net connection on the laptop, especially the summer I was off work. Sitting outside in the sunshine and mucking around on the internet was great fun.
LikeLike
Mobile phone batteries seem to have a longer life-span than they did ten years ago. Used to be I had to change phones ever couple of years because a new battery cost as much or more than buying a new phone.
The only complaint about my present one is when it decides to die just as I’m about to go out – and it’s not supposed to be recharged until it totally dies, apparently.
This is annoying because I mostly use the mobile for business stuff (it’s the phone number I place in my ads for English classes) and countless times I’ve received a call when I was out of the house from someone looking for classes and we pretty much sealed our deal there and then. If I hadn’t been available the caller probably would have just gone down the list of other possible teachers to call and maybe gone with the first one that answered.
Nog and I also like being able to send each other short text messages when we are out and about separately. 🙂
LikeLike
Seems to me the battery life span is longer than even a few years ago. My “old” phone was purchased in June, 2003, and needed to be charged every other day, whether I made or received any calls/messages or not. This new one hasn’t needed a charge since the initial charge when I activated it about three weeks ago or so. And I’ve used it for internet and to play Bejeweled, as well as for calls and text messages.
The old phone still works OK, but K finally conceded that it would be easier on both of us when he’s meeting me at various train stations, if we have the option to call each other and coordinate. I haven’t tried teaching K to send text messages yet- the man is absolutely baffled by electronic devices.
LikeLike
Whoa- your cell phone isn’t supposed to be charged at all, until it completely dies? That sounds awfully inconvenient!
I don’t usually wait for the battery to run down to recharge, but there have been times when I’ve forgotten about it and haven’t been able to power it on long enough to place a call. That’s really annoying.
LikeLike
Well, they say if you wait until it’s dead to recharge it this prolongs the life of the battery. So both Nog and I do this.
Meanwhile, Nog bought the same model of mobile phone as mine several months after I did (special offer – basically the phone was free) and his battery is now fucking up. If he doesn’t recharge it once it starts getting low it keeps shutting off. Mine still works even when the little battery thingy on the screen is blank. Go figure.
LikeLike
Ah, that makes sense. I’d never heard that before, but I’m sure batteries vary by manufacturer as much as phones do.
Weird that the newer one is fucking up before the older one… but isn’t that always the way? I basically got my new mobile for free, too- all I paid is the $35 activation fee- which is why I waited two years to get around to it. It’s not as difficult to justify a new toy when you can save some money up front, huh?
Unless, of course, you promptly need to buy a new battery! 😉
LikeLike
I always keep my two cordless phones on the bases, and they haven’t had any battery problems unless I forget to rotate them (only have the one transformer for the main base) to keep them charged. Otherwise they last for weeks before the screen goes blank.
My mobile battery always seems to hold a charge — unless, of course, I’m about to run out the door and really *need* to have it to rendevous with someone!
I’ve got a *pay as you go* mobile, and I figure it costs me all of about $7 a month. Beats a contract any day — as long as it’s used only for emergencies not chat. THEN it can be pricey.
LikeLike
I’ve got a pay-as-you-go mobile too.
They don’t have activation fees here anymore and the usual ‘free phone’ deal is to give you the same amount in ‘free calls’ as you’ve paid for the phone, which eventually works out even though you have to pay for the phone up front.
The other thing the three main rival companies do here is offer a real free phone if you switch over to them. And they are usually quite spiffy latest models, flip-tops with cameras and such.
A friend of mine gets a snazzy free phone every year by switching between the three companies on an annual basis.
Those sorts of promotions kind of bug me though – it’s like you’re being punished for being a loyal customer. 😕
LikeLike
I’m not sure if what I have had was a “pay as you go” plan… I’ve only ever had a contract for the one year period after purchasing a new phone, but my carrier (T Mobile) has always billed me the same each month regardless- $49.99 a month for 1000 minutes, shared between both phones, plus any text messages or downloads.
Free phone promotions are cool, although I find they’re usually “last year’s model”.
Switching between carriers used to be a lot more difficult before “porting”, or carrying the existing phone number over to a new carrier, recently became mandated. Who wants to switch phone numbers? I would probably consider switching carriers for a free phone, except my other two choices, US Cellular and Verizon- are known for exorbitant prices and extremely poor service.
LikeLike
😕
Having the main base connected to the power and the phoneline in the bedroom seemed to be the best solution, so as to have the extra base (that doesn’t even need to be plugged in) anywhere that’s comfortable in the living room.
Except the connection didn’t seem that great … so we switched the bases over. The main one in the livingroom. Perfect solution? We thought so.
Meanwhile, stopped into the shop where we bought the phones – haven’t been out and about much lately due to THE WEATHER – and the guy there told us that we should only leave the phones in the bases when we are charging them or else we’ll fuck up the batteries … can you spell GAAAAAAAAAA?
So heck. Have now moved ‘main base’ back into bedroom because guess what? I’d originally thought we’d just leave it in the living room and unplug it between charging … except it apparently needs to be plugged in for either phone to work.
Honestly, if I’d known all this stuff beforehand I would never have bought the fuckers. Though I have to admit it’s rather nice to have some freedom of movement whilst talking on the phone. As long as we can get the auxiliary phone to work properly in the livingroom . . .
LikeLike