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Saving those dying rechargable devices
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Everybody who uses technology these days knows the symptoms. The rechargeable devices you know and love just don’t have as much kick as they used to. Cordless phones are the main sufferers of this issue, but electric razors and many other things end up running down faster than ever before as they get older. Nothing quite beats only having a few minutes of talk time on your phone before you get the dreaded chirp that indicates immanent dropping of your call.
Obviously having a corded phone as backup is always an excellent idea. After all, cordless phones don’t work when the power is out, like it is prone to be in emergency situations that require the use of a phone. Even outside emergency situations, having a corded phone as a backup means that you won’t be left high and dry when you run out of battery on the cordless. Regardless, buying a new device can be expensive, and not all devices have replaceable batteries like cordless phones do. So it’s time to recover those batteries.
Thankfully only Nickel Cadmium (or NiCad) batteries really suffer from this issue too badly. Newer batteries have much less trouble if they exhibit any symptoms at all. I could go into a lengthy explanation about the chemical processes involved as well as the things that cause this issue, but honestly that can be skipped. The critical thing is knowing what to do and what not to do to correct the situation.
First thing to not do: Do not fully discharge the batteries repeatedly. That is actually a good way to damage the batteries permanently and reduce their life span substantially. This comes with a touch of good news though. Cordless phones will shut off automatically before the batteries are fully discharged. So we’ll focus on cordless phone battery recovery.
The second thing to not do is much more sinister. Do not overcharge the batteries. Trickle chargers of any type, which are the most common for cordless phones, can easily overcharge a battery if simple precautions are not taken.
All that lead up for just two simple things:
First, be sure to use devices until they are close to fully discharged. Cordless phones will give you the warning beeps. Electric razors and other motorized items will start to run at noticeably lower speed. Don’t recharge them until this happens.
Second, don’t leave them on their chargers. Charge a device for the recommended amount of time in the manual, then remove it from the charger until it is low again. Don’t charge it between short uses either. That will create a true memory effect as well, while leaving it on the charger will cause overcharging damage.
Those two policies for your rechargeable electronic devices will extend their working life substantially.
If you’re suffering from a cordless phone battery that is already at the end of its life though, you can try to recover it by using it until the phone shuts off fully, then charging it for one hour longer than its recommended charge time, and then repeat using it without charging it until it shuts off again. Otherwise, if you can’t get the battery back up to a reasonable life span, check your local office supply store or various other locations for replacement batteries. Much less costly than replacing the phone.
Last but not least, remember that the batteries themselves contain toxic materials and should never be disposed of in a regular trash can. Check your local Yellow Pages for battery disposal and recycling locations, or drop by places like Best Buy to drop the batteries in the electronics recycling bin at the front entrance. An excellent source for batteries to come from and go back to for disposal is also your local Batteries Plus store. No matter what kind of battery you need, from cell phone to laptop to cordless phone, they generally tend to either have it or can get it for you, and they do accpet batteries that are no longer operational for proper disposal and recycling.
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