Battery amperages

[rz]

Ok, it's been too long since I took an electronics course.

The rechargeable batteries in our cordless phones are dying. They are Panasonic AAA batteries rated at 630 mA. They sell in Amazon for about $12 a pair. But I also saw other Panasonic AAA batteries, same voltage, but 700 mA and they are a lot cheaper. Would these work ok in the phone, or should I just stick with the 630 mA ones?

[OWC Jamie]

the 700 mA may take 20 seconds longer to charge.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

It should be fine as long as they both have the same battery chemistry (NiCd or NiMH).

[davester]

I think you're talking about 700 mAh, not mA. That is capacity, not amperage. They'll be fine.

Amperage is decided by the load, not the battery.

[freeradical]

The only time I've ever seen batteries rated by amperage instead of amp hour capacity has been for car batteries. The amp hour capacity is generally used for consumer devices because it gives you an idea of how long the batteries will run before they need charging.

[JoeH]

You should be fine. In addition, if the current rechargeable batteries are NiCD's, in most cases you can upgrade to NiMH batteries. They often come with a much higher mAh rating, and are more tolerant of less than ideal discharging and recharging cycles you often see when using cordless phones. I did that change with my cordless phones a few years ago when the initial NiCD packs no longer held a good charge, the NiMH battery packs are still lasting a week or more between charges.

[Robert M]

rz,

Recent Panasonic cordless phones use standard NiMH AAA batteries. It's one of the reasons I'm a fan of Panasonic cordless phones.

You can replace them with any off-the-shelf NiMH AAA batteries of the same voltage. If you put in batteries with a higher mAh, it'll just take that much longer to charge them and they'll provide juice for a longer period of time. My cordless phones have Radioshack Enercell 850 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries in them. Lots and lots of talk time and standby time.

'course, if the phone is under warranty, it's worth a call to Panasonic. I did that with a Panny whose batteries died too quickly and they sent me a bunch of replacement batteries under warranty.

Robert

[space-time]

Get eneloops, those are best NiMH cells

[rz]

Thanks all. It was mAh. I wasn't familiar with that term.

[testcase]

Are the PLUGS EXACTLY the same?