Uniden cordless Phone

Thanks to all. Time Warner isn't the most reliable out here in the sticks. I have to unplug the modem about once a month to reset because the phone/internet connection goes down. It may be both the phone and TWC. Occasionally, the base handset stays lit up and won't function. If I take the battery out and wait a minute before reinstalling it seems to work fine for awhile.

Sam's Club has a sale on Panasonic 4 pack right now. Might be time to just get new phones.

thanks again!
cts

covetsthesun wrote:
We have an older Uniden cordless house phone. Lately and intermittently, I'll make a call and the person on the other end cannot hear me. Usually this is preceded by a "stutter" like a digital cut out of sound. It may take 3 or 4 tries to make a good connection.

It seems to happen a few times a month. I'm wondering if it's the batteries giving out... or is it a faulty connection through VoIP with Time Warner?

And, occasionally the screen light will stay on and the phone won't work at all. I've taken the battery out for one minute and it works fine when I put the battery back in.

I don't want to spend $$ on a battery if it's TWC related. Any ideas?

cts

One of the best "cordless" phones I had was a analog 800 mhz.. Good sound, lots of distance, no problems until the base unit was struck by a close lightning hit..

The newer 2.4 ghz phones and worse yet is the "Dect" phones.. The 2.4 ghz phones are in the same frequency bands as WiFi, Bluetooth and your microwave ovens.. The "Dect" phones just don't work well at all, digital artifacts make hering the caller just about impossible.. Tried four or five different brand before finding one that somewhat worked..

As far as your issue.. Since you are not using a "POTS" line from telco your VoIP unit that your cable co provides adds additional complexity to figuring out your problem..

I would suggest that you substitute a known good old school corded phone. Disconnect the cordless phone and plug in the corded phone and see if the same issues persist.

If stutter no longer persists then the problem is your cordless phone, even though I have had problems with newer cordless phones I find it is better to replace them when they start giving trouble...

If stutter does persist with corded phone then the problem is on TWC side of things.. That could be anything from your VoIP box all the way back to TWCs closest point of access to phone co connection..

If stutter persists with a corded phone you could try rebooting the VoIP box if it is in your home (some are mounted outside of your home) to see if that clears up the problem..

Otherwise a call to TWC support may be in order..

MNGeeks61 wrote:
Nickel cadmium batteries did have "memory" if they were not discharged down to 20% or something like that.

If the phone is "old", not likely it has Li batteries; not sure any home cordless models do.

It probably has NiCad which just wear out after a few years, even if kept at a proper float voltage. NiMh are much better; Li a little better yet but at a higher cost.

New phone systems are pretty cheap and many Uniden owners have changed to other brands - I switched to Panasonic. Uniden might not be the issue but if it's old it probably deserves replacement anyway.

I have the four unit PANASONIC phones here an they have been is service for many years now with no problems. They are constantly on charge...

covetsthesun wrote:
We have an older Uniden cordless house phone. Lately and intermittently, I'll make a call and the person on the other end cannot hear me. Usually this is preceded by a "stutter" like a digital cut out of sound. It may take 3 or 4 tries to make a good connection.

It seems to happen a few times a month. I'm wondering if it's the batteries giving out... or is it a faulty connection through VoIP with Time Warner?

And, occasionally the screen light will stay on and the phone won't work at all. I've taken the battery out for one minute and it works fine when I put the battery back in.

I don't want to spend $$ on a battery if it's TWC related. Any ideas?

cts

We had the same problem with our older Uniden phones. We finally decided it was the handset that was causing the problem. We found a handset on Ebay since they no longer make the model we have. It works like a champ and all is good again.

We like the way the Uniden we have fits against the side of our heads. It's just more comfortable than any other handset we've tried. So we stick with it.

I'd say VOIP connection. Our DSL at the campground is only 10 Mb/s and I have cameras as well as a weather station. I had to configure my VOIP router to do QOS and remove that setting on my regular DSL modem.

Also, from my recollection - Uniden or not, lithium ion batteries don't care when they're plugged in. Like most batteries, they do have a limited number of charge cycles. Nickel cadmium batteries did have "memory" if they were not discharged down to 20% or something like that. They would not be fully charged if you discharged them to 80% and then charged them again.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_nickel_based_batteries

Years ago when we had a home phone our Uniden cordless would dial 911 on its own

Dick_B wrote:
and discovered that they should only be recharged 7 hours per day!

Where exactly did you find that tidbit of (mis)information ?

While it is possible, I guess, it is HIGHLY unlikely.

Note: We have had Panasonic and Vtech cordless phones. Both have NiMh batteries and stay on charge 24/7. I think the batteries in the Panasonic's lasted 5 years. Replacements were not that expensive.

BUT....what the OP reports sounds a LOT like a digital fault and could be with his Voip circuit. Changing the battery or using a different phone for a while would be a good place to start.

Power cycling the VOIP equipment might be a good idea too.

Our Uniden phone gave us trouble too. Finally got tired of 'messing' with it and bought a Panasonic with 4 handsets at Costco. It has been trouble free for years now.