New battery or new phone? Help me decide what to buy...

[Sunny Side Up]

Ugh! I hate that it now costs about as much to fix something as it does to buy a new one. It grieves me to add to the landfill, as much as it does to throw the purchase price at something to fix it. So please help me decide what to do.

Our cordless phone has pooped out, so I think it needs a new rechargeable battery. It bugs me to have to buy a new rechargeable battery, I thought rechargeable meant just that, you could perpetually recharge it with power instead of replacing it with a new one. They really should call them "limited-rechargeable batteries" and not get your hopes up.

A new rechargeable battery costs $15. A new cordless phone costs $19. And of course, with the speed which these devices show improvements, the new phone has features our old one doesn't have. The "old" one was bought 6 months ago.

Whaddaya think? Our budget is very tight, so a $4 savings seems attractive. So does a new phone with better features. Thank you for your imput!

 

[English Chick]

Go for the new phone and treat yourself.................

 

[OlliOlliOlli]

Quote:
No rechargable battery is perpetual. The ions that make up the chemicals inside your battery lose a little bit of charge everytime you "cycle" your battery. Everything in life, especially electronics, is finite -- they have not misled you

Get thee on eBay...you would be able to find a battery that would fit for a fraction of the price. There's no reason to EVER pay retail for something like a phone accessory or battery.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Well, you'll have to excuse me for being obtuse, I'm a Wilma Flintstone trying to make sense of a Jane Jetson world.

To me, rechargeable batteries should be the opposite of disposable ones -- you shouldn't ever have to throw them away. I thought a rechargeable battery was like a refillable cup, that as long as liquid was available the cup should sustain its ability to be refilled, that is, as long as the cup itself didn't crack or break. Now I see that with a rechargeable battery it's the contents inside that wear out with time, just like with a refillable cup it would be the exterior part that would break down. *lightbulb*

Wilma thanks you for the clarification.

And she also thanks you for the suggestion I shop on eBay for a new battery. I didn't think to look there because I have the impression that while you might save a few $$$ on the item you pay more with the added shipping charges. But I was pleasantly surprised to find many sellers offering batteries for less than the store prices with free shipping! So I bought one for less than half the store price. But it did take Wilma quite some time to sort through the many many many different ones offered until she found the precise one to fit her phone. I hope to work faster next time.

I also bought some new rechargeable AA batteries for my camera since the ones I have are also pooping out. I'm such a Wilma, when I first started using a digital camera -- one I bought from my niece -- I didn't know you should use those special long-life camera batteries, I was just using regular AA batteries & getting annoyed with how often I had to change them!

God bless the BYC community, today folks here have helped me deal with both old-fashioned chicken ailments and new-fangled phone & computer problems!