A Seemingly Great Phone System BUT Batteries RUIN EVERYTHING!
Written: Sep 26 '04 (Updated Sep 26 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: 5.8 GHz, cordless, intercom, monitor, hands-free speakerphone on handsets
Cons: batteries, batteries, BATTERIES!
The Bottom Line: Only purchase this system if you intend to spend another $40-$50 for better batteries. Otherwise, stay away.
|
|
|
| pande's Full Review: Panasonic KX-TG5110 5.8 GHz Twin 1-Line Cordless P... |
When I read the features of this phone I was very impressed. Cordless, 5.8 GHz, intercom, monitor, hands-free speaker phone one the handsets—very cool stuff. All these lovely features AND I could use it to monitor my baby girl. I purchased the phone system without hesitation.
3 weeks after purchasing the phone, one of the handsets started losing battery power very quickly. I would charge the phone overnight and still the talk time had dropped to less than 2 minutes. I was certain that I had a defective handset, that is until the second handset started exhibiting the same symptoms. That’s when I realized that the batteries were probably the problem.
I checked out the epinions website and found that unnumbered users had experienced serious problems with their batteries. Bingo. At least I knew what the problem was. Figuring out what to do was a whole new challenge. I was unable to find a Panasonic replacement/upgrade with NiMH or Lithium Ion chemistry. At this point I was very, very annoyed, having paid over $200 for a phone system which I could now only use from the base speaker phone! Useless! And to make matters worse, the handsets would lose power and reset even when they were docked and being charged! This meant that I couldn’t even use the system to monitor my child. Frustrating? Ohhhhhh yes. Absolutely useless.
I recently found a solution in an epinions review. A helpful reviewer recommended that users purchase the Energizer ER-P111 or the Helios HS-CO511, both of which have NiMH chemistry (FYI: the NiCad chemistry of the stock batteries that ship with these units is such archaic technology that I am truly embarrassed for Panasonic for making the decision to use NiCad batteries in one of their more sophisticated phone systems.) I wasn’t able to find the Energizer anywhere but the Helios is available at place like Target and Batteries.com.
I am very, very disappointed to have to spend another $40 just to get my phone system to work as it should but, to perfectly fair, the system is very good when it is
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pande
|
|
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.