Customer Reviews

Panasonic Type-24 PP511A Cordless Telephone Rechargeable Battery Replacement

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have four Panasonic phones with this dreadful battery. Everyone has been replaced at least once and two of these have failed again. But no more!

There is good news and it doesn't require you to build your own battery. I bought the Energizer replacement P511 battery which is has much better amperage (1200mA vs. the Panasonic's 850mA) and uses better battery technology (NiMH vs. NiCad, and NiCad is notorious for memory effect problems).

I will post a review of the Energizer on its page, but a quick result is that I now have two phones using the Energizer and both work longer on a charge. And a surprising difference is that the phone seems to work better at longer distances from the base! Not sure why (perhaps the extra amperage??) but where I always have had some static using the same phone in the same room, I now have clear reception!

I had been considering ditching these phones altogether, but maybe the new Energizer batteries will forestall that expense!

This is just an awful battery. It came as the OEM battery on my Panasonic KX-TG2267 phone. The P-P511 appears to have been used to power a host of other Panasonic cordless phones as well.

The battery quickly stopped holding a charge.

I looked for alternatives, and got an Eveready ER-P511 NiMH battery, which at 1200 mAH, is a slight improvement. But hey, most NiMH AA batteries are way better than that these days!

So I decided to make my own battery, out of some 2500 mAH Eveready Energizer NiMH AA batteries. It's not that hard. Here's how you do it:


First of all, save the original P-P511 battery that came with your phone. Study it. The P-P511 battery is essentially made of three AA batteries linked together in series. Linking batteries in series just requires that the minus pole of one battery contact the positive pole of the next battery, and so on. These links can be made by using wires or strips of metal.

Take an Exacto knife or something similar and cut/peel away the outer plastic wrap of the battery. The bottom part of this old battery will have a hard plastic frame that holds the three AA batteries together. Save this plastic frame for re-use.

Next, note how the original three AA batteries are linked together. The alignment of the three batteries is such that the one on the left will have the minus pole down, the one in the middle will also have the minus pole down, and the one on the right will have the positive pole down. The plastic holder has two holes, one in the middle, and one on the right side to allow the middle battery's minus pole to contact the handset's spring leads, and the right side battery's positive pole to contact the handset's spring leads.

OK, so now all you've got to do is figure out how to hook up the batteries in series so that these two battery poles end up at each end of this daisy chain series.

Take heavy duty packing tape and some heavy duty aluminum foil (the kind that comes in the large heavy duty lengths work fine), and cut small 1/4 inch strips. Tape the end of one such aluminum strip to the minus pole of what will be the left hand battery. Run this aluminum strip flush along the body of the left battery to the other end of the battery, and tape the other end of the aluminum strip to the positive pole of the middle battery.

Next, tape these two batteries to the plastic frame holder and cover up the aluminum foil generously with some of the packing tape. The next aluminum strip needs to run directly over the positive pole of the middle battery without making any electrical contact with it, so the positive pole of this middle battery needs to be well covered with tape and insulated.

So, tape down one end of a strip of aluminum foil to the top minus pole of the right hand battery, and run the foil strip across the top of the middle battery, and make contact with the bare positive pole of the left hand battery. Tape dowm the aluminum foil to the top of the left hand battery.

Tape the right hand battery to the other two batteries and the frame, and then wrap the whole group of three batteries in tape again, just to make sure the whole thing stays together.

Voila! You've made your own P-P511 battery!

Don't buy this, I bought it and it died within 12-18 months just like the factory Ni-Cad. Buy the new Ni-MH replacement HHR-P402 it has now lasted me 2 years at least. I didn't have the Ni-MH option when I bought this so I guess I can't fault them for selling it but now the Ni-MH option is here so don't buy this.

In my experience, the Panasonic brand battery seems to give better battery life than some of the other brands I have tried in my Panasonic cordless phone. But, it does seem to be very important to go through several cycles of full discharge and recharge when you first use these batteries to avoid the "memory" problem that shortens the life of the battery.

I started a comparison test between a Panasonic P-P511 and the Radio Shack equivalent last year. The Radio Shack guy claimed that theirs lasted much longer. It was a limited test of putting a new one in each of my two phones. Neither held charges for more than a couple days after the first 6 months. A little over a year later, the Radio Shack battery is completely dead now and the Panasonic battery lasts less than 30 minutes. Conclusion: Radio Shack's battery is no better than the Panasonic battery. I will try one of the alternatives suggested by other reviewers next.

I purchased this battery as a replacement for the one on my aging cordless phone. It arrived in a timely manner and seems to work fine.

The batteries arrived is good delivery time and have made my phones like new again. I thought I was going to have to buy new phones. I am well pleased with my purchase.

Bought it as a replacement of my dying battery. Found a generic replacement from Radio Shack for more money so really no reason to buy it from Radio Shack. Phone now can be used for hours before the battery dies.

The battery lasts a very long time. Sometimes it is left off the charger for a week and it still runs strong.