What are all the problems with cordless phones? Why can’t just buy a cordless phone and have it work?
The best cordless phone in our house is an old 900mhz digital phone from Uniden (EXL 8900). The batteries build up memories, so we have to replace them every coupel years, but other than that it works great. Good sound quality, good range.
I have bought other newer and more advanced cordless phones, and have not had luck with them! We have a 2.4 ghz Uniden cordless phone (EXP 4241) in our living room. It mostly works pretty well. The sound quality is clear, and the volume okay. The problem is that occasionally there will be shorts bursts of loud noise while using the phone. It might be interference from some of the various electronic stuff we have around the house. This phone replaced another cordless phone that was too quiet. And if you turned the volume up, it would get hissy. And the volume didn’t stay up the next time you used it.
We also tried a 5.8ghz cordless phone, and it had the same bursts of noise that we get on the 2.4ghz phone.
I just picked up a free 900mhz Uniden EXP 7901. I let it charge up, and tried it out. The sound quality seemed okay. We were going to try it, and see how we liked it. Today I called home from work, and was going to leave a message for my wife on the answering machine. The asnwering machine normally answers on the fourth ring. It seemed to ring three times, then stopped ringing. But no message. I hung up, and called back, but got a busy signal. I kept calling back and kept getting a busy signal. I emailed my wife to let her know. When she unplug the new free Uniden cordless phone, the problem went away. So apparently the free phone is screw up.
In the kitchen we have an AT&T 9357 cordless phone & answering machine. It works okay. It doesn’t make rude noises, or have volume issues.
One of these days I will find a cordless phone that works well! They are hit and miss…mostly miss!
Monday night I came home after a rough day. I pulled into the driveway, hit the button for my garage door. Nothing happened. That happens sometimes. So I pulled closer to the door, and hit the button on the remote again. Still nothing. Pulled the remote off my visor, and hit the button. Nothing. Again. Nothing. I thought maybe there was a power outage, but I could see the little light on the motion control light sensor blinking. The light hadn’t come on, but it was still kind of light out. I didn’t see any lights on in the upstairs. I knew my wife was home. I actually got out of the car, walked over by the door, and repeatedly hit the button. Nothing! Grumble! I was forced to walk around to the front door. I hadn’t cleared the snow on the path to the front door as we always enter through the garage. So I trudged through the little over a foot of snow, up the snow cover icy stairs, across the snow and ice covered deck. I fumbled with my keys in the freezing cold, and was trying to get the door open, when my wife came over and opened it.
I was not in a good mood.
I went out to the garage, hit the button on the wall, and the door opened. I brought the car inside, and shut the door. I tried the remote, but nothing happened. I bought a chair in the garage to stand on. I opened the plastic light cover to access the remote programming button. I pressed the button, and the little red light started flashing. I hit the remote button repeatedly, but the little red light kept flashing. I should have only had to hit it a couple times. I slapped the remote against my hand smartly. The programming light had stopped flashing. I pressed it again, and it started flashing. I pressed the remote opener button few times, and the garage door started opening. I pressed it again, and the door closed. I closed the light cover on the garage door opener, and latched it. I am not sure why the remote stopped working. Maybe the battery was low, or had poor contact?
The garage door openers are made by Genie, and are for the most part pretty good. I installed them myself after ripping out the old poorly installed garage door openers that were there when we bought the house (and had no remotes for).
Last year I installed a bunch of Aube TH115 programable thermostats. Five of them to be exact. They are line voltage thermastats that control our 240 volt baseboard heaters. I also had bought a couple Aube TH114 non-programmable thermostats as well. These were to go into a couple downstairs rooms that aren’t used very much. Currently installed in those rooms are a couple very old, very ugly Intertherm thermostats.
Tonight I decided to install the Aube TH114’s. First, I shut off the breaker that I had labelled basement heat. I pulled the cover off the thermostats in the crafts room. I unscrewed it from the wall, then tested it with my voltage tester. No power there. So I removed the wire nuts from the wires, and kept track of which wire was attached where, But there were no marking on the old thermostat that I could see saying which were the line wire, and which were the load. I made sure the wires weren’t touching anything. I turned on the breaker, tested the wires, found the ones with power, then shut off the breaker again. Then hooking up the new Aube thermostat was a snap. I turned on the power, and the thermostat came to life!
I turned off the breaker again. I misplaced my voltage tester. I checked the thermostat I had just installed, and it had no power. Great! So I pulled the cover off the old thermostat, and unscrewed it from the wall. I went to unscrew the wires, when sparks started shooting! Ouch! This thing was still live! Apparently it was on a different circuit. It melted the tip of the screwdriver.
I hunted around the house, and found the voltage tester. Apparently I had thrown it away with the first old thermostat. I checked the breakers, but none had tripped. I started shutting off breakers, and testing the thermostat with the tester. Once I found the right breaker, installing the second thermostat was a snap!
