This topic

Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 10:00:46 GMT

I have just installed four of these phones and am very pleased with their performance. However I have just discovered that two of the phones are Type A and the other two are Type B. Their respective 'Let's get started' manuals are identical apart from the small print on the back page, which states 'EDHP 1.0 Type A' or 'EDHP 1.0 Type B'. However the following extracts from BT's PDF at https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/digital-voice/essential-phone/BT-Essential-Digital-Home-Phone-UserGuide.pdf reveals that there is an important difference in their power supply units:

Power cable and plug
Item code 090713 – Type A
Item code 092132 – Type B

2 rechargeable batteries
Already in handset
(AAA NiMH 800mAh – Type A)
(AAA NiMH 850mAh – Type B)

Important
Only use the mains power adaptors, cables and rechargeable batteries supplied in this box or this product might not work. Any replacement rechargeable batteries must be of the same type. BT accepts no responsibility for damage caused to your Essential Digital Home Phone if you use any other type of batteries.

Question:
With four of these phones in my house and several family users, it will be impossible to maintain association of their installed batteries with the appropriate Type A or Type B charger. I would therefore like to know if such mixing is a safety issue?

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Les-Gibson — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 13:43:32 GMT

@Graham888wrote:
... it will be impossible to maintain association of their installed batteries with the appropriate Type A or Type B charger. I would therefore like to know if such mixing is a safety issue?

Why is it impossible?

Each of the handsets has its own ID. Simply tell the users that (e.g) Handsets 1 and 2 are to be recharged downstairs and handsets 3 and 4 upstairs

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

imjolly — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 13:54:36 GMT

personally I don't think it will make any difference which phones are connected to which bases as long as the power supply is connected to the correct phone base charger

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:42:36 GMT

Thank you for your suggestion, however from the information given in BT's PDF it's important for the handset batteries to be matched to the correct type of power supply. Although the bases look identical they all have labels underneath identifying them as Type A or Type B, hence my concern about safety in the event of a handset being placed on the wrong type of base.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:50:16 GMT

Unfortunately such disciplined behaviour is impossible in my house.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

imjolly — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 21:53:26 GMT

I know that would not bother me as I am sure the base chargers will work on either battery but it is your choice

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Gary_C — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 03:41:14 GMT

Humm
The type A has a 6V 400mA output which suggests its not just a simple trickle C/~100 charger (cant find any spec for the type B, what does it say on the plug ?), overcharging a NiHM battery isn't ideal but given they are so close, I bet it won't make any difference.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 06:10:02 GMT

Thanks for helping with this issue.

The Type B plug label states:

6.0V 0.6A 3.6 W

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

barnpiece — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 07:13:13 GMT

I have one Digital Voice Essential marked Type A and one marked Type B.

Only one base (Type B) is used to charge (the other does not have its power supply connected), and I swop the phones over ever 12 hours so they spend half the time on charge. The reason I do this is that many years ago a BT engineer told me that the batteries will last much long if allowed to discharge in this way (and it is true).

I have been using these two phones for over 1.5 years now with no problem (and I didn't know until now that they had diffferent ratings).

Richard

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 09:06:21 GMT

Your response leads me to think that there isn’t a safety issue, so thank you for that. However it does beg the question of why BT warns against mixing in their online manual? I don’t know if BT monitors this community, but it would be great if one of their engineers gave an explanation. Meanwhile I am happy to accept your response as a solution, so thanks again.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Gary_C — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 18:25:48 GMT

I suppose 'technically' there is a slight difference between the batteries and depending on the charging method used (volt dip or temp or just timed and trickle etc) then they are designed for the manufactures specifications for the cells. Probably dual sourcing the components which helps control costs maybe ?

But they are so close as to not really make a difference and now we have real world experience.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

NeilO — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 13:38:56 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Just to clarify, I did run this thread by the Digital voice device manager and both versions of the handset are designed to be mix and match so you can charge either type of handset on whichever base is convenient without any concerns.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Graham888 — Sun, 08 Aug 2021 19:55:49 GMT

Thank you for the clarification from BT - much appreciated.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

roythebike — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 17:28:04 GMT

If this is the case why does the Type "A" base still have the plug and power cord? It would just be a dummy base.

I am about to be connected to BT fiber but I have been sent the phones (one type A and one type B) and am charging them up to be ready fully charged when I am connected. I arrived at this community when I was searching the reason for two types of phones as I could see no difference in the instruction leaflets apart from different item numbers for the base and battery capacity. Actually the type B base had two item codes on the label. One 092132 as informed on the leaflet and in smaller print 090257 near the top edge of the label.

I measured the voltage on the type A base connectors as 6.1 Volts for the 800mAh batteries and 6.35 Volts on the type B base connectors for the 850 mAh batteries.

Probably someone deep down in BT can give a definitive answer to this but I can only think that it is an attempt to prevent both phones discharging below operating level at the same approximate time

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Gary_C — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 10:57:42 GMT

@roythebikewrote:
Probably someone deep down in BT can give a definitive answer to this but I can only think that it is an attempt to prevent both phones discharging below operating level at the same approximate time

I think you might be over thinking this.

Probably a dual sourcing of handsets and you get whatever is on the shelf at the time of packing.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

leshay — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 14:46:48 GMT

Just for info.

I received 2 basic BT digital phones prior to changeover (happened about 6 weeks ago now). I noticed that I had 2 different phone types (as per this thread), and noted the discrepencies regarding the charging rates etc.

Considering this as a possible safety issue I contacted BT who connected me with BT tech team. Initially, they were not aware that there were 2 different types being given to customers. As I was raising this as a safety issue, BT arranged to send me another phone (which was bound to match one of the two I had) and for me to return the other. This I did and now have 2 Type B phones.

The BT tech team took note of the different specs and said they would look into it. Although they said it was not likely to be an issue, they would fully check it.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Gary_C — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 01:26:29 GMT

@leshaywrote:
The BT tech team took note of the different specs and said they would look into it. Although they said it was not likely to be an issue, they would fully check it.

There has already been an official reply to this question within this thread.

There isn't a problem, either are fine in whatever charging base you put them in.

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

NeilO — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 09:22:02 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Here's a bit more background as to why the handsets have different batteries.

We specified a standby and talk time for the handsets. The Type A Handset needs to use slightly higher capacity batteries to achieve this.

So, the batteries in the Type A ( Essential) handsets are a bit different: 800MaH instead of 750mAh.
Both of those batteries used in the same usage situation, the Type A will last a little bit longer. Conversely, they will also take longer to charge.

There are no safety conflicts. They will all work no matter how you mix and match all the components.

The only things to note are that:

Swapping the batteries will lead to different standby times.
Swapping the batteries could give odd battery level readouts.

Thanks

Neil

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

Daiveyp — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 09:43:17 GMT

Hello NeilO

The batteries for BT Essential phones Type A and Type B as you say the Type A batteries may last a bit longer should I use the Type A phone as the main phone and Type B phone as the extension phone upstairs?

Thanks

Daiveyp

Re: Digital Voice Essentials Home Phone 1.0 - Type A vs Type B - Safety Issue?

imjolly — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 10:45:18 GMT

whatever suits you. type 'B' may last slightly longer but that will depend on usage