Cell Phone battery question

[pedalinbob]

my wife has a nokia 3360, and lately it appears to be running out of juice rapidly--it is 2 years old. it used to go about 2 wks between charges, now she only gets a 3 to 5 days.
use is minimal.

the battery is the BMC-3, which is the mid-level 900mah 3.6v nimh. it was properly conditioned per instructions.

my thought was that the bat was probably nearing the end of it's service life.
my wife took it to the dealer, who stated it was not the batt, that she had to replace the entire phone!

welllll, right after a full charge, i checked the bat and it shows 3.9v...but of course this does not tell me whether it can handle a load.

anyone ever have a similar problem?
i think i will order a new batt from batterystation (about $20 + ship), and just try it.

at best, it will solve the problem.
at worst, we will need a new phone, and if we stay with the current model, we will have a spare bat.

any thoughts on how to tell whether the original bat is good?

also, any good places to purchase these bats?
i found a lithium ion bat (1100mah) for $12.90 + ship online--but the price seems too good to be true...probably is!

Bob

 

[BatteryCharger]

I can't think of any reason why it could possibly be the phone. The battery should be more like 4.2v fresh off the charger. Check ebay for new batteries, there's TONS of them for just about every phone for about $5 shipped.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

it sounds like one cell could be weak in the pack or your charger is flakey I don't see a phone causing a battery to run down that much faster unless it has a small short in it somehow or a light staying on inside it.

I would be careful about lithium ion batteries of *generic* brands from unknown places, a few of these have been known to be lacking protection circuitry and/or made poorly enough to cause them to short and/or overheat.

I just looked at a lithium ion battery I took out of a cellphone I found in the street that was destroyed by traffic and it is a bit smaller than what you are using.
700mah and a little thicker than a credit card, was hoping it was the same since I found it I may have to invent a use for it (led light).

 

[cobb]

2 weeks, to a few days???? I am lucky to get an hour per charge.