Is there a cell phone that would work after 1 year in storage?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Are there any cell phones out there that are like a flashlight: always ready to use when needed, even if it has been a year since the batteries have been charged/replaced?

My wife asked me to get her a cell phone to use for emergency road service, to call GM Motor Club if the car had problems on the road. I ended up getting a CDMA phone that was compatible with Page Plus Cellular, since they offer a 1 year plan, 33 hours for about $80. We got a used LG VX8100 cell phone that worked ok, though she did complain about how it always needed charged the several times she needed to use it. We recently renewed for a second year, and over 31 hours of unused time rolled over.

Last week I noticed that it would not even hold a charge enough to use it. I ordered a high capacity replacement battery, but that did not fix the problem, so I guess the phone is hosed. My first thought was just to order a replacement phone of the same model, but I started to wonder if there might be a better emergency cell phone out there that would be closer to what she wants for her situation.

Her primary desire is that it be ready to use even after very long periods in storage. (glove compartment) It does not need to stay in a low power state to receive calls, messages, or anything like that. She wants it to be fully, 100% turned off, so nothing is draining the battery. Then, even after 12 months in the glove compartment, she wants to be able to pull it out and use it if she needs to make a call.

She asked me the other day ... "Our camera is like that, our flashlight is like that - why can't my cell phone be like that?" I didn't have a good answer. I use Nickel Metal Hydride Low Self Discharge/LSD batteries for the camera and other items. (these are the ones you see in the store that say "precharged") They keep about 3/4 of their max capacity after a year in storage. After switching from standard NIMH batteries to them, I've never had to worry about our camera not being ready to grab and go, no matter how long it has been since I charged the batteries. (obviously, if I've used the camera for loads and loads of pictures, then I do charge them)

Is there anything like this that fuses cell phone and battery technology to give a cell phone with similar battery lifespan?

Thanks!

 

[WelshBloke]

http://spareone.com/

That should do.

Edit: Also, Wrong forum.

 

[Jeff7]

A flashlight is off when it's in storage. A cellphone's going to be drawing power all the time. If it's on, it's listening to the cellphone towers and trying to maintain a signal. If it's off, it's still drawing a bit of power to monitor the power button for a press, and to keep the clock running. Different phones have different levels of power drain when they're idle or off, but I don't know if any are designed with a goal of >1 year in storage.

But if you take the battery out of the phone, it should retain a charge for longer. If you do that, make sure that the terminals are insulated or protected - you don't want anything to short out a li-ion cell in your glove compartment.



Edit:

http://spareone.com/

That should do.

Edit: Also, Wrong forum.

Ooooh, that looks neat.

 

[phucheneh]

Um. They already make this product. It's called...a phone.

Take the battery out and it will last a year.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Wow, that Spareone seems to be almost exactly what she wanted, thanks!

 

[WelshBloke]

Wow, that Spareone seems to be almost exactly what she wanted, thanks!

 

[pm]

Um. They already make this product. It's called...a phone.

Take the battery out and it will last a year.

While you are probably right that this might work for a while, it's an expensive way to do it. In general lithium polymer batteries in cell phones don't like heat and their overall life is quickly reduced by hanging out fully charged in a hot temperature environment. The dashboard of a car on a summer's day can hit >170F (73C). If you look here - http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries - a lithium polymer cell stored at 100% charge for 3 months at 60C, will almost half of it's operational capacity. It's the worst situation for a lithium-based cell, while at the same time alkaline batteries do not have this problem.

So I think Welshbloke's suggestion is a great one because the batteries in the SpareOne are alkaline.

 

[dagamer34]

We should point out that the SpareOne likely operates on 2G networks, which AT&T will be shutting down in 2017 and T-Mobile probably won't be keeping up much longer than that. So I would actually check to make sure it works in 5 years or so.