On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 09:17:11 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

I don't believe it. The phones look at least 8 years old. If the
NiMH batteries were that old and left on continuous charge, they
should be nearly dead by now. I have a discharge tester (West Mtn
Radio CBA-II) that can test them. Send me one cell and I'll run a
test (time permitting).

Hi Jeff,
The phones *are* old. I agree.

And, those yellow Ni-MH AAA batteries are the originals.
So, I must have done the voltage test wrong.

Let me explain what I did, so we can see what I did wrong.

1. Here are four of the handsets, with full battery indicators:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2886/1...39174995_o.gif

2. Flipping them over, only two currently have original batteries:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3797/1...4763c59f_o.gif

3. Opening one, I find the battery open-circuit voltage is 1.4VDC:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5498/1...a94a31d5_o.gif

4. Likewise, the other battery is 1.4VDC, with no load on it:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2810/1...b50e19ea_o.gif

5. Yet, putting them back, the phone now indicates a low battery:
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3742/1...5d2d560e_o.gif

Conclusion?
A freshly charged battery (hot off the phone cradle), reads good;
but the phone charge indicator reads full at first, and then almost
empty after merely removing and then replacing the batteries.

6. Similar voltages were found for the other handset batteries:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2824/1...ba294c4e_o.gif
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/1...a4718078_o.gif

7. The replacement batteries read slightly higher voltages:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7392/1...f3c6231e_o.gif

8. Yet, all read low when immediately put back in the handset:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5482/1...ba55592c_o.gif

I'm not sure what to make of this data ...