I bought a couple of these speakers as travel companions some years ago. But both developed the same problem -- they would not hold a sufficient charge ; and would not play for more than 30-40 mins without completely powering down. That wasn't going to work for me, and I knew something had to be wrong with the (thankfully) removable battery pack.
However, a replacement was far too pricey ; and did not make sense -- you might as well buy the same entire device again!
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| Prices for these $$$ stupid |
The batteries are basically 3x AAA flat top batteries connected in series . Using my battery rule of thumb, (first positive cell or cells are usually faulty in a a series array) I tested them individually. They all checked out at first, so I hooked up a load (LED lights) to see which cells were failing or discharging first.
Right off the bat, I saw a total discharge from the first AAA cell in the positive series. So I pulled the
tab off of that cell, replaced with another aftermarket cell and the Vtech has worked perfectly ever since.
I will probably just build a new AAA battery pack from better quality flat tops when I get the time to do so, since obviously they used some pretty cheap cells for these units to begin with, or so it seems.
