I have been looking for a battery powered answering machine, and I've never found one. Is anyone familiar with these? Do you know where I might find one? Maybe they are available and I've just had no luck in my searching.

-- Thrifty Sarrah (olefashion@hotmail.com), February 11, 2002

Answers

I don't know of a battery-powered one. We finally just signed on with our phone service for a voice mailbox. You will never get a busy signal at our house. If we are on the phone (internet or with clients) you will get rolled over into our voicemail. This is important for us since we have 2 businesses here. We can access the messages from anywhere. Cost is about $5 a month. There is no hardware.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), February 11, 2002.

not everyone can get voicemail,,IM still waiting for the phone Co to get that service in my area. But I know that make 12v ansering machines WWW.realgoods.com , they may have them

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 11, 2002.

You could get an Uninteruptable Power Supply, or UPS, which is basically like a car battery that you plug your stuff into it and (in the case of an answering machine) if it didn't draw much you could probably run it for quite awhile before needing to recharge.

-- chuck in md (woah@mission4me.com), February 11, 2002.

You need to think outside of a consumer's mind.

First all electronics run from low voltage direct current, including answering machines. The easiest way to visualize this is look at a cheap answering machine.. The cheap ones will have a 'wall wart' power adaper. These usually take the 110 volts alternating current to 9 or 12 volts DC. The more expensive machines do the same thing but the power converter is inside the machine.

Here is the short answer, Find the machine with a wall wart and set that aside and replace it with a battery arrangement. Use the plug from the wall wart and wire it into your bank of batteries or 12 volt lead acid battery, the plug goes into the answering machine. tHE ONLY problem that you may have is getting the polarity right. Solve this by checking the polarity before you cut the plug off of the wall wart. Chances are over 90% that the center (female) is positive. Just to be sure use a multitester to confirm. They can be had for less than 10 dollars.

This type of logic can be applied to converting most consumer electonics.

-- Marc (toymeister@hotmail.com), February 11, 2002.

You dont have to get voice mail through your phone company, there are other voice mail services available. Before the market tumble and the end of "free" things on internet, I got free voice mail with 800 number for people wanting to leave messages along with a free email account. I could check on messages with phone using same 800 # and a pin# or thru my email as they send copies of messages to email as a wav file which I could play on my computer. If I use 800# to check, it counted against my free time, the email sound files didnt. Cant think of name of this buisiness right off top of my head, but the limited time they offered me per month for free was plenty. They intended it not to be so you would purchace more time. Last spring they eliminated the free part and wanted money for the voice mail outright. It wasnt bad price, but I didnt need voice mail that bad. In all that time only convinced one customer to use it. I just let my account expire. If you want to pay for voice mail, I'm sure there are many places to get it still out there. Maybe try putting "voice mail" in a search engine.

As to battery powered answering machines, check there might be some with battery backup. You'd go thru lot batteries but could use it on battery backup all time. Stans suggestion of Real Goods is good one if you have 12V power.

-- Hermit John (hermit@hilltop_homestead.zzn.com), February 11, 2002.

I, for one, am disappointed that so many readers suggest a fee based service (voice mail).

An answering machine need a source of power. It does not know if the say, 12 volts DC it gets came from a transformer connected to 110 vac (house current) and rectifed to Dc (direct currect) or if it came from 8 batteries in series (which equals 12 volts).

Your well pump does not know if its power comes from the grid or as in the case of a blackout, from a generator. The concept is the same for the answering machine.

Fee based services will acomplish what an answering machine will, but why waste your money?

-- marc (toymeister@hotmail.com), February 11, 2002.

It's a lousy five bucks a month.....geez........

And an answering machine will not pick up messages when you are the phone to someone else, or using a phone dialup for the internet.

However, I don't really like my voicemail, and I'm going back to the ol answering machine, cuz I always forget to check it! I keep missing important messages, which has caused frequent problems for me, cuz we have an at home business too, but then I guess I'm a ditz. An answering machine is right there in my face telling me I have messages, so I check em right away.

Different strokes.........

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), February 11, 2002.

That's exactly it. For $5 we NEVER miss a call. That is important when all of our clients have our one phone number. That pays off in big dividends in the long haul for us.

Oh, and the cost of technology is relative. We didn't NEED this computer for our businesses, but once we got it, you'd be surprised at the ease in communicating with customers. And the fax abilities are limitless. So, each to her own.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), February 11, 2002.

I probably should of supplied more information. What I am wanting is a seperate battery operated answering machine so that I can swap out small batteries to power it. Rather than leaving it plugged in to our system. My thinking has gone that I can use the solar charger on the recharging batteries in the answering machine. The other option is to simply turn on the answering machine when we leave the building. I suppose in time we could learn to do this on a regular basis. I just felt human nature being what it is we probably will forget to switch it on, or off. There by using power from the main system when we don't need to. $5/mnth translates into $60/year, and I don't think it would be worth it for our needs, but I appreciate the suggestion. I'll check out realgoods, I was thinking radio shack. But when I looked at the site I came up with nothing. My search continues. I appreciate all of the suggestions, thank you.

-- Thrifty Sarrah (olefashion@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

Sarah, I know this is a little late, but check with www.backwoodssolar.com If you are on solar with a DC system you can get a horrible howling and static in your phone lines unless you know how to hook things up right with an answering machine. They have lots of good info as well as equipment. Hope this helps.

-- kim in CO (kimk61252@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.

I would not pay up for a special battery powered answering machine. Not when a regular one can be found for under $20 brand new and easily adapted. Most answering machines actually run off 9voltsDC after it's stepped down from the transformer cube you plug into the wall.

Someone with basic electronics knowledge could step your 12or24vdc power down to that for a couple dollars.

Or you could get a 12vdc to 9vdc transformer power cord from Radio Shack for a few dollars.

Or you could buy a 6 D cell battery holder and 6 rechargable D cells and splice that into the power cord that comes with the answering machine after you cut off the transformer. With the non-tape answering machines out now, that would last for days if not weeks without recharging.

You could use 9vdc transistor battery but it wouldn't last as long as the D cells.

I think it's a waste to pay $5 to the phone company every month for voicemail or call-waiting. If my line is busy when someone calls, I figure if it's important enough they'll call back.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), April 12, 2002.