Buyer's Guide to New & Used Cordless Phones

Cordless telephones offer several benefits, but also have some disadvantages. Benefits of cordless phones include that they can easily be moved from one room to another, they are safer to use during a thunderstorm, and they often have built-in features such as answering machines or caller ID units. On the other hand, it is easier for others to listen in on your telephone calls with a police scanner or multiband radio, the rechargeable batteries have to be replaced on occasion (usually not more than once every few years), and many of them won't function during a power outage. You may decide that it is best to use a cordless phone for most calling, but keep a standard telephone for communicating private information and using during power outages.

Most cordless phones have two antennas, one on the receiver and another on the base unit. The antennas may be single-section and rubber-coated or telescoping aluminum. Metal telescoping antennas are most common on older phones, and are more commonly installed on the base unit than the receiver. While telescoping antennas can be retracted when not in use to save space, and may have a preferable appearance, they are more likely to be broken than the more common rubber coated type. Three older cordless phones which have telescoping antennas on the handset are the ATC Deco-Tel, Radio Shack ET-300, and Sony SPP-22. If the base unit's telephone cord is built-in, this poses another risk, as it cannot easily be replaced if the wire is torn or the plug on the other end is accidentally broken.