Keypad Button Fix

It’s a long shot that anyone reading this would have a similar problem, but if the buttons on the handset of your cordless phone stop working, there’s a fix. I’m not sure what’s more amazing—that I fixed my phone (which implies almost anyone can perform the repair) or how easy it was to find a solution using the Internet.

First I’ll describe the problem. I have a Panasonic Model KX-TG2257 cordless phone with a built-in digital answering machine and speaker phones in both the handset and base unit. The phone, which is no longer made, cost around $100 when I bought it at Radio Shack in 2003. Over time the most frequently used buttons on the handset (1 – 7) became inoperative. No matter how hard I pushed them, they failed to make contact with the underlying circuit board. Or, pressed harder than normal, the desired number was repeated multiple times, for example, 22. The keypad on the base unit, which has larger buttons, is fine. I had never heard of handset buttons failing, but I liked the phone enough to at least check whether it could be fixed.

There was nothing in the phone’s user manual about repairing bad buttons, so I turned to the Internet. A simple Google search using the phone’s model number quickly found a couple of vendors on eBay who offered a repair kit for the keypad for less than $10. As neither web page promised to include step-by-step instructions, I sent both companies email asking how to disassemble the handset. Right away I got a reply from one vendor with a link to a 6-minute online video showing how to install their product. The video didn’t use a Panasonic phone, but the vendor assured me that the procedure would be similar for my phone. After watching the video I was sold and ordered the kit.

Actually, as things turned out, the kit did include illustrated instructions. But whether I could have completed them without the video is an open question. Basically what you do is remove the back of the handset, take out the circuit board, clean the circuit board contacts and button pad with alcohol, apply new peel-and-stick contacts to the circuit board, and reassemble the handset. The critical thing the video shows is how to take the handset apart without breaking it. Plus, as a confidence builder, a normal-looking person performs the procedure and makes it look easy and doable.

So why not just buy a new one? That’s what most people do when a relatively low-cost piece of electronic gear like a phone needs repair, right? There are plenty of inexpensive cordless phones on the market. One model that costs far less than my Panasonic comes with three handsets. If the buttons stop working on one handset, you can toss it and use another. All I can say is that sometimes you get stubborn and don’t want to just go buy a new phone (or whatever broken device you have). I’m not going to argue that we can save the planet by repairing cordless phone handsets instead of disposing of them in the nearest landfill. Instead my point is that every now and then, courtesy of the Internet and a well-made video, you might be able to fix something instead of throwing it away.