House phone with a LOUD ringer?

[MrsPete]

My grandmother asked me to buy her a new phone. She specifically asked me to avoid cordless models and find one with the loudest possible ringer. She's 97 and doesn't hear too well.

Anyone have any suggestions on what I should buy?

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I think there are phones that will have a light that blinks when it rings. Look under phone for the deaf.

 

[MrsPete]

I think there are phones that will have a light that blinks when it rings. Look under phone for the deaf.

I like that idea . . . but it might be expensive. Hmmm, I'm off to google.

Thanks for the idea.

 

[tvguy]

I think there are phones that will have a light that blinks when it rings. Look under phone for the deaf.

Those phones generally also have ringers than can be adjusted to a much louder level than normal phones.
Check with her phone provider, or local senior center, because each of us pays a few pennies a month on our phone bill to help provide special phones for the hearing impaired. My mom got her phone for free.

 

[FlyingDumbo]

I used to have a light up phone in college. It was great, at night we could turn off the ringer but it would still light up if someone called. Wish I kept it!

Call the phone company, land line and ask for the hearing impaired dept. They might be able to offer an amplifier.

 

[golfgal]

I just got some Vtech phones and the ringer is pretty loud, but it is also a lower pitch ringer which helps. It has a pretty large face on it so you can see when someone calls too (lights up when it rings). It is cordless but it is pretty good. It also has a good handset volume control. I can hear pretty well on it and I have about 70% hearing loss. I got them at Office Max about 6 months ago.

The set I have is this one:

http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechpho...?event=ehCatalog.productDetail&ProductID=1464

I have also had very good luck with Uniden phones but could not find one with enough handsets that had the DECT technology (where you can use it with a cell phone) but I am guessing your Grandma won't care about that.

 

[MrsPete]

I just got some Vtech phones and the ringer is pretty loud, but it is also a lower pitch ringer which helps. It has a pretty large face on it so you can see when someone calls too (lights up when it rings). It is cordless but it is pretty good. It also has a good handset volume control. I can hear pretty well on it and I have about 70% hearing loss. I got them at Office Max about 6 months ago.

The set I have is this one:

http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechpho...?event=ehCatalog.productDetail&ProductID=1464

I have also had very good luck with Uniden phones but could not find one with enough handsets that had the DECT technology (where you can use it with a cell phone) but I am guessing your Grandma won't care about that.

I'll check into that. I have 'til Wednesday 'til I can get down to her house again.

I can't go with a cordless phone. She's had three of them in the last two months (she keeps asking different family members to buy them for her -- how smart are we to all act without calling each other?), and she has the same complaint about them: They all work a week, and then they quit and make a beeping noise -- so she puts them out in the garage in a little cordless phone graveyard. I've tried my best, my best, my best to convince her that she's failing to hang them up properly -- and that the batteries aren't recharging -- but she won't listen. She insists that cordless phones won't work in her neighborhood, which makes no sense at all.

She's also completely befuddled by the numbers my daughter programmed in for her. She KNOWS her daughter's phone number, and IT IS NOT 2, nor is her son's phone number 3. She actually became ANGRY about it, so I let it drop. I wasn't going to convince her, and fussing would've solved nothing. She's an intelligent person with a college degree and who used to run her own business, but I cannot get her to understand that the up and down button scrolls our names across the phone, and she can just push "talk" to reach that person.

I know this is all about being 97 years old. I see her losing abilities at a rapid rate lately.

 

[Ephany]

My aunt and uncle are deaf and the lights would flash when the phone would ring. I googled 'deaf light flash' and it looks like there are after market flashers available that you connect to the phone, and then plug into the wall. It might be an option if you find a phone she likes, but the ringer's not loud enough. Also if you look up 'amplified phone' there are some out there that look to be specifically manufactured for seniors with extra large buttons and loud ringers.

 

[akcire]

My grandmother asked me to buy her a new phone. She specifically asked me to avoid cordless models and find one with the loudest possible ringer. She's 97 and doesn't hear too well.

Anyone have any suggestions on what I should buy?

Go to a goodwill or resale shop. You want an AT&T desk phone. The kind that mostly came in beige, and have rounded ear pieces. You can get them in rotary or touch tone (the touch tone is the AT&T 100 Desk phone).

My husband's grandmother lived with us until her 100th birthday, it was the only phone she could hear. It was incredibly loud. You can also get it set up with an amplifier. We tried that, but even grandma complained it was too loud--which was good, because the neighbors dog (who lived 2 houses down) would bark like mad.

Good luck

 

[Wishing on a star]

THIS!!!!!
The first one you see listed here CEZA1228

http://udn.factoryoutletstore.com/cat/7709/Uniden-Special-Needs-Phones.html?cid=1108&chid=1600

I guarantee that you can hear better on the included cordless handset than you can the corded wall unit.
In a very nice and unassuming way, just make sure that you SHOW her, demonstrate... simply remember to use the 'talk' button, and leave the handset sitting in the caddy.


I think I have seen them at Staples....

 

[NotUrsula]

Before you spend a dime on this, check with your area Council on Aging, or whatever the equivalent is called. In my area, they give out amplified phones free to older folks who are on fixed incomes (not necessarily impoverished, just on a fixed income.) In my area they cannot afford to ship them, however, so the recipient does have to go in person to pick up the unit.

My MIL received one. It is a corded large phone (like an office desk phone) with large buttons, a ringer light, a volume-adjustable ringer that goes LOUD, an amplified headset receiver, and an anti-feedback switch for users with hearing aids.