Repair the sticky keypad on a panasonic cordless phone?

Uh be very careful, I totally destroyed my GE phone trying this "easy" fix. Doesn't even turn on now!

goob
April 2011

I too have a cordless Panasonic set with sticky keys. It is over 10 years old and we rarely use our landline so I haven't bothered with it. But now that our kid might need to use it in an emergency and might not have the finger strength for the sticky buttons I finally tackled the problem. The guys that answered earlier, Jack, Joe, and Frank, were right on the money. I am not mechanically inclined and was able to fix it easily following their directions. The tricky part for me was sliding the plastic casing gently but firmly apart by sliding a tiny straight edge screwdriver along the seam. But with a little patience and confidence supplied by this how to: I saved $100, I don't have to recycle another piece of plastic, I don't have to run to the store for a replacement, and the kid has a safe and easy to use phone. Thanks guys!

Suzette- mom home during a snow day
February 2011

On my KX-TC1867B there were two screws under the battery and on each side a 'push-in' indentation. Remove the screws and very carefully push in on the indentations with a flat screwdriver to separate the two halves. Gently slide the rubber floppy keypad out. I cleaned the pads and contact areas with a Q-tip and alcohol (twice) to restore operation.

Jack
May 2008

i too had the exact same problem with my panasonic. i then opened it up (all you need is a tiny philips head screw driver) and saw that there is an adhesive that panasonic uses to adhere a small piece of rubber to the front (actually, the part you see when you open the phone) of the circuit board. with time, this adhesive breaks down and leaks into the area between the key pad and the other side of the circuit board. i simply cleaned of the front and back of the circuit board using q-tips and alcohol and also acetone (nail polish remover) and then cleaned off the back of the rubber key pad (which you can remove and wash off) and then re-assembled the phone. it works fine now. the problem seems to be the cheap adhesiive that panasonic uses to secure the small, black rubber block that nestles against the circuit board.

joe
November 2007

My phone is a GE. I don't know where or how this sticky stuff gets under the rubber keypad but it needs to be cleaned off. It's possible that a conductive oil is applied during the assembly and then gets sticky with age. If you're a little mechanicly inclined you need to take it apart, battery first. Take out several screws to get under the circuit boards. Take out the rubber keypad and clean it with some kind of detergent. Then use a q-tip to wash off the board it self and dry everything off. Then reassemble. I want to reemphasize being somewhat mechanicly inclined.
Hope this helps and good luck.

Frank Davis
October 2006