can leaving your phone off the hook cause a short & make your phones not work at all?

Question

my phones (two) both went dead at the same time. The telephone company is telling me that my line had a short in it caused by leaving the phone off the hook

Answer 1

Any time you take your phone off the hook, what you are doing is creating a short (or closing the circuit) on your line. That is how the telephone works. If you were to leave your phone off for long enough the telephone equipment in the central office may go into a lock out state and disable. The telephone company would reset this from the central office and would not have to come to your home.

Answer 2

Phone Off Hook

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
can leaving your phone off the hook cause a short & make your phones not work at all?
my phones (two) both went dead at the same time. The telephone company is telling me that my line had a short in it caused by leaving the phone off the hook

Answer 4

No! So put the phone back on the hook, and have them remove the short.

I used to work for GTE Testmark Labs in Lexington, KY and we did all kinds of destructive tests for telephones. Leaving the phone off the hook was NOT one of the tests.

Assuming that modern technology allows your telephone company to remotely test the line you are connected to, then have them reset the node that was probably monitored several times before being switched off.

Once you lift the handset from the base, power is supplied to your phone (tip to ring, -48Vdc). It would be insteresting to see how a phone company manages the power demand if everyone picked up there handset at the same time.

Answer 5

What you haven't said what those keys 9, 3, 7 do when you depress them... When they are depressed, do they return fully up or do they appear to stick some where in between full up or full down... The other thing is that phone a normal house style of a phone or wireless type or a real cell phone type... All it takes is a very small grain of, say sand, to interfere with those micro switches of a cell phone or wireless set... That 6 hours in the rain is definitely not good for either style of phones...You would have a better chance with the normal house phones... When you finally got that phone out of the rain ( or puddle ) the phone should have automatically time itself off way before that six hours were up... Other wise being in water and the phone on stand by you have a very good chance of frying the micro processor for that phone... Let alone the sudden drop of that phone can and will mess up the inners... It doesn't take much of a shock to mess up a phone...

Answer 6

Thanks folks...best laugh I have had in a long time. Especially shirokuma, our GTE labtech. Is that why GTE sucks so bad? Because of techs like you?

Max is correct. The way your phone works, when you pick up the phone you complete the circuit. The telephone "central office" sees the short and figures you have picked up the phone, so it supplies dial tone current.

But was it a picked up phone? Or did something happen to the wire outside and create a short. The CO doesn't know, so if nothing happens (you don't call out) within a minute or so, it will begin sending a very loud beeping tone. Usually, if your phone was left off hook you will hear it and be alerted to hang it up.

If the CO still sees a short, it will remove the battery from the phone line but continue to monitor it. Once the phone has been hung up and the short disappears, the CO will restore the dial tone.

In very old switching systems, it may require a central office technician to handle that job. But nearly all of the offices are now electronic and do this automatically.

Todays modern testing equipment is able to tell if the short is being caused by a phone left "off hook" or if it's actually a faulty phone line. I've tested lines that I was certain was in the customers phone, but they insisted it was outside of their home. So we end up making a visit, only to find their telephone handset cable was bad. Cost them $49 for a repair visit to fix a $2 part.

And yes, if one phone is taken off the hook it will effect all of the phones on that circuit.

Answer 7

leaving the phone off the hook will not cause a short in the system. But in some places this will automaticaly dial 911, so you shouldn't do it.

Answer 8

Never heard of that one.... there would be a lot of people with shorted out phone lines if that were the case.

Answer 9

That's bull! Sounds like a story your phone company is telling you because they don't want to get off their lazy butts and coming out to your house and fix your phone.

Answer 10

I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT. I HAVE LEFT MY PHONE OFF THE HOOK FOR HOURS AT A TIME. IT COULD BE THE STATE WHERE YOU LIVE THOUGH.