I fixed my toothbrush (fuck you, Philips Sonicare!)
I fixed my toothbrush (fuck you, Philips Sonicare!)
Batteries died. It was a puzzle to disassemble it. It was booby-trapped with fragile self-destructing mechanisms like hair-thin wires ready to snap wrapped around the battery which had welded tabs soldered to wires. Requires surgical delicacy but at the same time lots of force to pry 3 plastic clips simultaneously while pulling off an inner casing using 2 hands on a task that needs 4 hands. Had to buy rechargeable batteries with tabs welded on where the tabs were not oriented in the direction the device was designed for so in one joint I had to put the soldering iron directly on the battery terminal. The battery pair costed 1¼ big macs because tabbed nippleless batteries are not a competitive market and only sold at retail prices. A new toothbrush probably would have had the same price but then I would have been suckering into giving them what they want.
I was able to do the job without breakage and it works. I was lucky the soldering heat did not destroy the costly battery. So I would like to send a very big fuck you to #Philips who tried to force me to buy another toothbrush, which I bought before I started boycotting Philips due to their shavers having the same disrespect for a #rightToRepair.
UPDATE
Just checked my records and see that I paid the equivalent of 4 Big Macs (today’s price) back in Jan. 2015. So the original batteries lasted ~8¾ years. Thus the batteries are indeed cheaper. I chose this model because it supports both 120v & 240v which I think is rare with induction charged toothbrushes.
Making a spot welder
Note that instead of buying batteries with tabs, I could have built a spot welder to put tabs on myself which would mean being able to buy any cheap batteries (which is half tempting because I am a cheap bastard). You basically keep an eye out for microwave ovens that people have trashed and cannabalize the transformer which can then be used to make a spot welder. Maybe I’ll do that next time.
Better toothbrushes
There is a toothbrush that takes normal AA batteries (which I keep at my folks’ house). It obviously avoids the problem of permanent batteries. But it has no charging system so the batteries have to be removed periodically for recharging. The bottom cap is very tight fitting plastic over a rubber o-ring which eventually cracked after so many times opening. If the cap had been metal it would have been the perfect toothbrush. One benefit is that it works worldwide.
So happy that shit like that will be illegal in the eu soon.
The US will see something like that soon, Californias law goes into effect in July and will almost certainly help others in other states get their hands in repair materials and force design changes against booby trap design
Kinda like how our car regulation spreads through to other states
Congrats! Sounds like a tricky fix and I'm glad you could get it to work!
A long time ago, I tried to repair a Braun toothbrush and encountered the exact same problems you describe.
Welded tabbed batteries and booby trap hair wires. :(
Sadly, I have up and bought a new one.
This should be illegal.
As the Beastie Boys said (kinda), you gotta fight for your right to repair!
You know it would be cool to take a Beastie Boys music video, replace the heads with that of old bearded cheap bastards (or whatever suits the stereotype) and dub in “repair” over “party”, and add Philips products and exploding batteries as a prop. If done well, it’d go viral and Philips would be offering money to take it down.. just as United Airlines did when a folk singer wrote a song about the airline destroying his guitar. United Airlines offered him a large amount of money to remove it and he basically told them to pound sand.
Ah, United Breaks Guitars, that was fabulous.
You are the hero we need
I just replaced my Sonicare I bought in 2007 last year.
My Philips TV from 2007 is still working great despite two other TVs bought since then needing replacement.
I’ve never tried to repair their stuff but in my experience Philips is significantly better quality than the rest of the market.
So your original batteries lasted 14 years? I suppose it’s possible. I have some AA batteries that are probably nearly 20 years old but they can only be used in low-load situations (couldn’t drive a motor).
My Sonicare original batteries lasted ~8¾ years. I suppose that’s decent but still unacceptable that they can’t be replaced. We have to wonder if sometime between 2007 & 2015 Philips decided to switch to batteries that last half as long in order to sell double the number of devices.
Yes, and on top of that I would add I bought a pair of these and the other one of them sat unused under the sink for 10 years, then I charged it up for my daughter and she used that one for a year or two before the battery died.