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Carrera Haircutter .... - Battery repair

Another rechargeable device goes dead after only a few minutes of operation. This haircutter took from 100% to 10% battery less than 5 minutes. Which may end up really bad is your in the middle of cutting your hair and then the cutter dies on you.

But I still refuse to trash a perfectly working device, jut because the battery doesn't want to recharge anymore. So the battery need to be replaced.

The device I have is a "Carrera Profi.Akku-Haarschneider Art. 96977 Modell 18233921" This brand has many similar devices. I expect the insides to be pretty similar.

To open up the housing you need to first remove the clippers in the front. They come off easily, you probably dit this quite a few times for cleaning.

Now two screws become visible. These need to be removed.

There is a thrid screw at the bottom side of the handle. Remove that one as well.

Now you can carefully open the case using a plectrum or spatula to prey the top and bottom part apart.

There are two small grips coming off as well. Put them to the side, we'll reattach them later.

As you can see, the battery is soldered to the PCB with two short flap like metal pieces. Removing the old battery is probably the most difficult step.

I clipped the gaps off the battery to get better access with the soldering iron to the PCB.

Then removed as much of the lead as possible and pulled the flaps out of their fittings while all was still hot and liquid. Make sure the holes in the PCB are free of lead, so the contacts of the new battery can slide through easily.

I did not fond a plug&play replacement battery for a reasonable price online. So I took one of these cheap RC batteries that come wiht USB chargers. You can get them as cheap as 6x for 10€.

When you carefully remove the outer skin, you'll get to the insides and see that this is a perfect fit for the old battery. You only need to clip the little connector for the cables away.