My Philips Sonicare electric Has given up the ghost, three years after it was purchased, it basically lights up but will no longer operate, I concluded the batteries inside must have failed. I then proceeded to look on the web, to discover that the unit is glued shut, and that it contains two standard AA NiCad rechargeable batteries. To open the case you practically have to cut it open destroying the case in the process, just to replace the two AA batteries which should be accessible in the first place.
And at the time that I purchased this electronic toothbrush nickel metal hydride batteries were commonplace so why it was manufactured with crappy NiCad batteries I do not know, especially as I paid extra for what I perceived, to be a better electronic toothbrush. Phillips need to be harassed over this kind of corner cutting, really they have no excuse for this kind of behaviour, Apple is also another company which is guilty of building units with sealed in batteries, but at least their products have the excuse of being very minimalist in size. This toothbrush is large enough whereby the batteries could have been easily accessible without damaging the design.
The number of sonicare toothbrushes, that must have already hit the landfill, is an embarrassing enough environmental disaster, and with this design as Phillips chose to make them, they have forced the product into being wastefully thrown away at the end of a short life.
Here is some links showing people opening up their sonicare toothbrushes:
sonicare take apart and inside photos
basically you can only open it with brute force, and And then if you can replace the batteries with AA nickel metal hydrides which need to be soldered into place, you will have to superglue a knackered casing back together. also be aware when inserting any flat blade along the bottom of the toothbrush there is a wire coil their related to the charging part which can easily be damaged in opening the case so do not insert a blade too far at this point of the casing, also top half of the casing on either side is thicker wear an insert Tab has been glued into the opposite side of the casing, therefore when opening this case it is probably easier to start near the bottom and work your way up.
a lot of work, for a device whose internal rechargeable batteries should have been accessible via a battery compartment.
I will now never purchase another sonicare product, I would advise you to do the same, though realistically I should probably boycott Phillips also.
Having investigated further and spent two hours getting the case open by cutting on one side and then leveraging all around, as the case was so successfully glued together. I discover more ridiculous practices on the inside, obviously as mentioned before the two NiCad batteries are soldered to the contacts which is a piece of metal wire soldered directly to the circuit board, worse the batteries are epoxied into the case, meaning the leverage force required to extract them is such that you will have to desolder the circuit board away from the battery contact pins then de-solder at the battery contact pins, then jimmy out the batteries, replace and glue new nickel metal hydride batteries into place, solder the battery pin contacts to the battery, place the circuit board back into position getting the contact pins through the holes in the circuitboard, then solder the circuit board back into position. Then reassemble and glue the case back together, Which will no longer seal properly as opening it without damaging it is impossible. Then use gaffer tape to seal it. Basically the way Philips have designed this toothbrush I can’t think of any way they could have made it more difficult to replace the batteries.
Basically this sonicare toothbrush is designed from the outset to be disposable after a 2-3 year period which is about the maximum lifetime the unreplaceable NiCad batteries will behave charging wise before they give up the ghost. If you were to buy a cheapo toothbrush from a local supermarket for five pounds with replaceable batteries, you could well be using that toothbrush, a long time after the sonicare had died, in fact for the price difference you could afford to buy six such electronic toothbrushes instead of a sonicare at the minimum, percieving you might be able to pick up a sonic care for £30, most likely it would cost double that. Do not perceive these sealed unit soniccare toothbrushes to be worthy investments that will last a longer period of time than cheaper electronic toothbrushes, as in all likeness they will die much sooner than that.
Sadly design like this, is indicative of the decline in thinking today, at least … all thinking that doesn’t point to a monetary gain, you can certainly go out in the world today and find plenty of people who can conceive of no reason for thinking, unless it is directed toward monetary gain alone, except perhaps as a concession to being perceived in a good light, purely from a marketing sense.
There is no way that these design choices could have been justified at the time or now, sad that I must waste my time and mental energy investigating and unravelling the stupidity of others. We live in a society where regardless of green issues, it is financially and timewise more rewarding to dispose of stuff, than to waste life repairing products to extend their lifetime, beyond that which the manufacturer intended for it by its design decisions, obviously no one’s time would be wasted if the manufacturers had designed this product properly in the first place, I wouldn’t have to face the moral quandry and guilt of throwing it away after three years or spending my precious time and energy to repair it, the shortcuts taken by the manufacturer end up being paid for by the consumer in either time and energy or money and morals. Most non-technically minded careless people would probably dispose of this item without moral self questioning as to the green issue, and purchase another almost immediately, such is the culture we live in today, where it is easier to waste resources and money for benefit of a corporate And our own ease of life, than pursue any other route.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:16 am
re this situation : Hmm I desoldered the board and removed it from the pins, I got the batterys out but just could not solder two new batterys back together as the solder would not stick to the metal used in the batterys very irritating after 2 hours of attempted soldering i gave up. I hate philips even more now for making a product you cant replace batterys in, even when i go the extra mile to sort this out its just too much wasted time.
December 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
[...] Vote Philips Sonicare Toothbrush Rubbish Product [...]
February 9th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Thank you for saving me the time of further searching of repair places for my sonicare. I hate throwing pieces of fused plastic, metal and batteries into my heap of toxic can’t throw it away stuff.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
further note to point out the batterys arent soldered onto the contacts they are contact/pressure spot welded without solder, and the metals used for the contact and the battery do not solder easily.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Just thought I would add a link to my site as I have just taken the Philips Flexcare apart only to find it was a loose screw causing the issue. A shame as its a £100 toothbrush that I have just mended but had I not opened it I was going to be thrown. The Pics on my site are under Macro Photography.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:03 am
I found a guy on eBay who fixed my classic 4700 handle in a week for $25 plus first-class mail. I had three perfectly working brush-heads that would not fit the new handles, so I took a chance and I am glad I did. Even the quadpacer works like new, and the outside doesn’t look bad at all.
Look for “Sonic Repair”. I even recycled my first-generation handle with him for spare parts, and he paid me back more than the first-class postage. Great e-business person!
April 21st, 2009 at 1:57 am
Well, glad I stumbled upon this blog or what have you… this is complete BS, just the way I though it was going to be with these Corps… I’ve got my $135 “toothbrush” sitting in the charging cradle, after months of inactivity. It’s like the thing is falling apart. The Magnets on the brush cap are of the cheap ferrite material that’s starting to corrode away, from a little water and toothpaste? I clean mine daily after use is they still corroded (by design).
This is fraud! I’ve never and never will spend $100+ on anything that doesn’t last more than 5yrs. They make this junk, literally, to FAIL a bit wise after the warranty is over. They test these things and make them with materials that will specifically fail under lab conditions based on general surveys they give out to “focus groups” basically questioning directly or indirectly “how long do you think a product like this would last?” “How much would you be willing to pay for said product if it were offered?” etc…
April 24th, 2009 at 2:42 am
[...] This drive is not as bad as the sonicare toothbrush. [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Excellent article. I actually cut my case open relatively easily with a Dremel and a thin, fine toothed saw wheel. To get the battery pack out, I just sawed out that section of the case along with the adjoining epoxy and removed the batteries from the back side. My intention is to fashion this piece as the battery door that Philips should have put there in the first place. To get around the soldering issue, I’m going to use a two-cell cordless phone battery like a GE TL26602, which sells for under $5 and already has leads and two AA cells spot welded together. I might get the matching connector so it will be removable. Until that’s done, however, I have a ghetto setup with wires running to an external battery holder.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
My Philips just died after only 1 year…..what a piece of trash! I am going today to buy a new toothbrush….and it won’t be a Philips!
January 11th, 2010 at 5:38 am
I normally dont spend time to drop a comment, however it is difficult to find good information on this topic today. You did a fantastic job in this article and I may just go read your other blog posts now. Keep up the good work!
January 26th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
they suggest that you put the toothbrush on the charger every time you finish brushing. I don’t know why they recommend that, from what I know, if you keep recharging, it will actually shortern most rechargeable batteries’ life.
anyway, this toothbrush may not last long, philips does provide excellent customer service. Here is what happened to me.
My sonicare loses its power really quick. If I charge it for one day, use it once, and forget to put it back on the charger again. I can’t use it again.
So I decided to call philips customer service. they first instructed me how to reset the battery power, but it didn’t work. So I called again, they decided to send me a new snoicare toothbrush. I just got it today! ;) brand new, the whole case just like the package you will get from the store. And they also send me a fedex prepaid label, so I can send back the old toothbrush for quality control.
So if your snoicare stops working in less than two years, you should definitely contact philips.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Theyre recomendation of putting the toothbrush on the charger everytime would in fact further reduce the charge time of a nicad battery as you correctly state. Nimh’s would not be so harmed by constant charging, and is an example of how people on helplines can feed misinformation, these people are not experts, theyre just your average joe paid a meagre salary for not much but following a script. Nicads need deep cycling to prevent them degrading, yet at the same time not many batterys benefit from being drained to an absolutely empty state. Also all batterys as they are chemical technology will degrade over time, as such access to the batterys is vital from an environmental perspective.
you were a lucky case, im guessing youre in the US ? the truth is this, one good example of customer service does not great customer service make, the majority of people here received bad service, and a bad product. And the issue is not just about whether you had your toothbrush replaced, which is of purely personal benefit to yourself. Where do you think your old toothbrush went ? Landfill, I doubt philips bothered to repair it, the point is design as philips did, with this toothbrush was bound to waste environmental resources and create pollution.
the flaws with the toothbrush design were the following.
They used nicad batterys in the manufacturing at a point when nimh were standard > FAIL
They sealed the batterys into the case with a glued case design, and also glued and soldered the batterys into said case, making it completely non user serviceable, thereby reducing its lifespan, thereby wasting resorces and creating pollution > FAIL
The attitude that philips displayed in these choices is typical of large biligirent corporates nowadays, and it will not do, Apples lack of battery access is also equally poor design.