Braun Shaver Battery

Sep 23, 2013 13 Replies

I have an old Braun "Linear Universal 5 266" rechargeable shaver.



Some years ago I replaved th ebattery with a NiCad and reckon it is time I did it again. The last time I clumsily soldered in a standard Uniross NiCad.



This time I would like to buy a tagged battery and make a better job.



Question: Can I use a NiMH battery or will these have different charging characteristics and screw up the shaver?


a lot depends on the charger circutry. I'd suspect that for Nicads in shavers, its trickle charge all the way, and NiMh will do as well as Nicad.

If its a fast charge though whilst NiMh chargees will cahrge NiCd well, the reverse is not always true, and you can overcharge and let the magic smoke out.

The Natural Philosopher wrote in news:l1peq8$c1f$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:

It must be over 25 years old. I tend to just take it on holidays asis is fairly small.

DerbyBorn formulated on Monday :

So does it charge to a full charge rapidly - say in less than an hour, or it is something like and eight hour job? The eight hour would suit either type.

Why not just buy a battery holder with solderable tags from Maplins, less than £1 IIRC. Then, when you need to change the battery, you, er, just change it!

This is what I did with mine when the charger died. I just use externally charged rechargeables now. A word of warning though, be careful as to how much heat you apply when soldering the wires to the tags, as the holder is made of plastic. I had to buy a second one before I got it right.

As others have pointed out, depends on the charging characteristics. Trickle charge should be alright.

No space and disassembly frequently would wreck it.

In message , DerbyBorn writes

With a good, hefty, hot iron, and provided you're very quick, you can actually tin and solder directly to an untagged battery. I've done this several times apparently without causing damage - including replacing knackered AA nicads with NiMH batteries in a razor (or even maybe a couple of them). They seem to charge OK, but it does take longer before the flashing green charging light becomes solid (although this is probably also because I used higher capacity batteries).

In article , Ian Jackson scribeth thus

Bin there dun that .. same sorta results:)..

The present battery was soldered in this way - I was just thinking I should try and do it correctly. Is there a chance of damaging the battery??

In message , DerbyBorn writes

Well, as I indicated above, so far I have been apparently completely unsuccessful in damaging an AA battery.

Just clean the two ends of the batteries, and tin them very quickly with an iron which is up to the job [My old 60W Weller with a large No 8 bit is OK.] The positive tit is no problem, but obviously it's a bit more difficult to do the negative case at the other end. It's probably wise to let the batteries cool a bit before (again quickly) soldering on the wires onto them.

It's frequently not as good. Battery holders are designed for tiny currents. A motor may take slightly more.

A decent cell will have a life of several years in this application, so soldering isn't much of a chore.

It is standard for the model boys to solder direct to NI cells. Chrome plating may need removing. And a VERY hot iron or a very big one is needed.

As others have said, it it is possible to solder onto an untagged NiCd or N iMh battery. But it is also easy to get hold of good quality tagged cells f or not a lot of money. These save a lot of grief and the possibility of dam aging the cell - it may work after your soldering but eg. the capacity may be impaired.

I did exactly what you are talking about, replacing the battery on a Braun rechargable shaver. My model is the 5 476. I got a battery from the 'Small Battery Company', who are quite good for small orders and have a big range:

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I think I probably fitted an NiMH AA tagged cell. There is a knack to takin g them apart, but it sounds like you know this. I managed to get hold of a service manual which helped.

My shaver, like yours I suspect, is not a fast charge one. So far (~6 month s later) it seems fine, and its performance is vastly better than it was be fore the re-cell.

HTH Jon N

In message , jkn writes

The advantage of using normal, standard untagged AAs is that they're instantly available in almost every other highstreet shop and supermarket. They're cheap enough, so there's no need to worry if you do happen to bugger one up. As they say, "Improvisation is next to godliness".

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