Edit: see comments for clarifications.
I am probably late on this one, but god damn this is one nasty trick by Philips.
Context; I recently decided to upgrade my shaver, from a Philips One Blade to Philips an all-in-one-trimmer-7000. As you can see on the pictures below, they changed the charger for the adapter by maybe 1–2 millimetres, just so the old charger could not be used by the old charger. Now, this normally isn’t a big deal, but with the new trimmer, the charger is USB-A only. Where’s the previous one had the plug on it instead. To me this is mildly infuriating as I know need to get an extra adapter just to charge my shaver in the bathroom. They had the exact same design for the chargers, yet changed it just slightly so they wouldn’t be able to be reused? Why… Philips… why?
Edit: many good points in the comments! I don’t know how to manually check the voltage, but seems like folks figured it out in the comments too. Should have just been USB-C!
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Having experience with electromechanics - I have seen times where this was done on purpose to make sure that people aren’t trying to reuse an incompatible plug for charging purposes. NiCd doesn’t charge the same as LiFePo, Li-ion, etc. Charging voltages, polarities, stability of power output, etc.
To be fair though, they just need to make everything USB-C anyhow. Especially shavers.
I bought this one from Conair because it is rechargeable with USB-C.
I know a lot of RC brands did this too. They didn’t want people blowing up their Li-On batteries with old chargers, or getting complaints because it takes three days to charge.
My next shaver will be USB-C. It’s now a standard for charging whatever you want.
The only issue I have with USB power solutions is that it’s also capable of data transfer, which is bad. Imagine a dystopian future of being tracked by companies and governments by the places you plugged your shaver in at, of all the stupid things that could happen.
If the only thing keeping a battery from exploding or corroding is a 4cm^3 box with a prong on one side and hole on the other then the people making the devices just need to incorporate power regulators into their designs.
It’s capable of data transfer…but to a power brick in the wall? Are there people who plug their shavers into their PC?
I mean… If it has a USB socket and I can plug it into my PC… Surely it was intended for that. After all the USB ports on a PC are just as capable of delivering power.
Sure may be an unusual solution to charge a shaver but you could do that.
Exactly. It’s going to be the most uncommon thing though. Convenient in an emergency if somehow you have a spare PC for charging and not a USB-C power brick…somehow…
But there’s not enough people doing it to justify what this guy is suggesting.
It’s also completely unnecessary since there are better devices for tracking and shenanigans available. Why bother with a shaver that has neither a camera or a microphone or is tracking location for anything when you can use a device that has all of that. Like pretty much every modern phone on the market, more so smartphones.
Regarding that other thing… In practice it could be that you are staying in a hotel room for any reason really but you forgot your power brick, still need to shave, but have a PC for one reason or another and a spare cable to use. However unlikely that is, but it’s not unheard of to forget the phone charger when going on a trip.
Are you going to remove outlets and strip walls every hotel you ever visit to check for data? Because that somehow sounds both sane and also unhinged, good luck with that.
To be fair though, they just need to make everything USB-C anyhow.
Careful what you wish for. Putting advanced electronics into very simple devices will just make them fail a lot faster.
Some old device just needed 12V over a barrel jack to run some motor or light and charge the battery and it lasted a decade - only failed because the battery got old. New one now needs a state of the art power delivery chip to negotiate the right voltage and current, and all over a very fine pitch connector that will fail if you look at it wrong. Not looking good on the durability front at all.No, shavers should not use USB C. Because in developed countries you cannot have USB in the bathroom. We have special shaver sockets and they’re not USB compatible.
Then you should refine your laws. Because my shavers all use USB C; and the EU has mandated USBC in specific products, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to expand that.
and the EU
Yeah, I live in Europe, lol. Sockets in bathrooms are very specific here.
the new trimmer, the charger is USB-A only. Where’s the previous one had the plug on it instead.
Maybe I’m confused.
Your new trimmer takes in USB (Low Voltage DC) power.
Your old trimmer took in Plug (High Voltage AC) power.
If that’s the case, yeah of course the plugs would be different? You’d fry the new one with the old plug.
The OneBlade has a transformer in the wall plug part, the actual cable going to the handheld unit is only carrying low voltage.
What low voltage though? Unless it’s 5V like USB (non-PD and non-QC), they should and need to be incompatible.
looks like the old one was 15v, while the new one is 5v.
Now, if it has used USB-C it could still be 15v…
came to say that. Looks like the old one was 15v, while if the new one is USB-A it was 5v.
Now, if it was USB-C, it could still have been USB-C!
Neither of them take AC power. I have an older one similar to OP’s old one. It uses a wall wart and the input is definitely DC.
Are you sure they charge with the same specifications? This might just be to avoid potential fire hazards & damage.
Yea, one might be
alkalinenimh while the other is lithium. Or maybe even just different flavors of lithium.does that matter? I though only the voltage and wattage would play a role
A lithium battery needs a charging pattern that reduces voltage as it gets closer to full. And overcharging a lithium battery gets real spicy real quick. You also don’t want to charge them too fast because spicy.
Nicad and nimh batteries (I erroneously said alkaline above) don’t, you just blast it with a steady voltage until it’s done, with some nuance for nimh that’s not worth diving into here.
thanks!
Makes 0 difference. The charging circuit is in charge of that logic and will accept whatever voltage is supplied (within spec) and step it down to what the battery needs.
Is the charge voltage the same on both?
I guess not, the USB one is 5V obviously, but the other one can be 12, 7.2, 8.4, 3.2, whatever
Figure eight connectors like that input line voltage. So even if the charge voltage is different, the chargers still require the same line voltage.
These are smaller plugs than the figure-eight cords you’re thinking of that plug into old boomboxes, Playstations, etc. They’re DC voltage, not AC.
The WTF here is not that the manufacturer changed the connector slightly, it’s that they were too cheap to include the AC-to-DC converter part of it like they did on their older models, so OP has to buy a USB wall wart to power the stupid thing. The fact that he can’t use the old charger with the new shaver is just an irritating side effect.
I have the same razor. I promise you that it’s not DC. It’s a regular plug that passes 120/60 to the device.
Any company that’s passing 120 (or god forbid 240v) into those tiny little plugs with almost no insulation between them is begging to be sued for electrocuting people. No device used in the bathroom should be passing straight 120v through a connector like that.
Isn’t it to make sure that you’re not mixing two incompatible chargers? I have 2 Philips chargers that do fit (as far as I can see), but are not the same voltage. I’ve previously also had something like this where 2 fitting chargers were completely different electrically, one 12V AC and the other 9V DC. One time a family member mixed them up, bit luckily the extra voltage didn’t fry anything. I don’t mind having to get an extra charger of it prevents me from doing something dumb and frying my electronics.
I have both of these and one charger is 8v and the other is 15v.
Make sure the voltage and power requirements are the same. Maybe the old one cannot deliver enough juice for the new one.
That’s one reason a lot of device designers go for USB C proper: it supports multiple voltages and multiple power levels, and in a way where the devices shouldn’t be able to pull too much power from a smaller charger. (assuming they implemented the spec and didn’t just use the plug anyways) In theory, one smart charger with enough oomph could charge anything that sticks to spec up to 240W.
Yup. Lots of conflicting guidance here, but OP needs to check the actual power requirements for each. If they’re the same, then okay, Philips were kinda being dirtbags with the plug. If not, whether different DC voltages or one feeding AC into the shaver body itself, then the bigger sin is not changing the plug MORE to make it more obvious they’re not the same.
Remember the good ol’ days where it was barrel jacks or raw terminals regardless of what the device actually worked with?
ahhh, those were the days … of easily breaking things.
My favorite was devices that just said 12v X Amps, but never specified center positive or center negative.
Fuck you Sony, stop using center negative. It’s a crime against humanity.
looks like the old charger was 15V, while, if the new one is USB-A its 5V
Ouch, non-standard plug for a standard power source? That’s almost worse. If only certain insanely rich companies didn’t do it as a standard practice even after the EU tells them to knock it off…
Philips was a great company decades ago. They’ve really gone to shit. Especially their CPAP fiasco (Respironics recall).
Philips sold most of their IP and companies use their name. Hue is not made by them either anymore. The CPAPs are made by another company that is owned by Philips. It’s all just a name now.
Good ol’ late stage crapitalism!
The charging requirements have likely changed so the plug was redesigned sup you don’t fry your new shaver using the old plug/adapter.
That’s what -they- want you to believe…
😆
Everyone of my Phillips trimmers use a different shaped port
My Philips shaver does not work whilst charging. What’s that all about?
Luckily the battery is good but it gives very little warning when its about to run out. I dont grow facial hair very quickly or very thickly but several times I’ve had to leave the house partially shaved. Doesn’t make any sense. That’s the whole point of electricity, to use stuff whilst plugged in!
Wet/dry shavers can’t be used while charging because some moron will use it in the shower while plugged in. That’s what the instruction booklet essentially said for my oneblade
Yeah that’s a regulatory requirement in some regions
Ah fair enough. This never occurred to me as we dont have a power socket in the bathroom. Also I’m a typical man so didn’t bother to read the instruction manual.
If they are the same voltage just take a razor and shave some of the material away, I had to do this to get a c7 connector to fit into my xbox one, the rubber was just molded too far to fit
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Bad idea in this scenario.
The previous model of shaver in this case took straight AC power with the transformer inside the unit, while the new shaver take 5V from a USB charger as the transformer. You’ll blow up the unit if you do this.
My guy this is why they changed the plug, so people wouldn’t plug the wrong cord into their shaver. They both come with one; did you think they were just like “fuck people who want a spare”?
Man Apple really got into all your heads with their lightning cable shit didn’t they
A few companies make reusable Brita cartridges which are designed to be taken apart. But I’m glad you found a way 😁
I can tell you for certain, I measured my plug phiips (foil and ‘one’) and they are both 14VDC. So short answer is that the plug charger would blow up the usb trimmer you have (which is 5VDC).
The reason I know this and measured them, was because I wasnt sure the two plug chargers were the same, and I didnt want to blow up my philips one.
Also the charger is required to show its voltage and amperage output ratings.
From what I can tell, the non-USB OneBlades charge at 4.3V, not 5V.
It’s probably a small enough difference that a 5V charger would work fine for the 4.3V shaver, but it wouldn’t work the other way around.
