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!
You must log in or register to comment.
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.
And how is it as a device?
I like it, the different clip lengths are holding on quite well, and I do like the adjustable ones when trimming my beard.
It’s also relatively quiet.
I keep buying these oneblades over and over. I’m tempted by 🧲 and steel blades
My next shaver will be USB-C. It’s now a standard for charging whatever you want.
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.
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.
Nice of then to make sure you cant accidentally blow up your new razor because you assumed the old cable would work if it fit.
The old cable supplies 15V, which would fry your shaver that is expecting 5V
I think the real sin here is making the shaver dependent on stored charge instead of just letting it run immediately after being plugged in.
It’s a common safety feature for wet & dry razors. It’s so people don’t take them into the shower or bath while it is plugged in.
Battery charged trimmer lets you shower and trim, which is pretty awesome.
I think commenter meant trimmer should be able to work druring charging
Ooooh, yeah. That’s a characteristic that a lot of electronics have that really don’t like.
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
deleted by creator
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.
I have both of these and one charger is 8v and the other is 15v.
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.
This is true, but something about being an Electronics Engineer makes you want to check. (I didn’t even trust Philips to get it right, but they did.)
I didn’t go into detail, but simple Dashed/Solid line doesn’t tell you the whole story. Those simple wall warts are not fancy switch mode, or even old school rectified. I measured 14VDC unloaded, which I can probably guestimate in experience, to be a 9VDC loaded reading.
The actual reading on wallwarts are generally untrustworthy, unless its a thing from Samsung or apple, where the circuitry are what you would expect (switched etc).
God, why don’t they just make it usb-c PD and be done with it?
This style of connector wedges itself watertight, so there’s that
Here’s my only issue with making everything in the world USB-C…
Different cables have different functions or even are able to handle different voltages and amperage and right now, it’s not clear what cable holds what functionality.
If there were some sort of international color code standard or something, it would be perfect. As of now, I have to keep track of what cable goes with what device.
Every cable should be rated minimum 5V 3A, have functional CC, power and data(Dp, Dn) pins as Type C spec requires. Which means it should also be capable of USB PD(still doesn’t need data pins).
AFAIK every in-spec cable should be able to carry 20V 3A.
Problem is not bad standard, problem is non-compliant cables.
If all your devices are USB-C PD rated then you only need to have cables and wall adapters for your highest rated device as all others will only demand what they can tolerate when the handshake happens after plugging in the cable. The only exception would be devuces that don’t follow the spec but use the plug for cost saving reasons which is a completely seperate issue.
I’m with you. Our phones, the laptop, the Switch, even my vape pen, all use USB C, but most of the cables we have only work on half the devices. Kind of defeats the purpose of being “universal”.
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…
are the voltages actually the same?
I don’t know how to check that, also can’t find the specs on the old one.
FYI, to figure this out you would look at the part that plugs into the wall. there’s a bunch of writing on it. at one point it will say something like " input: 120-240 VAC, output: 15 VDC 0.5 A". that’s true for pretty much all transformer bricks. like if you want to see how much a USB brick will supply it will say on there “5V 2A” or whatever.
I only checked the (new) one that is USB-a only and that didn’t have any writing on it.
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
Shave
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 battery died on my old shaver. Because I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to see if I could replace it. Spent so much time tracking down the battery model number and looking for a replacement only to find out it’s a standard triple a. It’s identity was obfuscated by the stupid labeling. Soldered it in and bam, razor still works for several years.
ive got philips body groomer which in time become somehow a curiosity: once its fully charged it runs until battery gets dry as it should but if i by any chance press the button i need to the whole cycle charge
So infuriating that they would send you a charger that works with the device 😤😤 how fucking dare they
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.
Some of the older models work while charging. For example the MG7790 or MG7750/49 (not to be confused with the new version 7910/49).
The reason I know this is because I recently bought one from amazon specifically because I want it to work while plugged in but they sent me one that doesn’t (MG7770). I sent it back and now waiting for the correct one to be delivered.
