Project 366 #60: 290216 A Hot Tip
I would love to say that I had a quirky, witty picture to honour and celebrate this very special day of February 29th. I haven't.
Instead we've got a story of some of the day's activity, though it's largely been centred around mock exams.
In between exams I asked Dave to do some soldering for me. There were two jobs, the second of which may hopefully feature in due course.
The first, and main event, was to replace the battery in Laura's toothbrush.
We've got matching his and hers Oral B Triumph 9000 toothbrushes which Laura's cousin (a dentist) very kindly got us as a wedding gift. You can tell we didn't buy them as we rarely go top of the line on anything!
They feature the scourge of modern electronics - the non-replaceable battery.
Why do they do it? It's hard to say. Rechargeable batteries of any stripe are consumable items, whether it's the lead acid one in your car, the NiMH in your torch or the Li-ion in your mobile phone.
For mobile phones it's easy to see the benefits to manufacturers. Most contracts on more expensive handsets run over two years. The life of a typical mobile battery is about two years. I won't say it was Apple who pioneered the concept of making sure that your battery life tails off just as your contract comes up for renewal to ensure that you update your otherwise perfectly satisfactory hardware, but I'm not saying it wasn't. ;)
Of course, non-replaceable is a load of tosh really. There are really no devices that are capable of being dismantled for repair that can't have their battery replaced, and I'll probably be changing the one in my phone when it gets to two years old later this year.
Back to the toothbrushes though...I'm surprised at Braun. These are ninety quid toothbrushes, and they're suitably well engineered. It feels like they'll outlive me, but at five years old the batteries are starting to get very tired.
Do Braun think that anyone prepared to drop ninety quid on a toothbrush will be happy to do the same again five years later? Maybe they do. Maybe they're largely right. Me on the other hand...I'm much happier to pay four quid on Amazon for the replacement battery and have a toothbrush that works like new again.
Thanks Dave! :)
Project 366 #60: 290216 A Hot Tip
I would love to say that I had a quirky, witty picture to honour and celebrate this very special day of February 29th. I haven't.
Instead we've got a story of some of the day's activity, though it's largely been centred around mock exams.
In between exams I asked Dave to do some soldering for me. There were two jobs, the second of which may hopefully feature in due course.
The first, and main event, was to replace the battery in Laura's toothbrush.
We've got matching his and hers Oral B Triumph 9000 toothbrushes which Laura's cousin (a dentist) very kindly got us as a wedding gift. You can tell we didn't buy them as we rarely go top of the line on anything!
They feature the scourge of modern electronics - the non-replaceable battery.
Why do they do it? It's hard to say. Rechargeable batteries of any stripe are consumable items, whether it's the lead acid one in your car, the NiMH in your torch or the Li-ion in your mobile phone.
For mobile phones it's easy to see the benefits to manufacturers. Most contracts on more expensive handsets run over two years. The life of a typical mobile battery is about two years. I won't say it was Apple who pioneered the concept of making sure that your battery life tails off just as your contract comes up for renewal to ensure that you update your otherwise perfectly satisfactory hardware, but I'm not saying it wasn't. ;)
Of course, non-replaceable is a load of tosh really. There are really no devices that are capable of being dismantled for repair that can't have their battery replaced, and I'll probably be changing the one in my phone when it gets to two years old later this year.
Back to the toothbrushes though...I'm surprised at Braun. These are ninety quid toothbrushes, and they're suitably well engineered. It feels like they'll outlive me, but at five years old the batteries are starting to get very tired.
Do Braun think that anyone prepared to drop ninety quid on a toothbrush will be happy to do the same again five years later? Maybe they do. Maybe they're largely right. Me on the other hand...I'm much happier to pay four quid on Amazon for the replacement battery and have a toothbrush that works like new again.
Thanks Dave! :)