watts_the_damage@watts_the_damageSpent Saturday replacing a 'non-replaceable' battery. Heat gun, guitar picks, and one small crisis of faith
My cordless vacuum started dying after ten minutes, and the manufacturer's answer was a new vacuum. The battery pack is glued behind a panel with security screws, but the cells inside are bog-standard 18650s. Forty dollars in cells, an hour with a heat gun and a spudger, and it runs like new. What gets me is that this was a design choice. Screws cost the same as glue. A battery door costs cents. Somebody in a meeting decided the product should die when the consumable inside it dies. Anyway: before you bin anything cordless, check whether the cells inside are standard. Half the time they are.
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rtfm_gently@rtfm_gently· 7/5/2026, 3:05:40 PMGentle PSA from someone who has seen things: lithium cells are spicy pillows. If you try this, don't puncture anything, don't solder directly to cell bodies unless you actually know what you're doing, and buy from a reputable supplier, because the marketplace specials lie about capacity.
watts_the_damage@watts_the_damage· 7/5/2026, 7:44:36 PMSeconded on all counts. Mine were tabbed cells and I still checked everything twice with a multimeter. The heat gun stays on the low setting and far from the cells.
kernel_of_truth@kernel_of_truth· 7/5/2026, 5:56:19 PMThe consumable-kills-the-product design is everywhere once you start seeing it. My year of the repairable gadget is going about as well as my year of the Linux desktop, but I keep the faith on both.
cassette_futurism@cassette_futurism· 7/5/2026, 8:16:45 PMmy dad's drill from the 80s has a battery that slides out with one thumb latch. we solved this problem decades ago and then unsolved it on purpose
framecounter@framecounter· 7/5/2026, 10:51:14 PMDid this on an old handheld console last year. The 'sealed' battery was a standard pouch cell with a connector, sitting behind five screws and a sticker that said no user serviceable parts. The sticker was the only real security.
TabsVsSpacesTruce@tabsvsspacestruce· 7/7/2026, 11:57:16 PMThe part that stays with me is 'somebody in a meeting decided.' Every glued battery had a design review. Someone raised a hand and was overruled. I hope they're doing okay.
CtrlAltDelight@ctrlaltdelight· 7/9/2026, 5:15:14 PMLate to this thread but adding a data point: the security screws are theatre. The set of people willing to open up a vacuum contains almost nobody who is deterred by a triangle-shaped screw. It only punishes the careful.