I used my Bald Eagle successfully three times. On the fourth, I was travelling. I got halfway through cutting my hair and it turned itself off. I pressed the button, it ran for a few seconds and turned itself off again. I charged it, I rinsed it, I soaked it, but it still would not stay on for more than a few seconds. I looked around for a hat so I could go and buy a disposable razor.
Skull Shaver customer service didn’t respond to my email. I saw a lot of similar complaints on Amazon. I started to worry a bit – being in Australia, I had little hope of getting a warranty replacement, and shipping was expensive and slow.
The motor unit seemed to run alright – was there something wrong with the heads? I pulled them apart, and surprise, surprise:
HAIR.
So much hair.
I cleaned it out and haven’t had a problem since. Here’s how you can do the same.
Grasp the heads and pull directly away from the battery.
There’s a little notch between the silver and black part of the head. I stick a thumbnail in there and twist to separate the two halves.
I used the little nylon brush that came with the unit.
The two halves just click together.
It just twists off. There are some little arrows that show the direction. Mine is usually pretty clean, though.
This is what was in my shaver heads. Yes, I was doing the recommended “immerse in water and turn it on” routine.
In my case, I think there were two causes. One, I only shave my head once a week – so it’s longer than the recommended 0.4mm. The hair didn’t seem to escape the heads during the cleaning routine.
Two, the hair that came out was clumped together and thick with grease. I use sunscreen a lot. It didn’t occur to me that that would get inside the shaver and gum it up.
I thought initially that the grease was part of the head mechanism, intended to lubricate it, but given that it’s all stainless steel and nylon, it probably doesn’t need lubrication.
So, the gears got gummed up. The load on the motor and the batteries increased. The lithium batteries probably have a polyswitch (resettable fuse) for safety – you don’t want them catching fire if there’s a short circuit. The polyswitch tripped, the motor stopped. It cooled, reset, and I press the power button again. The polyswitch trips again. Repeat.
For me, regular cleaning helped, but did not solve the problem. Even with a completely clean head, I wasn’t able to finish a shave.
I pulled mine apart and figured out how to add a mechanical switch that would bypass the electronics. I ran out of time and never got any love from customer service, so I wound up throwing it in the bin. Man, that was expensive.
I’m using Mach 3’s and am very happy.
