How to fix your Skull Shaver Bald Eagle if it turns itself off
18 Jan 2016

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:

Head component of Bald Eagle full of hair Top of Bald Eagle heads full of hair

HAIR.

So much hair.

I cleaned it out and haven’t had a problem since. Here’s how you can do the same.

Step 1: Detach the heads.

Grasp the heads and pull directly away from the battery.

Step 2: Open up one of the heads

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.

Gap between Bald Eagle head components Where to put your thumbnail to separate halves of Bald Eagle heads

Step 3: Clean out the hair

I used the little nylon brush that came with the unit.

Clean Bald Eagle head bottom Clean Bald Eagle head top

Step 4: Reassemble the head

The two halves just click together.

Step 5: Clean the other three heads

Step 6: Clean the centre head

It just twists off. There are some little arrows that show the direction. Mine is usually pretty clean, though.

Step 7: Wash the hair down the sink before your wife sees it

This is what was in my shaver heads. Yes, I was doing the recommended “immerse in water and turn it on” routine.

Sink full of hair from my 'clean' Bald Eagle

So why does this happen? I clean mine thoroughly after every shave!

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.

Epilogue

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.


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