Arco Moser battery refurbishment

A customer gave us a dead Arco moser clipper for testing Arco blades. They had replaced it as it wasn’t economical to replace the dead batteries. A new battery comes in at about £30 which is pretty steep for such a small battery pack.

Seeing the battery was dead it was time for an autopsy as my plan was to bin the battery and plug it into a power supply

As suspected it is completely standard cells. Its a pair of AA rechargeable NiMH cells which are not exactly rare. These are attached to a single PCB which has one single component on it which does something. this PCB also has copper tracks which form the 3 connections for the charger.

These ones are slightly unusual as they fit onto the PCB using spade connectors and you can buy these but they are about £20 a pair. A far cheaper option is to buy AA cells which have a tab welded onto them. Do a quick search for AA tabbed cells and you will find them.

Fitting them is pretty easy. The most difficult bit is opening the case which needs some gentle prising on the 3 clips using a terminal screwdriver.

Mark up what side is the positive leg on the PCB

Desolder the two spade connectors and leave a nice blob of solder on the PCB

Stand up your two new cells so the orientation is as shown and you have a positive and negative.

The positive is the right hand cell here

Fold the tabs over and solder them together

Lay the PCB down and fold the remaining tabs over and then solder them onto the pads on the PCB

Then either get new foam pads or use the ones off the old cells

Shove the PCB and battery module back into the casing and you are good to go.

Will i be offering this as a service?

Not too sure at the moment. While I am perfectly happy doing this with my own battery packs and have total confidence to run them in my own clipper for a customer I am not so sure due to guarantee and liability reasons.

I have refurbished two packs for a local groomer so I shall see how they go.

In the meantime if you want me o overhaul your battery packs then drop me a line.

Or take my guide and go speak to your local electronics repair shop who should be fine with it.