Fixing my Samsung HC-1114 vacuum cleaner battery

For a few weeks now, my wife has been complaining about this handheld vacuum cleaner I bought more than 6 years ago. She uses it almost 3-4 times a week to vacuum the house. It's a handheld vacuum with 7.2V battery that powers it and after so many years of service, it couldn't hold a charge anymore.

So a few days ago, I finally found the time to open up the vacuum to see if the battery could be replaced. I downloaded this service manual for the battery from some russian website that had all sort of service manuals. It stated the battery was a 6 cell 1600MAh lithium battery.

The motor was working fine so I was pretty sure the battery was gone. Actually, the charger doesn't have an auto-stop charging function and I've always left it charging (for 6 years plus!). Good thing it didn't blow up on me.

After spending 10 minutes unscrewing it, I finally got to the battery.



So this is what the battery looks like inside (hey, that's my foot there!). It's a wierd battery size, not the usual AA sized lithium batteries. I think the size is called 123.


A close up of the battery, it's some obscure company in China. I googled them and they make mostly handphone batteries. I wonder how they won this contract from Samsung.

When I bought this vacuum, it was RM99. If I was to buy a new vacuum with the same specs (7.2V), it's at least RM200 now. So I did a bit of searching on Google to find a replacement battery to see if it's cheaper to repair or buy a new one.

I found one battery supplier on eBay selling a similar battery set (I think it was MAh 2000) for about RM41. After going through eBay, something turned up in my search. It seems that Remote Control cars also used similar 7.2V batteries. So I thought to myself, why not drop by the RC Pitstop shop in One Utama to see if they sell the batteries there too. If I bought it on eBay, I would have to wait 4 weeks and I have to do my own soldering. Plus, I wasn't sure if it was the right size.

I walked into the RC Pitstop shop and explained to the guy there by the name of Nik my problem. He showed me a MAh 3000 battery for RM68. At first I thought, "yeah, that's way more expensive than I thought). Then he asked me if I was going to do my own soldering. I said "yeah". He said, they do the soldering for free as part of their service. That sold me already because I hate soldering. I'm quite allergic to the smell.

So the next day I brought the vacuum back and after 2 hours, it was done! Nik had to do some minor modification to get the batteries in. He said he had to cut some plastic bits out. Also, it'll take about 24 hours to charge the batteries, which is fine since we don't use it everyday.

Now the vacuum's suction is much better than it used to be. So I'm pretty happy that of all places, an RC shop repaired my vacuum.

Plus, my wife stopped complaining about it, so that itself is worth RM68.

TV Ghost exorcised!

The Samsung technician came to perform an exorcism on my TV today.

Previously, the TV was changing volume and channels on its own. I called Samsung to come and have a look at it as it was still under warranty. They said they provided on-site repairs which was good because it would have been a bitch to carry it to their service center. I would have needed 2 persons to do that.

At first I was worried about the warranty period and all that, but in the end, it all turned out well. The technician just took a look at the serial number and he could tell it was manufactured in November. I told him I purchased it in March. So at least I didn't have to give a lengthy explanation.

He changed both the control panel and main board. At first he suspected it was the control panel board and after changing that, it was still acting wierd, so in the end he changed the main board also. He said this was the second Samsung LCD he's seen with the same problem.

The technician was quite friendly and he explained quite a lot to me on how the TV works.

I also got him to take a look at a Samsung DVD player I bought for RM99. It has no warranty and it only worked for a week after buying it. I had bought it for my nephew to play his cartoons but it died after a few days. He said he'll check how much it is to repair it. He added if it was more than RM30 to repair, it's probably not worth it. Better of buying a new one.

So I got my TV repaired for free, with on-site service too. I'm impressed with Samsung's customer service. When I initially called them and gave them my name and phone number, they knew who I was already. I had previously registered a few Samsung products online and they had me on their database already so that saved me the problem of a long explanation. Their service response time was also 2 days, so better than I expected.

At the end of the service, the technician updated on his Samsung PDA what were the parts that he changed and the data was send to Korea. Cool. They keep track of all the problems. Hopefully, they improve on the manufacturing process for the TV.

Now if I buy another product, I'll make sure it's a Samsung!

(this blog post wasn't paid for by Samsung)