Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update: My unit was purchased a couple years ago now and is the model PG6020 and the listing has since been updated to a new unit. This was a NiCd unit powered by a 1.2V 600mAh battery (the battery pictured). I have been informed by more recent purchasers that some updates have been made to the current PG6025 version including the introduction of a higher voltage 3.2V Lithium battery and a different circuit board. I haven't seen photos to confirm this though, so if someone has taken one apart I'd encourage them to post some pics. However, plenty of reviews still mention poor battery life, so while the lithium battery should be more resilient, I remain skeptical that the battery overcharging issues have been completely resolved. Also, if it is now a 3.2V battery a DIY replacement with a cheap AA rechargeable battery is no longer possible. My DIY battery replacement has held up very well by only charging for an hour at a time and the improved battery capacity of 2800 mAh is quite noticeable. So, if you decide to purchase this, just only charge it when it needs it. Original Review: Don't listen to the numerous reviews of this that were posted within a month of delivery! This product trims pretty well and is inexpensive enough but it has a serious design flaw in the battery. My trimmer died within a couple months of use and being rather handy I decided to open it up and see if I could repair it before sending it to the landfill. It's not terribly difficult to open the housing using a thin blade such as a utility knife. The two halves separate revealing the internals. Upon opening the trimmer I discovered that it is powered by a simple rechargeable AA battery. The good news is that this battery is simply soldered onto a couple wire leads so if you can solder, you can easy replace the battery in this unit with a standard rechargeable AA and have your unit back up and running. The bad news is that there doesn't appear to very advanced circuitry to regulate charging and keep the battery from overcharging. I'm not an electrical engineer, so I may be incorrect, but looking at the circuit board, it all appears very basic and I don't see anything that would regulate the charging or stop the battery from overcharging. It almost looks like the circuitry was adapted from a plug in unit or a unit with disposable batteries, so the charging circuitry wasn't built in. So, if you are like me and you keep this plugged in charging all the time, you are likely going to burn out the battery quite quickly, which is why the majority of the long term reviews complain about poor longevity. I've added some photos of the opened unit with the battery removed for replacement. If you're reasonably handy and your trimmer has died, it's a worthwhile venture to open this up and replace the battery. I'm skeptical of how long a replacement battery will last without proper circuitry, but time will tell. At the very least, the stock battery is very small capacity at 600mAH and I should be able to replace the battery with a much higher capacity battery such as the Amazon Basics rechargeable AA battery at 2800 mAH that will provide longer runtimes and hopefully not burn out as quickly. While this unit is cheap, if you're concerned about longevity, I'd recommend looking at a different trimmer that will have a better reachable battery system. If you must purchase this unit or already have, unplug the trimmer after it has finished charging and don't leave it plugged all the time. If it dies, battery replacement is possible. Comment below if you have questions about opening the unit or want more pictures of the internals or opening process.