Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As faithful Sonicare users, we have went through 4 sets in the past 5 years. But we always wondered why it failed right after warranty (2 yrs). The instruction mentioned battery recycling. We didn't bother with it before until tonight I pried one dead unit up. To my surprise, it is using old fashioned Ni-Cd battery in its sealed compartment. As we know, Ni-Cd is highly toxic. It needs to be recycled properly. That is probably why the manual has to state that recycling step. The worst thing is even after breaking the handle, I couldn't take out the battery without un-soldering the circuit board and pull the battery out of the epoxy glue. :( Ni-Cd also are known for memory effect (need to deplete charge before recharging), low capacity (1200mh max vs 2500mh for Ni-MH), and less recharging cycles (250 vs. 1000). The battery is almost guaranteed to die, even though the unit is still in a good shape with lots of nice copper coils around. I bet if it is thrown with two $1 Ni-MH battery, the handle should at least last for more than 5 years. And if the design allow battery replacement, the handle could last forever. I am more and more convinced that Philips designed the handle for maximizing profit in every 2yrs, rather than considering consumer and environmental impact. The brush head is already pricy. Why rip off consumer again every 2 years and dumping un-removable toxic battery to the landfill? What a shame this company is.