Replacing a Braun BT5050 Battery

Published on 6th July 2024 in Life

Learn how to replace the rechargeable batteries in a Braun BT5050 Beard Trimmer and similar devices. Includes video.

How to replace the battery in a Braun BT5050 Beard Trimmer – Step by Step Guide

  1. Remove the guard
  2. Flip up the blade and gently release it from its pivot
  3. Undo the two Torx (TX6) screws and remove the metal clip
  4. Prise the two halves of the body apart
  5. Pull out the internal housing and prise off the plastic lid and the pad holding the wires
  6. Lever away the two clips connecting the circuit board to the charging pins
  7. De-solder the old batteries, cutting away the old solder tabs
  8. Position and solder the new batteries in the correct polarity
  9. Replace the circuit board, bending the charging pins back into place
    (The circuit board should ‘snap’ back into place to ensure a good connection)
  10. Verify that the motor runs and that the charging LED lights when connected to power
  11. Reassemble the housing in reverse

My Braun beard trimmer (estimated 7 years old) functions perfectly well but has for some time been a source of minor frustration with its rechargeable batteries lasting all of about 3 seconds before grinding to a dissatisfying halt.

I’ve been using it plugged-in every time and my bathroom has no power point so I was trailing an extension cable from another room whenever I needed to shave.

Before succumbing to the convenience of buying a replacement, I thought I’d see whether the battery was removable or not. My expectations were low knowing that these sorts of devices are borderline designed to end up discarded. However I was marginally surprised to discover that replacing the batteries was probably within my limited repair capabilities.

The hardest thing I found was sourcing replacement batteries at a price that made sense, and without having to resort to ordering from Aliexpress with a 90 day wait time! I preferred not to try and solder wires and tabs to the battery myself and managed to find batteries with pre-soldered tabs on toothbrushbattery.com.

The guide should work for similar Braun trimmers, although it’s important to check the physical size of the battery. In the case of the BT5050 it is two AAA sized, NiMH rechargeable cells with 750mAh capacity. I was satisified with the 800mAh battery above.

Happily, the repair worked delightfully and the trimmer lives on! One more device saved from the electronics bin.