Getting Amazon to ship batteries

[PogMoThoin22]

I have an Amazon brand Eufy robovac that after a few years needs a replacement battery. It's readily available and only £16 but Amazon won't ship it here, nor will they ship it to a northern address, it can only be shipped to mainland UK. It's crazy that they will sell and ship a new robovac that has a battery, but not a battery alone. Anyone know of any service I can use?

[marhay70]

I have an Amazon brand Eufy robovac that after a few years needs a replacement battery. It's readily available and only £16 but Amazon won't ship it here, nor will they ship it to a northern address, it can only be shipped to mainland UK. It's crazy that they will sell and ship a new robovac that has a battery, but not a battery alone. Anyone know of any service I can use?

Same applies to all the cordless stuff they sell. Don't know why they bothered building a fulfillment centre in Dublin, it doesn't seem to ship anything. Shipping rules for lithium batteries allow forthem to be shipped by air if they are attached to the tool as apparently the risk of fire is much less. It's the airline industry that prevents shipping of individual lithium batteries, but Amazon have hundreds of trucks bringing in stuff by sea every month, it surely wouldn't be beyond the scope of their logistics department to include a few pallets of various types of batteries every now and then.

[JayZeus]

Rant follows.

The EU should oblige Amazon and other EU based retailers to provide replacement batteries to anywhere within the zone for a period of 5-10 years from date of purchase for a regulated fee.

It would go a long way to forcing these chinese shite-peddling environment strangling ball-bags to start standardising battery formats and let people use their devices to their fullest.

How many perfectly useable whatsits get put in the back of the shed, garage, attic or wardrobe or turfed into a questionable ‘recycling’ process just because Bezos and his investors want to make more money selling rebadged proprietary yokes to people?

I have 2 useless beard trimmers here from Philips and a really good Remington hair clipper, all mechanically perfect but I can’t open them without a set of security driver bits and I know for a fact they contain generic cells tagged with a proprietary variation of a miniature Molex power connector on a fly-lead.

When they’re at it and can get away with it, is it any wonder Amazon and others just carry on and waste resources and flog unserviceable things, or worse still, refuse to ship a quick release battery for the flippin’ things.

It makes no sense at all. At the same time, I flat out refuse to buy anything that should and could last a decade or more from any brand or retailer who don’t make it a part of their aftersales commitment to sell spares and accessories for X years after they discontinue something.

I’m still putting FJM type bags and filters in my 20 year old Miele hoover, can buy parts for my 25 year old chainsaw from Husqvarna and have bought new outer plastics for a 13 year old battery drill (with original batteries that still hold a useful charge) from Festool.

Philips and Remington on the other hand can go shite. And buying anything electronic or electrical from Amazon own brands is never going to happen.

We all (most anyway) have too much stuff in the first place, but buying stuff without thinking about how long is will REALLY last is something I hope we’re doing more today than we have for some time. Earlier generations thought that way, but I think a lot of ours forgot or stopped giving a damn because we could just get a new one. Well, that’s not really working for anyone except shareholders of some company somewhere. The rest of us, consumer included, we all pay the price or some real unfortunate does in some place where our broken crap ends up or where climate change is kicking the bollix off them while they try to live a simple and once-sustainable life.

Agh, I can’t really fathom how we all became so selfish and short-sighted, even those of us who might think we didn’t. We’re all at it to some degree. For me it’s duplicate or spares of tools and IT kit. For others it’s ‘upgrading’ to a 60” TV (would you ever get a fecking grip of yourself and read a book?) or a feckin’ robotic vacuum cleaner.

And we talk ourselves into thinking it improves our quality of life, or we deserve it. Do we, really? Does it actually make life better?

So feck these corporations and all they stand for, bleeding dry the working mans wallet, conning intelligent people into buying crap we just do not need, then making those things obsolete by refusing to sell spares, leaving us in most cases to rinse and repeat.

The world’s fucked but sure I’ll have a neatly groomed beard, some avocado on toast in my fat belly (I won’t, bleurgh), the robot will have cleaned the floors and I’ll be watching some fake titted reality star morons on my 60” telly while my iPhone pings away with my Aliexpress, Amazon, eBay and “I’m too stupid and lazy to cook for myself” delivery notifications.

OP, recycle it, it’ll go there soon enough anyway. Don’t give them another cent for their dividends. Then pick up a nice tidy used Miele 3000-6000 series vac or Nikfisk 80/90 type and use it for another 20 years with no batteries.

I don’t think it ever killed anyone to hoover their own gaff

[PogMoThoin22]

Recycle it! No, it's working perfect and every single part is available as a spare. I'll get a battery for it eventually. The plan is to move it upstairs and get a better one for downstairs that maps the floors.

I was optimistic before I bought, we have a door saddle leading into the sitting room which I wasn't sure it could cross. Also I was unsure about how it would be with dog hairs. Turns it out has no bother with the door saddle and dog hairs are no problem, human ones are!!

[CelticRambler]

@JayZeus : to be fair to the EU, at least they have mandated that all battery-containing "portable" devices to be sold in the EU must be designed so that the batteries can be replaced by persons with no special skills and no special tools (unless the manufacturer provides such tools free of charge), with the measures to come into full effect from 2027.

But this whole pantomime around portable power sources is the main reason I'm still using corded power tools. Every time I come close to thinking that maybe, just maybe, it'd be convenient to switch to a cordless variety, I find that whatever family I was inclined towards in the past has had it's battery packs "new and improved" and the tools are not backwards compatible with the older ones.

So I'll stick to using a plug on the end of a cable, and replace worn carbon brushes as required. No problem sending them on a plane.

[JayZeus]

For power tools that get the job done well and which have an incredible range, good spares supply and affordable overall it’s really hard to beat Makita 18v LXT smfor value.

On the budget/DIY/hobby end of things, LIDL’s Parkside range is also very friendly for consumers. Standard batteries for years and years now.

It’s on the gadgety/advanced end that it all goes to hell though. Consumer stuff used to take AAA, AA, C and so on and we could use standard rechargeable replacements in most kit.

These non-standardised and often unavailable (in practical sense) batteries come with massive environmental costs looking at the appliance/device/gadget as a whole. And most homes will have a few of these scattered throughout.

That has to change IMO. Mandating that batteries should be user replaceable is all well and good, but it’s a branch of greenwashing when the manufacturers and retailers won’t ship a replacement battery to you affordably if even at all. Doesn’t add up.

[jmayo]

For power tools that get the job done well and which have an incredible range, good spares supply and affordable overall it’s really hard to beat Makita 18v LXT smfor value.

On the budget/DIY/hobby end of things, LIDL’s Parkside range is also very friendly for consumers. Standard batteries for years and years now.

It’s on the gadgety/advanced end that it all goes to hell though. Consumer stuff used to take AAA, AA, C and so on and we could use standard rechargeable replacements in most kit.

These non-standardised and often unavailable (in practical sense) batteries come with massive environmental costs looking at the appliance/device/gadget as a whole. And most homes will have a few of these scattered throughout.

That has to change IMO. Mandating that batteries should be user replaceable is all well and good, but it’s a branch of greenwashing when the manufacturers and retailers won’t ship a replacement battery to you affordably if even at all. Doesn’t add up.

Must say you have good taste in power tools: Festool and Makita

Actually is it Lidl's Parkside or is Aldi's that is rebadged German Scheppach and Einhill tools?

I have a couple of things from Lidl/Aldi for light work, used once in a while are ok.

Whatever about their tools I will not trust their consumer electronics stuff, found it to be shyte.

Also don't want to buy a chainsaw that costs a hundred odd euro.
I value my limbs too much.

[marhay70]

Must say you have good taste in power tools: Festool and Makita

Actually is it Lidl's Parkside or is Aldi's that is rebadged German Scheppach and Einhill tools?

I have a couple of things from Lidl/Aldi for light work, used once in a while are ok.

Whatever about their tools I will not trust their consumer electronics stuff, found it to be shyte.

Also don't want to buy a chainsaw that costs a hundred odd euro.
I value my limbs too much.

Usually, Aldi sell rebadged Sheppach and Lidl, Einhell. Generally, I find the Parkside power tools pretty good for what I need them for, particularly if you can get the "Performance" line, which for some reason is not readily available in Ireland. I bought into the Parkside 20v range a couple of years ago and have not been disappointed.
I agree, for tradesmen and site workers, the going might be a bit tough for Parkside in the long term and in that case, Makita is probably the one I'd choose too, I have a twin set of 10.5v drill and driver set that has had dog's abuse for years and still performs like day one. I've had Bosch and De Walt which couldn't stand the pace to anything like the same extent.
However, I don't need tools like the Makita anymore and I couldn't justify the cost, so I'll happily stick with the Parkside.

[jmayo]

Usually, Aldi sell rebadged Sheppach and Lidl, Einhell. Generally, I find the Parkside power tools pretty good for what I need them for, particularly if you can get the "Performance" line, which for some reason is not readily available in Ireland. I bought into the Parkside 20v range a couple of years ago and have not been disappointed.
I agree, for tradesmen and site workers, the going might be a bit tough for Parkside in the long term and in that case, Makita is probably the one I'd choose too, I have a twin set of 10.5v drill and driver set that has had dog's abuse for years and still performs like day one. I've had Bosch and De Walt which couldn't stand the pace to anything like the same extent.
However, I don't need tools like the Makita anymore and I couldn't justify the cost, so I'll happily stick with the Parkside.

Could never figure out which one was which.
Knew they had links to German manufacturers.

Dewalt have started flogging their stuff in the likes of Woodies, but not sure if it is lower quality range, basically rebadged Black & Decker (who own them btw).
Also Stanley range of tools is another version of them as well.
Bosch Green is home user, Bosch Blue is professional range.
I have had Bosch Green that won't last with heavy use.

[PogMoThoin22]

I swear by Bosch. We have Bosch dishwasher, washing machine, oven and induction hob, they work well and have never had an issue. The dishwasher and washing machine have lots of different wash functions but we just mostly use the quick wash. You don't need to even Google for a review you can trust Bosch is going to be very good.
I have blue Bosch 18V for work, drill, impact drill and grinder they're very decent, much better than DeWalt, Milwaukee on par with Makita which I also rate highly. Forgot I also have a Bosch portable vacuum that takes the same 18v battery

[marhay70]

I swear by Bosch. We have Bosch dishwasher, washing machine, oven and induction hob, they work well and have never had an issue. The dishwasher and washing machine have lots of different wash functions but we just mostly use the quick wash. You don't need to even Google for a review you can trust Bosch is going to be very good.
I have blue Bosch 18V for work, drill, impact drill and grinder they're very decent, much better than DeWalt, Milwaukee on par with Makita which I also rate highly. Forgot I also have a Bosch portable vacuum that takes the same 18v battery

I also have a Bosch Cooker and dishwasher and they are decent, but the green power tools are a budget range and won't stand up to the stresses of continuous use, plastic gearing just doesn't take the abuse . The blue Bosch range is better but still, IMO, not on a par with Makita. My brother-in-law has a corded Makita drill which he bought in 1971 and it's still going.