My clipper caught fire mid-fade on a client in Reno

I was working a skin fade on a walk-in around 6:30 PM, about 20 minutes in, when smoke started pouring out of the blade housing on my cordless clipper. I paused the cut, told the guy to hold still, and set the tool on my station where it kept sizzling like burnt wires. Client was cool about it, but I had to finish the whole fade with my trimmer and a straight razor, which took an extra 45 minutes and left some rough spots I fixed with detail work. The clipper was 9 months old and used daily, so I tore it down that night and found the motor wire insulation had melted against the battery terminal. Has anyone else had a cordless clipper overheat like that, or did I just get a bad unit from the factory?

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wendy_wilson13d ago

A clipper catching fire is not normal and it is not something to just shrug off. Motor wire touching a battery terminal means a short, and a short means heat, and heat plus lithium cells equals a bad day. You got lucky the thing sizzled on the station instead of popping in your hand or next to a client's head. I would not call this a factory defect worth ignoring, I would call it a safety issue worth a report to the company. Nine months of daily use should not melt insulation unless the design lets those wires rub or run hot. Send them the pictures and ask for more than a replacement, ask what they changed so it does not happen to the next person.

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