Piranha Dynamo and Rechargeable Shaver
Posted October 29th, 2008 by Dan (EnviroGadget Writer)
It’s refreshing to find a hand-powered green gadget that’s actually useful, particularly with the Piranha Dynamo and Rechargeable Shaver. With just 1 minute of cranking, you get 80 seconds of shaving time. If you charge up the shaver via the mains, it would take 8 hours and give you around 60 minutes of shaving.
However, if you’re in the middle of nowhere, a hand-powered shaver is a pretty useful eco gadget. If the shaver had some kind of generic charging socket, you could use a solar panel too. However, standardised charging sockets are a long way off, but it’s a simple idea that might sell a whole lot more gadgets.
Source: TreeHugger
Your Comments
This may be a cool gadget but it’s not truly green. The maker could have chosen to use a clockwork type mechanism employing a mainspring. The energy storage of a good steel coil is easily the same as the LI battery, never needs replacing with normal usage, and will never have to be treated as toxic waste when the consumer gets rid of the thing. The battery in this shaver will degrade with use and eventually become un-chargable , probably long before the mechanical bits are worn out. Not gonna happen with a coil spring based machine. Too bad there are no wind-up alternatives on the market. I have been looking for an authentic Wind-Up shaver for years; Something like the nicely-made old Thorens models from the 50’s and 60’s. (These are on eBay occasionally and are STILL RUNNING) This is the 1st time I actually found any type of dynamo shaver at all, and aw shucks, it’s got a nasty little chemical battery in it.
It doesn’t surprise me that the quality of gadgets now doesn’t even come close to the quality of gadgets years ago.
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