Electric shaver thread

The Netherlands was neutral in WWI. Politicians believed we could repeat that in '40 and decided we would not have to spend much money on our defense system. Outnumbered and outgunned, we fought like hell. Untill Germany bombed the inner city of Rotterdam (nothing strategic, just civilians). So we surrendered when the Germans threatened to bomb other mayor cities. We fought five days, and were occupied five years. Neutral? Eh … NO!

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My bad!
I don’t know my WWII history perfectly.
I did an internet search and was led astray.
https://www.google.com/search?q=was+the+netherlands+neutral+in+ww2
“World War II occurred in four distinct phases in the Netherlands: September 1939 to May 1940: After the war broke out, the Netherlands declared neutrality . The country was subsequently invaded and occupied.”
I changed my post above to reflect the truth. :+1:

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Well maybe the real truth lies somewhere in the middle. The Netherlands declared neutrality in WWI. And that neutrality was respected by all parties. I was not aware that the Netherlands declared neutrality in WWII.
The Netherlands had more airfields in '40 and planes were more advanced so Germany needed the Dutch airfields for their future occupation of Britain. So our neutrality was not respected.

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By the way, that Wikipedia page also says this:
“Because of the significant number of Dutch submarines active in the Pacific Theatre of the war, the Dutch were named the “Fourth Ally” in the theatre, along with the Australians, the Americans, and the New Zealanders.”

So based on that information, I would say that the Netherlands was not neutral in WWII, which might be more clear in the Pacific Theatre.

Anyway, my joke is that as a patriotic American, I don’t trust Americans or American allies in WWII, but I prefer the Axis Power countries for my shavers. :stuck_out_tongue:

I shaved with my Panasonic Arc5 today for the first time, and I am mightily impressed! :grin:
I like the Arc5 more than my Braun Series 9 Pro.
I thought the Arc5 wouldn’t be very gentle, but it was plenty gentle for me.
Perhaps I don’t have sensitive skin.
Here’s a quick summary of my three recent shavers…

Braun Series 6 - Not that gentle or that powerful, but it’s pretty inexpensive and the replacement blades are reasonable.
Braun Series 9 Pro - Gentle and powerful, but it’s very pricey and the replacement blades are pricey.
Panasonic Arc5 - Gentle (for me) and the most powerful. The shaver is not that pricey (compared to the Series 9 Pro), but the replacement blades/foils are the most expensive.

Another thing to consider is how many years the batteries are supposed to last.
The Panasonic says that battery should last three years if charged every two weeks.
The Braun Series 9 Pro doesn’t say how long the battery should last, but Braun says the Series 9 Pro should last seven years.
Neither shaver has batteries that are supposed to be consumer replaceable, but I found this Panasonic replacement battery on Amazon that’s currently $12.55

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B351PC9D
Sure, the Panasonic shaver won’t be as waterproof if I replace the battery, but I prefer to shave dry so maybe that won’t be a problem.

I didn’t test the Series 9 Pro pop up trimmer, but I did use the Panasonic pop up trimmer.
The Panasonic one is very nice, but it’s not very wide so it takes a while to trim my neck hairs.
None of these shavers shaved my neck hairs very well, by the way.
I plan to avoid trimming my neck hairs for a week, and then use the Series 9 Pro pop up trimmer on my neck so that I’ve covered all of my bases.

For those that like Braun more than Panasonic, the Series 8 might be a smarter choice than the Series 9 Pro.
I haven’t tried the Series 8 but I know that it’s a lot cheaper than the Series 9 Pro and the replacement blades are a bit cheaper as well.
In fact, I’m guessing that the Series 8 is a much better choice than the Series 6 based on what I’ve read online.

I returned my Series 6 for a full refund.
Eventually I plan to sell my Series 9 Pro on eBay because the seller that I bought it from does not offer refunds.
If you’re a buyer, it can be very useful to buy from a seller that offers free returns.
If you’re a seller and you offer free returns and your buyer takes you up on your offer, you will be losing money. :money_mouth_face:

Do we have any reasonable electric shavers with USB-C input yet?

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Good question.
I don’t think that Panasonic/Braun/Norelco/Remington offers that, but I haven’t specifically looked for that feature.
By the way, it’s kinda difficult to plug in the charging cable into my Panasonic shaver but I only plan to do that when the battery gets very low so that the battery will last longer. :+1:

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Last time I searched for that on purpose was ~2 years ago, could not find any back then. Should probably look for it again.

If your shaver uses LiIon cells, charging before it is totally empty shouldn’t hurt it (much), if it has NiCd/NiMh it will damage the cells - those must always be run full to empty, then charged in one go back to full.

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Yes, my shaver has a Li-Ion cell, but I read that the battery will last a bit longer if I wait to charge it.
Of course I could be wrong about that. :slightly_smiling_face:

I think LiIon cells like being run 30-80% the best, roughly. Depends on the cell chemistry and the charger what is best for them. They like being at 100% the least, so the less often you charge (aka the most of the battery you use before charging) the less often it is at 100% and therefore costing battery life.

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Fun fact: If manufacturers would just limit charging to 80 or maybe even 90%, our daily LiIon powered appliances would last for years and years before needing new cells. But then they would have slightly less “datasheet bragging runtime”, and they could not sell you a new device because the battery broke after 2 years.

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I thought of a couple of other things.

The user manuals for the Braun shavers have mostly pictures with very little text.
The user manual for the Panasonic shaver has pictures but it also has a lot of (well written) English text, which I find much more useful.

Also, I shave every day.
For me, I prefer the Panasonic, but I have read that if you only shave once or twice a week, a Braun (or Norelco) shaver might be a better choice. :+1:

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So it finally arrived. I think the Arc is the only one that will make me change sides from my old Series 7 but I’ve got a few replacement cassettes to go through first as I nabbed them when they were on an Amazon sale for a tenner and they last ages but once they lose their performance I’ll be onboard the Arc bus.

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Yeah, it actually arrived a few days ago, but it’s been sitting in our mailbox for a while.
(Our mailbox is over a mile away from our house, and we don’t get the mail very often.)
Luckily, I don’t think the heat damaged the shaver because it’s been quite hot lately. :sun_with_face:

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You’re definitely not in the UK then it’s been raining for about 3 years. Yup I think the Arc will definitely be my next one. Shame that the replacement foils and blades are that expensive but if they last a while it’s not too bad.

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I shaved again with the Panasonic and I noticed three new things.

The Panasonic is louder than my Braun Series 9 Pro and my inexpensive Norelco.
What’s worse is that the Panasonic is high pitched and kinda annoying, so if you need absolute quiet when you shave, maybe skip the Panasonic.

Another thing I noticed is that the Panasonic shaves much more closely than any other electric shaver that I have owned.
I didn’t think that getting a close shave would matter to me, but now that my favorite shaver provides a very close shave, I appreciate that feature.

Also, I mentioned that the Panasonic is more powerful than the Braun Series 9 Pro.
I say that because the Panasonic shaves my facial hair quite a bit quicker than the expensive Braun. :grin:

I see the ARC 5 in black is currently on sale on Amazon for $89. 58% off
Not sure if this is one of those permanent type of discounts or not.
All the Best, Jeff

ARC 5 on Amazon

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It’s showing $150 for me.
Maybe the sale is already over?
By the way, $89 for brand new on Amazon sounds like an awesome deal. :+1:

Well crap. Literally just refreshed the page from like 5 min ago and it’s back to $150.

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I’m looking at Amazon prices in the past (with a browser extension), and that shaver drops to $89 on a regular basis, but it doesn’t stay that price for very long. :money_mouth_face: