MEN: what is the best ELECTRIC SHAVER that you've used?

Answer 1

Without a doubt, the Braun Activator Model 8595, based on experience going back to the late 1960s and covering several makes including Remington, Norelco/Philips, Sunbeam (!), Braun Eltron and Synchron, and now this one.

The shaver maintains nearly constant speed down to its last minute of charge, and then can be used with the cord, if needed. The random pattern of holes in the foil does catch bristles at all angles. An LCD display shows the amount of charge left, the duration of the last shave (why do you want to know this???), the total number of shaves thus far (misleading, because switching it off for a moment while shaving will up the number by 1), and a helpful message scrolling along that gives you the Braun part # for the replacement foil and cutter.

After use you put the shaver into its charging dock, which also has a cartridge of liquid cleaner. The shaver goes through its cleaning and charging cycle and is induction-dried, delivered clean and fresh at the end.

However, the cleaning cartridges are needlessly expensive and while the manufacturer insists that you need to go through this every day, my experience shows that it is not necessary at all. I run it down until it is almost at the end of its charge and then it goes through an intensive cleaning and charging cycle. The manufacturer does not like you to open the head and brush the cutter block clean as you would any other shaver because that way you will not use their expensive though wonderfully scented denatured alcohol cleaner, but they do provide a brush and say that it's OK to do so when traveling. I clean mine every day this way until it is time to recharge.

Use the shaver, make the cleaner go a long way by removing and re-capping the cartridge, and you will agree it is worth the roughly $130 you will spend.