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How Long Do Electric Razors Last? Know When to Replace Your Shaver
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In this article, you’ll learn 3 simple things to help you understand lifespan:
- How to know when replacing the shaver is necessary
- The factors that degrade internal components
- How to increase your shaver’s lifespan and keep quality
Jump right into our simple but detailed explanation below.
What is the lifespan of an electric shaver?
The average electric shaver lifespan is 3-7 years, and this is true in my experience of using a variety of electric razor brands for decades, but this can vary wildly for different models and brands.
A high quality electric shaver will be further towards the 7 year mark, but that doesn’t include occasional cassette replacement.
When your shaving begins to give trouble, it’s necessary to distinguish between cassette and internal issues with the body itself.
In this detailed guide to how long your electric shaver should last, we will aid you in determining whether a replacement is necessary and how to increase your shaver’s lifespan.
How long does an electric shaver battery last?
An electric shaver’s battery life is often 30 to 90 minutes, with most holding around an hour and charging for the same amount of time. The battery lifespan of a shaver depends on the brand and model plus other factors such as improper charging, but it’s typically around 5 years.
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When should I replace my electric shaver?
It’s important to assess the need for a replacement every so often especially if your shaver has aged a fair amount.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell, so that makes it important to understand all the signs leading up to massive performance decreases.
Here are the main issues you’ll come across:
Signs You Need a Replacement Shaver
Worse Performance:
Experiencing more missed patches and less closeness than usual, causing you to complete more passes when shaving on your regular routine.
Irritation & Snagging Hairs:
Electric shaver causes irritation and / or snags on longer hairs and the cassette is within its average lifespan.
Battery Drainage:
Rapid battery depletion or long charging sessions are occurring for the electric shaver battery.
Unusual Noises or Motor Quirks:
Unusual noises or motor vibrations are consistently occurring and there is no loose debris inside of the internals
Visible Damage:
Cracks, rust or other damage are visibly apparent, revealing the internal parts of the shaver (motor, battery, ect)
The main concerns I look out for are unusual noises / vibrations, battery drainage and visible damage as those are the root cause of the other signs.
You should probably replace if these start affecting shaving performance as you’ll be sacrificing the quality of your shave both visibly and behind the scenes with irritation and shaving speed.
Other times, it’s simply the electric shaver blades that needs replacing:
Does My Shaver or Shaver Head Need to be Replaced?
Some of the above factors mentioned can be more related to the head, but most of the time this can vary based on the age of your parts.
Cassette issues will mainly be focused on skin irritation and snagging of longer hairs, as they’re always related to general shaving performance.
If you’re using an older shaver with a new set of blades, issues are most likely due to the body and if it’s an old cassette with a new body, you most likely just need new headpiece.
This can vary with certain conditions such as if you don’t do proper maintenance or are rough with the unit, so always consider your current situation.
Can electric shaver batteries be replaced?
Yes, often times electric shaver batteries can be replaced after they break, but you’ll need some skills to do it by yourself and it depends on the brand / model you own. Replacing the battery requires disassembling the shaver and soldering, so it’s often done better purchased as a service.
What Damages Electric Shavers?
There are many factors that contribute to a decrease in shaver lifespan, and most of them will still affect you to some degree even if you’re playing everything by the book.
The main concerns that the average person has to worry about are:
- Shaving Consistently – Regularly shaving can wear out the internals faster
- Coarse Hair Type – Coarse beard hair causes more strain on the motor than finer hairs
- Improper Shaver Maintenance – Causes dirt buildup, dulling the components
- Not Lubricating – Causes friction in the blades and other moving parts
- Using the Wrong Tool – Creates ware on the blades that are meant for shorter hairs
In unique situations other reasons can come into play such as headpiece damage in luggage, improper charging cycles, dropping the shaver and more.
If you’re using proper shaving technique along with basic knowledge on how to take care of your electric shaver, you won’t have to worry about these things for the most part anymore.
You can read all about that here:
How to Increase the Longevity of Your Electric Shaver
Fortunately, most of the potential issues can be prevented by taking certain measures for their related problems if you’re already in bad habit.
- Extra Protection:
Starting with travelers, investing in a shaver with a travel case or protective cap can make a huge difference in preventing blade damage.
- Cleaning Your Shaver:
If you lack a tendency to clean your shaver whether it’s shaver spray cleaner, manual or a cleaning station you should start immediately as it prevents future blade damage. - The Right Equipment:
An important thing to note about cleaning stations is that some shavers have specific cartridges or even other gear that’s specialized for the specific model. - Longer hairs:
Using the right tool for longer hairs such as dedicated trimmer for longer hairs will also make an impact as certain longer or coarser areas can be rougher on the standard headpiece.
Other measure to take includes not dropping the shaver to prevent ware and letting it complete full charging cycles to sustain battery health.
The issues that can’t be addressed here without a drastic fix is shaving consistency and beard hair type as they’re personalized things that need to be taken into account when purchasing a shaver.
If flexing your schedule for less shaves per week is possible than go ahead though.
Electric shavers are constantly improving and last much longer than before, but these small tweaks and fixes can add up and save money in the long run.
The best thing you can do is pay attention to which of these steps need to be followed closer and what’s causing them in the first place.
Making the Right Choices Towards Shaver Longevity
There are many factors that come into play when determining if your shaver needs to be replaced.
You need to keep yourself aware of performance issues whether that be battery, motor or dips in shaving performance plus visible damage, weird noises and other strange occurrences.
To prevent these things from happening in the first place, you’ll need to take proper preventative measures for each potential issue.
Another important thing to note, if your shaver is relatively new than it could simply be the electric razor blades causing trouble so you need to know the difference.
When it’s time to purchase a replacement, only purchase from trusted brands such as Braun, Panasonic and Gillette that are trusted to last as long as they say they do.
Make sure you follow manufacturer’s directions along with common sense to achieve proper maintenance of your shaver.
How to Use Electric Shaver Spray Cleaner & Lubricant
Electric shaver spray cleaner is the easiest way to clean and lubricate your shaver among other benefits within 3 easy steps that take a minute to complete.
How to Lubricate Your Electric Shaver With Clipper Oil
In this guide on how to lubricate your electric shaver, we’ll help you understand how often to oil, what kind of lubricant is best and the process itself along with why it’s important.
