I Used To Use A Norelco!

Well, well, well... the old Norelco has led a long and glorious life, but she just doesn't "cut it" anymore. I'm in the market for a new electric shaver!

I spent hours, on Consumer Reports, reading epinions.com reviews, looking over the stock at various retailers, yadi-yada-yada. Finally, I decide to try the Remington R-9500 due to the self cleaning feature and super high RPM blades.

As usual, I search for the best price and this time I find it on eBay, a brand new shaver still in the box, and $80 later (including shipping) I'm now a Remington man.

Now before I go on, I must let you know... I was skeptical. I've only owned Norelco shavers for the past 15 years and my last Norelco was top rated by Consumer Reports.

Arrival Day
My new Remington comes via UPS and I open the package. Great looking box! Everything is in there, and I open the instructions and get to work.

The first thing you do is add the cleaning solution to the shaver base. Sounds easy enough. Well guess what! It's not. I spilled it all over the counter! You really need a funnel to get this stuff in there. Once my mess was cleaned up I put the shaver on the base and let it charge overnight.

First Use
Saturday morning, I wake up and WOW... I CAN'T WAIT TO SHAVE! I haven't been this excited about shaving since I was 15.

The first thing I noticed with this shaver is it's louder than my past Norelco. I'm not waking the neighbors up, but it does remind me of a gardener with a weed eater. One reason it's so loud is probably because the blades are spinning at such a high rate of speed.

My actual shave took less time than it did with my Norelco and it was much closer. More like a baby's butt. I was very pleased with the close, smooth shave. In fact, I was surprised how close it actually was. There's not a whole lot of difference between this shave and an actual razor like the Mach 3 Turbo.

The only downside to this shaver seems to be the pop-out trimmer. It feels very flimsy compared to my Norelco. It worked great on my sideburns, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't last as long as the rest of the shaver.

Cleaning
Now the fun part! This is the key reason I purchased this particular shaver... for the automatic cleaning system. Yes boys, you press the "Clean" button on the base, and 25 minutes later your R-9500 looks factory new. No hairs inside, it's oiled, and it's ready to rock and roll! Now Remington recommends that you clean the shaver every day, but it seems a little excessive to me.

The only downside to the automatic cleaning function is that you have to replace the cleaning solution and filter every 30 days. This can get expensive so you're definitely paying extra for the added convenience.