I believe cordless razors are designed in a remarkably poor way. See, most cordless razors still use Ni-Cd batteries (although apparently some are starting to use NiMH). These batteries are precisely the wrong type of batteries for this task. The recommended shaving time is roughly 30 minutes for every 8 hour charge. So, if I shave for 2-3 minutes per day, that’s roughly 10-15 shaving sessions before the battery should require a recharge. Now, I may be pretty anal about a few things, but counting how many times I fire up a razor is most definitely not on that list. Also, I’ve noticed that whenever I charge the razor, I get maybe 1 or 2 decent shaves before the razor goes into “mediocre shave mode”, which is the point where the batteries are no longer fully charged after the razor has been sitting for several days without use. This, of course, happens when I’m desperately in need of a shave. So, to get a decent shave, my temptation is to plug in the razor and juice it back up to where I’m getting decent shaves again. Unfortunately, that behavior is contrary to how NiCd batteries want to live their lives. NiCd batteries tend to have “memory effect“, (voltage depression) which lowers their useful lives considerably the more you charge them. Typically the chargers on these razors contribute to the problem because there’s no automatic shutoff (unless you go with a more expensive razor), and the charge is exceptionally harsh. The batteries get hot, and a hot rechargable battery is not a good thing at all. After being abused by the cheap built-in charger, these batteries wear out, and there’s no way to replace them unless they’re taken to a service center ($$$).
So, last morning, I was recharging my Norelco 825X after getting yet-another poor shave from the razor. I long since decided that I wanted to get away from cordless razors altogether, but hadn’t picked out a razor that would be it’s successor. (Just try shopping for a corded razor. Only the lowest-end razors are corded, because cordless is assumed to be a necessary feature). Later that day JoDee informed me that the razor was getting hot. I mean “can’t-hold-it, skin-on-fire” hot. So I decided it was time to replace the razor. I picked up a Norelco 6423LC razor at Meijer, and called it a day. I plugged it in and started using it.
The razor shaves.
That’s it. No frills. No battery math. It just works.
Is that too much to ask?
OK, so the Wikipedia link says that it really isn’t the memory effect, but something else. The short answer on battery life is that if the batteries get hot, they die, often quite rapidly. This can happen two ways. One, if the load is too high, the batteries get hot on discharge. The other is that, if you attempt to charge the battery past full, it gets hot.
All that said, my Norelco cordless has been working very well. I charge it up only about every other month. It gives me good shaves, until, with a sharp cut off, it isn’t so hot – and it needs recharging. I’m probably charging it 6 times a year. If I get 100 cycles, that would be 16 years. My guess is that the last few years will require more cycles, so i’ll probably get 10 to 12 years.
I’d have preferred a shaver with replacable batteries – AA’s, for two reasons. First, if the batteries die in the current shaver, the whole unit is toast. If the batteries were replaceable, I could just get more batteries. And second, if I’m away from home and forgot my charger, 7/11 will sell me disposables that will get me through the week.