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84 of 93 found the following review helpful:
 Are you a travellin'-shower-shaver? Buy this AND its big brother. Mar 04, 2009
By Rick V
"Bargain hunter by day, shopaholic at night"
Background you can skip
I am a guy, in his late 30's, heavy (I mean HEAVY) beard growth. By the time it hits noon, dry or wetshave, the shade starts to slowly show.
To make matters worse, I suffer from THE most sensitive skin.
I tried everything, from upgrading my foam to ultraglide superconductor foam for inflamed skin (by Gilette) to going from 2 blades to 3 blades to 4 blades-with-lubra-wd40-strips. You get the point.
Over the years I learned that the very best thing to do for me was to actually do a wet shave under the steamy shower: brush my teeth while I soak under the shower and then after 2.5 minutes of brushing teeth my skin would well prepped to take sensitive skin foam and I could shave infront of my precious fog-free shower mirror.
However, gradually, as the week passed the skin around my neck would get increasingly irritated from the combination of wet shaving and stiff shirt collars and ties which I must wear for work. So I ended up NOT shaving on saturdays and sundays just to start the gradual irritation cycle all over on Monday morning. Much to wifey's dismay as she complained about my homeless look and expressed a deep desire not to be kissed by cactus-face Rick.
Anyways, call this facial viagra, or my salvation: I found the Panasonic ES8109 (also on Amazon). A wet(!!!!) and dry shaver that would supposedly not get my skin irritated and I could use it immersed in water.
I tried it and LOVED it. Read my Amazon review of it elsewhere. It takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get used to but once you have got it down, being a shower shaver like myself, you will find it competes with the best of the Mach III or IV or Final Episode... the thing works.
And instead of using foam with it I found that spraying on Lectric Shave with a little 1$ spray bottle COMPLETELY removed any irritation.
Also, my shave would hold as long as the manual shave did and in the end this turned out much cheaper...
About the actual item listed here: ES3831K
When I travelled for work I now wanted to have my ES8109 with me and did so a few times but it really is not a travelling shaver. It was too heavy/bulky and I needed to unplug power cables etc. and sometimes the button would get accidentally pressed and my shaver would be empty. Anyhoo, not a good travelling companion.
I knew I wanted a wet/dry electric and I already knew the more expensive 8109 workes magic. So I bounght this one, on a whim, during a sale.
When I use it with Lectric Shave in the shower it does a great job of getting me de-stubbled. It is really good and certainly not a 10$ shaver: the shave is smooth and the blades are sharp and seem to stay sharp.
All 3 Panasonic Traveling wet / dry battery shavers use the same head and replacement parts. The white one, though, has a trimmer (don't need that on a trip!) and the bigger black one is rechargable. But they have the same shaving hardware. I wanted one where I could rreplace / bring batteries separate and did not need a trimmer. I also did not want to carry any extra cables.
Conclusion
I guess I talk too much (its getting late here). The shaver is great travel value. Buy this as a companion to the best electric wet shaver I could recommend , the ES8109 (for an electric best dry shave go for the Braun) but again: you have to be a shower-shaver with extra sensitive skin and heavy beard growth to appreciate my recommendation.
Good luck in finding your own personal shaving ritual. I am happy I found mine after well over 20 years of suffering.
34 of 35 found the following review helpful:
After 1 year of using the product, great traveling shaver Oct 27, 2009
By ReNeS
First of all here are some points to put into consideration before buying. This shaver is for...
1. Someone who is looking for a TRAVEL shaver that is small and convenient to carry. It comes with a neat carrying case, and only requires two AA batteries that can be found anywhere. One set of batteries can approx. last up to 20 days/shaves-ish. It will still go on, but I can feel the motor running at lower speed.
2. Someone who prefers WET shaving experience whenever possible. (Wet shaving with this product is great. Dry, not so much.)
3. Someone who needs to shave everyday or simply want that clean shaven look everyday. ( It's still a foil electric shaver, it's fast, efficient, everyday.)
4. Someone who needs his travel shaver to have a trimmer. (Frequent long trip? just like me.)
5. Someone who doesn't want to spend 15 minutes cleaning the shaver. Who wants hassle-free and easy cleaning shaver.
This shaver however isn't for someone who is looking for a blade replacement shaver. I say, wake up, electric shaver will never give you that baby "skin" shave like you get from a proper blade shaving method. However, for $15 this shaver can deliver a very decent shave, very close, but definitely not alike. It also isn't quite for someone who plan to use it 7/365 days. You will probably be better off buying other wet/dry panasonic shaver that is rechargable, and have more than one moving blade, linear-super fast motor and on.
It's been a year and I still use it on every one of my trip. no problem. Impeccable reliability there, and well made.
--------------------
If you decide to buy it, here are my tips and tricks for you. It's based on my experience with it so perhaps it will help you get a better shave with this shaver.
1. YES, it will take up to 2-3 weeks if you are coming from blade for your skin to adjust. This is normal and all you need is patience to get through it.
2. It's miles apart better wet shaver than dry. DO NOT shave dry unless absolute necessary.
3. With that said, all the techniques in wet shaving apply. You should shave in the shower, or right after you come out of it. Your skin should be clean prior to shaving. One trick is that this shaver works better if your shaving gel/foam/cream is "light" or "not dense". Lather up too much or a very dense cream can make the foil/blade hot during operation. (Thick cream will cause more friction and blade moves pretty fast.) Last, don't forget a splash of cold water to seal in and a good aftershave.
4.DO NOT press the shaver, or foil against your skin. You will only get irritation out of it. The trick is to shave everyday, go against the grain, let it GLIDE SLOWLY on your skin, rinse it whenever you feel there is too much foam in the shaver, use trimmer to take out long stubborn hair like those on the neck, and under the chin. DONE.
Thank you for reading my review. I know it's long but this shaver, for $15, deserves a decent review from me imo.
18 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 good travel shaver with case and huge trimer Dec 23, 2009
By Jim A
This is a nice travel shaver not nearly as good as the discontinued es4815s Panasonic ES4815S Pro Curve Compact Mens Shaver With Double Blades, Blue/Silver which I reviewed, or the Braun P70 Braun PocketGo P-70 Men's Shaver. But, if you want a large trimmer, this is the one to get. The 4815 has no trimmer, and the Braun has a very small one. All of these are amazingly practical if you have a good set of NIMH (nickel metal hydride), modern/no memory, batteries and charger Duracell Value Charger With 4AA Pre Charged Rechargeable Nimh Batteries, CEF14DX4N
12 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Excellent travel shaver Jan 18, 2009
By lordhoot
"lordhoot"
After using this shaver for over two weeks on a continuous basis, I can safely write that this shaver does give me a good shave. Unlike other quality travel shavers, this one come with a built in trimmer and a nice hard travel case. The trimmer worked just fine for touch-up work and the hard case protect the shaver's foils a lot better then cloth carrying bag.
The battery life for this shaver is bit questionable. If you don't used the trimmer, the battery life will improved. If not, it can get pretty short. I recommend recharageable batteries. Another reason for not getting a five star is that the shaver vibrate quite a bit. I didn't mind it too much but other users may be bother by it. I have a friend who once joked that this device is a great shaver and a great sex toy! Oh well, each to his own. Like most travel shavers, this device is not meant for people with hairy faces unless you want to shave every four or six hours. Its a single blade device that work well for people who don't have a lot of facial hairs to deal with. Being wet/dry, you can shave anywhere, in the showers or over the sink. It also allowed easier cleaning as well that leads to long lasting value.
The shaver is easy to hold but it not angled in any fashion. The previous model, ES4815 got a slight angle that does make shaving slightly easier. I should mentioned that most travel shavers, this device can be slightly noisy as well with a fresh set of batteries. But these are the only two negative things I thought to mention on this shaver. (I am not sure why it got a "Pro-Curve" label on it.) It should be noted that this shaver is also slightly longer then ES4815 travel shaver, probably designed that way to accommodate the trimmer.
But overall, I found this travel shaver to shave well and quite reliable. I am please that Panasonic finally added a nice trimmer to their line of great travel shavers. Hopefully, this shaver will last a long time like all my other Panasonic travel shavers.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
68 days and counting! Nov 29, 2011
By Brotherbud
"another tool guy"
What a great little razor! Great shave and easy to use. Description said batteries last for 90 mins and I wanted to see what that would equate to in shaving days as I planned to use it as my regular shaver, day in and day out. I put 2 Kirkland (Costco) double AA batteries in and......like my title says, here we are at 68 days and counting....and still going strong....and I shave with this baby everyday! Thats gotta be way more than 90 mins I would think.....at any rate I'm real happy with the battery life as well as the shaver itself....and all for less than $15 delivered to my door!!!
Update for Dec 20, 2011 -
Wow! She's still going strong and I'm getting great shaves everyday!
Update for Jan 23, 2012 -
Whew! Here we are at better'n 4 months (about 125 days) and although the batteries are getting weak, they are still going. I would have already changed them out a week or so ago if I wasn't doing this test to take it right up to the point where the razor stops dead while I'm shaving. That said, I am still getting a great shave everyday but I know that it's just a matter of days before the end finally comes. But Wow am I ever happy with the performance of this razor!
Update for Jan 31, 2012 -
End of test today.....quit during my shave but what a run. The new batteries really made a difference in razor speed. Probably should have changed them a couple of weeks ago for shaving excelence but wanted to go to the end of the test when they died. But all said and done.....this is a great little razor!!!
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