How long do shaver foils last?
Two makers publish an interval and one does not. That gap is the real cost-of-ownership story in electric shaving, and almost nobody writes it down.
By Sawyer V. · Published
We have not tested any of this. Everything below is compiled from published manufacturer specifications, and the arithmetic is printed so you can check it. This page carries affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the order of the picks. Full disclosure.
The short version
Braun publishes about 18 months for its foil and cutter block. Philips publishes 4 months for the OneBlade blade, with a wear indicator on the blade itself. Panasonic publishes no interval for the Arc5. Write the fitting date on the box, because a foil degrades gradually and your face adjusts to it - “it still feels fine” is not a reliable signal.
| # | Pick | Lasts | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Braun Series 9 PRO+ The closest electric shave | 1,300 shaves* | 7.4/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 | Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67 Speed on a dense beard | 1,300 shaves* | 7.2/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 | Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Trimming, edging and shaving with one blade | 1,300 shaves* | 7.1/10 | Check price on Amazon |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price instead of a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
What each maker actually publishes
| Product | Published interval | Wear indicator | What is replaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Braun Series 9 / Series 7 | About 18 months | No | Foil and cutter block as one cassette |
| Philips OneBlade 360 | Up to 4 months | Yes, on the blade | The single blade |
| Panasonic Arc5 | Not published | No | Foil and inner blades, sold separately |
| Philips 9000 Prestige | Not published | No | Rotary head set |
| Remington F5 | Not published | No | Foils and cutters |
Two of five publish an interval. That is the finding, and it is why our disclosure axis exists: this is the number that decides what a shaver costs to own, and most of the category leaves you to guess it.
What is actually wearing
Two parts, wearing against each other.
- The foil is a perforated metal screen a few hundredths of a millimeter thick. It sits against your skin and thins from friction. As it thins, the clearance between the cutters and your face shrinks, which is why an old foil nicks.
- The cutters oscillate behind the foil and dull against it. A dull cutter drags hair into the foil hole rather than severing it cleanly, which is the tugging sensation.
They wear as a matched pair, which is why Braun sells them as a single cassette. Replacing one and keeping the other produces a shaver that cuts unevenly for reasons that are very hard to diagnose afterwards.
What this does to the cost of ownership
This is the arithmetic almost no shaver review does. A premium shaver is not its sticker price; it is the sticker price plus a replacement head every eighteen months for as long as you own it.
Over five years - our assumed service life for a powered shaver - that is roughly three replacement cassettes on the Braun schedule. On the OneBlade's four-month schedule it is fifteen blades, though each one costs a fraction as much.
Neither figure is knowable without a price, and this site does not publish prices it cannot verify. What you can do is find the current replacement price, multiply, and add it to the sticker before you decide - the calculator handles the per-shave division once you have both numbers.
The contrast worth seeing plainly
A double-edge razor blade is a commodity standard nobody owns. Factories in several countries make blades that fit every safety razor in existence and compete on price, so a hundred of them is 500 shaves at our assumed five per blade.
A shaver foil fits one shaver, is made by one company, and is priced by that company. Nothing in powered grooming works the other way - not clippers, not trimmers, not body groomers. It is the shape of the whole category rather than a criticism of any one product, and it is why every powered tool on this site scores low on refill economics while every safety razor scores the maximum.
The head-to-head covers what you get in exchange, which is real: speed, dry shaving, and near-immunity to nicks.
Getting the full interval out of a head
- Rinse after every shave. Stubble and skin oil packed under a foil accelerate cutter wear as well as making the shave worse today.
- Never brush the foil. A stiff brush deforms a screen that thin, and a deformed foil is finished regardless of its age.
- Do not press. Pressure is what thins a foil. It is also the main cause of irritation, which makes this the rare habit that costs you twice.
- Dry it open. Corrosion on the cutter block behind the foil is a failure that looks like wear.
The cleaning guide covers all four in order, and it is five minutes a week against a part you would otherwise replace early.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry shows the published specifications, the axis scores they produce and what you give up. The order is the computed order, not a commercial one, and the arithmetic is open underneath every score.
Our pickThe closest electric shave
Braun Series 9 PRO+
Five synchronized shaving elements — two gliding foils, a SkinGuard, a Direct & Cut blade and a Lift & Cut blade — plus a titanium-coated ProLift blade, 60 minutes of runtime, a five-minute charge for one shave, and it is fully waterproof. If the requirement is 'as close as an electric gets', this is the answer and there is not much argument about it.
- Runtime
- 60 min
- Charge time
- Not published
- Cutting elements
- 5
- Head replacement
- Every 18 months
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Five published cutting elements, each with a stated job, plus the ProLift blade
- 60-minute Li-Ion runtime, the longest of the shavers here
- 5-minute quick charge for a full shave
- 100% waterproof; usable wet with lather
Flaws
- Replacement head cassettes are proprietary and are the real long-run cost
- Braun's published 18-month replacement interval is guidance on its parts pages rather than a figure on the product specification, so it is easy to miss before you buy
- The most expensive way to remove hair in this ledger
The working behind the 7.4
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 9.0
- Wet-and-dry with 60 minutes of runtime and a 5-minute quick charge; nothing about daily use requires a decision (++). Braun publishes an 18-month foil-and-cutter replacement interval, which at least makes the running cost plannable (+), but the cassettes are proprietary so the price of it is Braun's to set (-).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 8.0
- 4 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, cuttingElements, waterproof, headReplacementMonths. Not published: chargeMin. 4 / 5 x 10 = 8.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Braun Series 9 PRO+ published specifications.
2Speed on a dense beard
Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67
A 14,000 CPM linear motor producing up to 70,000 cross-cuts a minute across five blades, a head that flexes in 16 directions, and a beard sensor taking 220 readings a second. It is the fastest shaver here on dense growth. The trade is 45 minutes of runtime, the shortest of the three.
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Charge time
- 60 min
- Cutting elements
- 5
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Published 14,000 CPM linear motor and up to 70,000 cross-cuts per minute
- Five blades and a 16-direction flexing head
- Beard sensor with a published 220 detections per second and 14 power adjustments per second
- 3-minute quick charge for one shave; wet and dry
Flaws
- 45 minutes of runtime, the shortest of the shavers here
- Proprietary foil and cutter assemblies
- Louder than the Braun units, which is a real daily consideration
The working behind the 7.2
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 8.5
- The most completely specified shaver here — motor speed, cross-cut rate, sensor rate and head articulation are all published figures (++). 45-minute runtime is the shortest of the three (-).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 8.0
- 4 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, chargeMin, cuttingElements, waterproof. Not published: headReplacementMonths. 4 / 5 x 10 = 8.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67-K published specifications.
3Trimming, edging and shaving with one blade
Philips Norelco OneBlade 360
Not a shaver and not a trimmer: a single oscillating blade that trims with a comb, edges without one and takes stubble down close without ever going properly bare. 45 minutes of runtime, five comb lengths from 0.2 to 5 mm, waterproof, and Philips publishes a four-month blade life with an indicator that tells you when it is up.
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Charge time
- Not published
- Length settings
- 5
- Cutting range
- 0.2 - 5 mm
- Head replacement
- Every 4 months
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Published four-month blade life with a wear indicator on the blade itself
- Five comb settings from 0.2 mm to 5 mm plus bare-blade edging
- 45-minute runtime, 100% waterproof, usable in the shower
- The cheapest entry point to a powered shave here by a wide margin
Flaws
- It will not give you a properly bare shave; that is a design decision, not a fault
- Proprietary blades, replaced on a schedule, which is the real cost of ownership
- 45 minutes of runtime
The working behind the 7.1
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 9.5
- Published 4-month blade life with an indicator, so the one maintenance decision is made for you (++), waterproof and shower-usable (+), five published comb lengths (+), proprietary blades on a schedule (-).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 6.0
- 3 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, waterproof, headReplacementMonths. Not published: chargeMin, cuttingElements. 3 / 5 x 10 = 6.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 published specifications.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price instead of a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Questions people actually ask
How do I know when my shaver foil needs replacing?
By the date rather than the feel, because the decline is gradual enough that you adapt to it. The exceptions are visible damage - a dented or perforated foil - and a sudden change in comfort, both of which mean replace it now regardless of the calendar.
What actually wears out, the foil or the cutter?
Both, and they wear as a matched pair, which is why makers sell them as a set. The foil thins from friction against skin; the cutters dull against the foil. Replacing one and keeping the other is a false economy that produces an unevenly cutting shaver.
Can I sharpen shaver foils?
No. A foil is a screen rather than a blade, and the cutters behind it are hardened and set to a specific clearance. There is nothing to sharpen and attempts to do so change the geometry that keeps the blades off your skin.
Is a cheaper third-party replacement head worth it?
We have not tested any and will not rank what we cannot verify. What is worth knowing is that the foil thickness and cutter clearance are what keep blades off your skin, so this is a part where a manufacturing tolerance has a direct comfort consequence.
Does replacing the head fix a shaver that pulls?
Often, but clean it first. Stubble packed under the foil produces exactly the pulling sensation people attribute to a worn head, and it costs nothing to rule out.