How to replace electric shaver heads
The part costs a fraction of a new shaver and almost nobody does it, which is why so many perfectly good shavers get replaced instead.
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
Replace the foil and the cutter together, and match the part number rather than the model name. Braun publishes roughly 18 months for its foil and cutter block; Philips publishes four months for the OneBlade blade. Most makers publish nothing, which is why the practical rule is: replace when the shave takes noticeably longer than it used to, and write the date down so the next one is a schedule rather than a surprise.
| # | Pick | Lasts | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Braun Series 9 PRO+ The closest electric shave | 1,300 shaves* | 7.4/10 | $429.64 - view on Amazon |
| 2 | Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Trimming, edging and shaving with one blade | 1,300 shaves* | 7.1/10 | $39.99 - view on Amazon |
| 3 | Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67 Speed on a dense beard | 1,300 shaves* | 7.2/10 | $199.97 - view on Amazon |
Prices last verified September 24, 2026. They move constantly; the figure on Amazon when you click is the real one.
Knowing it is the head and not the battery
Both fail on roughly the same timescale and both present as “my shaver is not as good as it was”, so start by telling them apart. The symptoms do not overlap much.
| Symptom | Head | Battery |
|---|---|---|
| Takes longer for the same result | Yes | No |
| Tugs or pulls hairs | Yes | No |
| Head runs hot | Yes | No |
| Runs at full speed but dies in minutes | No | Yes |
| Only works on the charger | No | Yes |
| Sounds weaker from the moment it starts | No | Yes |
A worn head cuts badly at full power. A worn battery cuts fine until it stops. If it is the battery on a sealed unit, that is usually the end of the shaver, and it is worth knowing that before you buy a head for it.
The published intervals, and the honest gap
Two makers publish a replacement interval for the models on this site. Everybody else leaves it out, and that omission is the reason this figure carries weight in our scoring.
- Braun: about 18 months for the foil and cutter block, published in its parts guidance.
- Philips: four months for the OneBlade blade, with a wear indicator printed on the blade itself - which is the best implementation of this in the category, because it converts a schedule into a thing you can see.
- Panasonic and most others: not published. The Arc5 publishes a motor speed and five blades and no replacement figure.
Matching the part, which is where it goes wrong
Model names are reused. “Series 9” and “Arc5” each cover several generations with different head assemblies, and a head bought against the family name has a real chance of not fitting.
- Look on the head unit itself. The replacement part number is usually molded or printed on the frame - not the shaver body, which carries the model number.
- Failing that, the manual or the maker's parts finder. Enter the full model number including the suffix; that suffix is often the only thing distinguishing two incompatible generations.
- Buy the set, not the pieces. Foil and cutter together on a foil shaver; the whole head unit on most rotary and head shavers, where the blades, guards and frame are one assembly.
The replacement itself
Five minutes, no tools, and one thing you can get permanently wrong.
- Clean and dry it first. Opening a head packed with damp stubble drops that debris into the drive mechanism underneath, where you cannot get it out. The cleaning sequence is here.
- Lift the foil frame straight up. This is the one to be careful with. A shaver foil is a metal sheet a few hundredths of a millimeter thick; tilting or twisting it as you remove it deforms it permanently, and a deformed foil is a foil you have just replaced for nothing if you were only doing the cutters.
- Cutters out, new cutters in, new frame down until both sides click. Check it is flat. A frame seated on one side chatters, cuts unevenly and wears the new cutter in a matter of weeks.
- Run it dry for thirty seconds. This beds the new cutter against the new foil. The first shave afterwards sometimes feels slightly different for a day or two; that is the bedding-in and it settles.
Turning it into a schedule
The reason most shaver heads never get replaced is that the decline is gradual - the shave gets worse by a percent a month and you recalibrate as you go, until one day you decide the shaver is finished and buy another one.
The fix is to make it a date rather than a judgment. Write the replacement date on a piece of tape inside the travel case, or put it in a calendar eighteen months out. If your maker publishes an interval, use theirs. If not, twelve to eighteen months is where the two published figures in this category bracket, and using that as a working assumption is more honest than waiting for the shaver to hurt.
And if you are choosing a shaver rather than maintaining one, the roundup ranks partly on this: a maker that publishes its replacement interval is telling you the cost of ownership before you commit to it, and that is worth more than a marginal difference in cutting elements.
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.
2Trimming, 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.
3Speed 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.
Prices last verified September 24, 2026. They move constantly; the figure on Amazon when you click is the real one.
Questions people actually ask
How often should electric shaver heads be replaced?
Braun publishes about every 18 months for its foil and cutter block. Philips publishes four months for the OneBlade blade. Almost everybody else publishes nothing - which is the single largest disclosure gap in this category, because the head is the biggest ongoing cost of owning an electric shaver.
Do I need to replace the foil and the cutter together?
On a foil shaver, yes. They wear as a matched pair - the cutter oscillates against the inside of the foil, and both surfaces develop a wear pattern against each other. A new cutter against an old foil wears out quickly and does not cut noticeably better.
How do I know if my shaver head is worn out?
Three signs, in this order: the shave takes longer for the same result, the shaver tugs at hairs instead of cutting them, and the head runs hot. Heat is the last one to appear and it means you are well past due.
Is it cheaper to replace the head or buy a new shaver?
The head, in almost every case - which is why this page exists. We do not publish prices because this site only shows verified live figures, but the comparison takes two minutes to do yourself and the answer is rarely close. The exception is a shaver whose battery is also failing, because that is usually not user-replaceable.
Can you sharpen electric shaver blades?
No, and the products sold to do it are not worth buying. The cutter is a hardened precision component running at high frequency against a foil measured in hundredths of a millimeter; there is no home process that restores that geometry. Replace it.