Stiftung Warentest tested nine electric beard trimmers. The good news: Almost all devices enable accurate cutting. But: Only four beard trimmers achieve the grade “good”, one of the most expensive representatives even completely fails with a “poor”.
In order to determine which beard trimmers are really good, 25 men were asked to shave one side of their face once a week using two devices. 40 percent of the overall grade is made up of the subjective impressions of these tests and long-term use on horsehair brooms. 20 percent is due to the skin-friendliness of the trimmer, which means the risk of cutting yourself. Another 20 percent is handling, 15 percent is durability and five percent is testing for harmful substances.
Although the latter is not given a particularly high weight, it led to the Braun “Beard Trimmer BT9420” (112 euros) being downgraded to “poor”. Here, according to Stiftung Warentest, benzo(ghi)perylene was found in the on/off switch “in a concentration just above the limit specified by the GS mark”. Since this substance had a mutagenic effect in animal experiments, the testers drew the red card.
The most expensive device in the test, the Panasonic “ER-SB60-S803” for 139 euros, only scored “satisfactory”. Of all things, the luxury product did not convince the testers in terms of skin protection, which led to a downgrade in the overall grade.
Philips was the test winner with the “Beardtrimmer series BT5515/15” for 55 euros. Apart from slightly worse results in the drop test, the device received a grade of “good” in all categories and achieved an overall grade of 2.2.
The testers’ price tip is only slightly worse, but significantly cheaper. The drugstore chain Rossmann offers the Ideas World “Beard Trimmer Best Basics RFC-1908”, a device with an overall grade of “good” (2.5), which is available for 15 euros. Compared to the test winner, according to Stiftung Warentest, users have to expect slightly worse handling, especially due to the lack of accessories for storage and complicated cleaning, but they save 40 euros when purchasing.
You can find the complete test for a fee at test.de.
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