Review (4/5): Hello QC5055, Goodbye Flowbee :)
For more than one reason, I haven't seen the insides of a hair-cuttery in more than a decade. Flowbee was my trusted hair-management solution for all these years until I had the opportunity to try Norelco's 'Power Hair Clipper', model QC5055.
I am unlikely to ever return to Flowbee now because the QC5055 does the job much faster, it's less noisy and delivers a much better quality haircut.
Operation:
Once charged, all you need to do is attach the proper comb (see below), select the desired hair length and proceed with cutting.
Hair-cutting tends to be a borderline traumatic experience for me - I'm a long hair type person - but this was a near-painless experience. I am looking forward to more future haircuts. It goes fast, smooth and easy. From time to time, you may have to clean the comb and/or the clipping attachment but that can be done quickly and easily. My wife gave me a near-professional-quality haircut in about 10-15 minutes and finished me with sufficient momentum to place our 12 yr. son under the cutter and 'even him out' as well.
What you get:
- The hair clipper body hosting the rechargeable batteries.
- The clipping attachment
- Stainless steel, self-sharpening cutting blades
- Large comb
- Small comb
- Stubble comb
- Charger
- Cleaning brush
- English/Spanish instructions
- Registration card with $20 coupon offer
Some specs:
- Battery life is rated at about 35 minutes.
- Charge time is 10 hours.
- Cuts hair from .12 in./3 mm to 1.61 in./41 mm.
- 15 length settings between the 3 combs (seven on each of the large and small combs plus the stubble comb)
Returns and warranties:
There's a 45-day money back guarantee promise if the customer can provide proof of purchase and ships the item, insured, to Norelco at own expense.
The 2-year warranty promises to replace defective products for as long as the customer didn't do anything 'unreasonable' and he/she paid for shipping the item to Norelco, preferably insured. Proof of purchase, of course, is a must.
What I liked:
Other than the surprising ease of use and operation and the quality of the haircut, I liked the easy cleaning and maintenance and the fact that, if needed, it can operate in a 'corded' mode. The comfortable, rubberized grip makes hair cutting, even self-cutting easy and efficient.
The brief manual is written in good English and is very good at illustrating cleaning and assembly and has very good advice on maintenance, preserving battery life and even some haircutting tips.
Issues:
My big problem and the only one so far is the lack of some case or storage box. With so many parts of which some are small and/or fragile, not providing some way to store them, protect them and keeping them organized is inexcusable.
Rating:
This would have been an easy 5-star if it came with a case. Since it doesn't, it gets 4.
I still recommend the QC5055 most highly but be prepared to supply your own box or pouch - I did - or risk losing combs or the cleaning tools or maybe misplace the essential charger.