Uh, small detail
Ok, admittedly I don’t have a beard anymore. But for many years I went with my evil Spock look and sported a goatee. (Apparently there was an episode of Star Trek where they ran into an evil Mr. Spock who sported a goatee. This was pointed out to me by a co-worker, who started calling me evil Spock after I grew my beard. Interesting the coworker also sported a goatee, so I just called him moron).

Why get one?
Trimming a beard isn’t the easiest of tasks. I really wasn’t going for the ZZ Top look when I decided to grow one. After using an electric hair clipper and very carefully free trimming my raggedy beard for a while I decided there had to be an easier way.

Because I am cheap by nature I attempted several other items that were about the house first. The electric hedge trimmer seemed to do a fair job, but was quite frightening. I almost lost my nose several times. The belt sander didn’t work out too well. The weed trimmer . . . well let’s not talk about that.

The tough decision
I asked for a beard trimmer for Christmas. (Remember, I am cheap by nature). My wife likely spent 30 seconds picking this out for me as the cheaper of two choices at Target. Actually, it’s rather amazing how she can spend 10 minutes deciding between two brands of shampoo, so it might have taken her a week to decide. I’m just guessing here.

The product itself
The Remington MB-40 is a cordless, rechargeable beard trimmer. It has a lot of nice features built in which makes it likely that my wife spent upwards of a week actually picking it out, or just got really lucky. The fact that it is rechargeable is very nice. Not only does it slightly lower the very real risk that I might electrocute myself, it also eliminates the need to buy batteries all the time. (I hate buying batteries).

A single charge last an unbelievable amount of time in this unit. I was trimming my beard and mustache at least a couple of times a month. The first charge on this unit lasted almost an entire year. I kept thinking that maybe this was some sort of alien technology which I wasn’t supposed to have. Thus I was actually thankful when the battery went dead for the first time.

The adjustable guide length is another nice feature. Like most hair trimmers, this unit has a guide comb to allow a consistent length of cut no matter how drunk you are while operating it. While most trimmers use a number of various length combs, the MB 40 has a single comb that slides up and down with a simple numbered dial. This gives the user easy access to nine distinct lengths. The lengths range from I-shaved-yesterday-short, to I-live-in-the-woods-with-a-bear-long. For those more interested in hard numbers that’s about 1/8-inch to 5/8-inch long. If you want longer than Grizzly Adam’s facial growth, you will need to prune that with shears, my friend.

The comb is also completely removable to get things back down to bare stubble. This is a pretty handy way to completely erase your beard. Trying to shave a beard off without some sort of preliminary strike is pretty painful. This feature is also handy for touching up sideburns and keeping your beard in shape.

As long was we are on the subject of beard shape, there is also a flip up, ½-inch wide trimmer. This is great if you want to trim your beard into your initials, or the shape of your favorite car.

Intangibles
The shape of the trimmer is excellent. It is obvious that Remington put some thought into the design of it as it sits very comfortably in the hand no matter what direction you are trimming. Further aiding in the comfort is the rubbery grey stuff on either side of the handle. I called it stuff, because I’m pretty sure it’s not rubber, but have no idea what it is. Vibration is moderate, but not unpleasant.

Noise is not a major issue with this trimmer. It is much more quiet than the Whal hair trimmer that I butchered my beard with in the past. Still, I wouldn’t be too keen on listening to either of them while driving in the car.

The unit charges with an A/C adaptor. This is something that is either a negative or a positive depending on your point of view. The fact that It needs to be plugged in overnight once or twice a year makes it something of a non-factor to me. However, the adaptor is the bulky type that keeps you from using your power strip effectively. One might ask, what in the world are you doing with a power strip in the bathroom? I personally don’t want to know. On the other hand, at least there isn’t a bulky unit that sits on the countertop.

Parting Thoughts
This is a fantastic beard and mustache trimmer. I cannot imagine that any other trimmer on the market has all the features and the high quality of this unit. It stays charged practically forever. Now five years old, it still holds a charge for more than six-months (I wish I could say that about my laptop). The blades are sharp and all the features work perfectly. This is one fantastic trimmer!

For the record I don’t generally get excited about trimmers.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): gift
Noise Level: More quiet than most

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