I just looked up replacement heads for my Panasonic Arc5 and they're like $50 for the foil and blade set. That seems insane to me considering I paid $180 for the whole razor. So basically every year I'm supposed to spend $50 on parts which means over 5 years I'm paying almost as much for replacement parts as I did for the razor itself. How is that reasonable? I know the heads wear out and need replacing but damn that's expensive. Are there cheaper options that work just as good or do you really need to buy the official Panasonic parts? My buddy said he buys generic replacement heads on Amazon for like $20 but I'm worried about quality. Anyone tried the cheaper alternatives or is it worth just paying the premium for official parts? Just seems like a racket to me but maybe I'm wrong.
Replacement heads way too expensive or is it just me
- Thread starter Caleb
- Start date
Caleb, welcome aboard. I think the price is fine, especially when you consider the cost per month ($4.16). Even over twenty years ago, I was paying a similar price for my Philishave HQ5 replacement heads. I would always buy OEM parts, never after-market.
The big market sites are notorious for offering non-OEM cutters/combs for many Philips shavers, as well as the Panasonic ARC5, but as Jim says, it's really best to buy OEM parts, unless of course they don't make them anymore. If you read the reviews of many of the after-market parts, they don't usually do as well as the genuine replacement parts, though the after-market blades for the ARC5 do better than some. When you think how long you use replacement parts, though, the difference in "cost per day" use between OEM and non-OEM is negligible. I know for Remington foil parts, some companies offer non-OEM replacement parts, but they are often not quite the same fit, or of lesser quality. Many people sell new OEM parts on eBay, so that is another option, and many sellers there offer returns. Your model, though, may be too new for widespread sales of OEM replacement parts on eBay.
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