Philips Norelco BT7225/49 Beard Trimmer

I have been using Norelco shavers and trimmers for decades and have always been extremely pleased with their products. This trimmer replaced a Philips Norelco QT4070 I purchased from Amazon in 2013. The older model was absolutely great but I had just plain worn it out. I certainly expected a new trimmer would be even better than the old one. I WAS WRONG! First some background on how I use it. I trim all my head and facial hair to the shortest setting (0.5 mm?). I do that twice a month. Both the old and the new models do about an equally good job on the trimming side. This 7200 does have some good qualities that exceed the older one. For one thing, it holds far more trimmings. With the older model, I nearly always had to empty the trimmings about midway through shaving. With the new one, I can go at least a couple of trim sessions before I need to empty it. And emptying the trimmings is at least a bit easier. With the older model, there was a lot of brushing to get all the trimmings out of the "tunnel". With the new model, I can easily use a had vacuum to suck them out in seconds. Now the bottom line that really counts--how well it trims my hair. As I mentioned, I expected the new model to do a better job than the older one. It doesn't. It is really only about equal. Further, it is slower. The width of the cutters is smaller so it takes more swipes to cover the same area. The new model also seems to less able to "slide" over the surface--it is not as smooth flowing. That slows down the process as well. So it takes longer. The fact that I don't have to stop mid-shave to empty it helps lessen the overall time. But It should be able to be faster--not the same. So I guess you could say I am sort of happy with it--but only barely. I just wish it had matched more to my expectations from Norelco products. It just does not make it to my usual "extremely pleased" level. UPDATE 1/25/2018 Sour Grapes Report: this review involves my experiences with two closely related purchases, I am including this identical review with both the Philips Norelco Beard trimmer Series 7200, Vacuum trimmer with 20 built-in length settings, BT7215/49 I purchased from Amazon on 9/6/2017 and the Philips Norelco Beard & Head trimmer Series 5100, 17 built-in length settings, hair clipping combs, BT5210/42 I also purchased from Amazon on 1/17/2018. I have been using Phillips Norelco razors and trimmers almost exclusively for over 4 decades. During that time I have also had a few other brands such as Remington and Panasonic. I think of my very earliest was a GE or Sunbeam but that is just a guess. All the other brands did a poor job at best and nearly all suffered early deaths! I found I could always depend on Norelco razors and trimmers to work well and to LAST FOR YEARS! My most recent Razor purchase was on 9/10/2006, a Norelco Model 8150XL I purchased from Wal-Mart.com. Since that time I started having a beard and eventually sported a nearly fully shaved head with a short 2 mm stubble. That was also when I started ordering from Amazon. Of course, based on past experience, I used almost exclusively Norelco Beard & Head Trimmers: a Model T980 received as a gift 12/25/2008, a Model QT4070 I purchased from Amazon on 5/1/2013 (does not show up in my orders), followed by the two mentioned at the top, the BT7215/49 on 9/6/2017 and the BT5210/42 on 1/17/2018. I say all that just to show just how satisfied (and thus, how faithful) I have been to Norelco. NONE of those other brands even came close to the Norelco! But if you look closely at those dates you might notice that all of those lasted 4 or more years. And when each was replaced, they were well used but really not totally worn out. I could still use them right up to the day they were replaced. NONE of them broke or just quit working--until the one before the most recent. After only 4 months, the BT7215/49 broke! The internal sleeve that covers the spinning rod cracked. That left the trimmer vibrating wildly and slowed the speed down to a crawl making it impossible to use. Well ok, that means getting warranty service. But I’ve never faced that before. So I started researching what I needed to do to get it repaired/replaced. To begin with, Amazon’s “Return Window” closed on 10/14/2017. No help there. There is Norelco’s “45-Day Money Back Guarantee”. Already passed. No help there either. Then there is Norelco’s “Two-Year Warranty”. But both of the last two options requires arranging for AND PAYING for “return shipment of product by insured mail, insurance prepaid”. The BT7215/49 has already cost me about $60. Paying to return it seemed like throwing more dollars away not to mention having to wait for weeks (months?) without my trimmer! My only real recourse was to just “eat it!” So I purchased a new Norelco BT5210/42 which cost me about $50. Yeah, in spite of this one bad experience with a Norelco product, my past experience led me to stay with what has worked so well in the past. And I must say I was immediately very pleased. Though less expensive, the BT5210/42 appears to be much better made and immediately gave me a MUCH better trim than any of my previous Norelco products—including the bad one before it broke. NICE! And I decided to stay with Norelco in spite of the fact that this one cost me a total of $60 (for the bad one) + $50 (for the replacement) = $110 total! There is really something bad wrong about that!!! It has certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. And after so much sweetness in my past, this one sour taste is the one I am left with! You would think that Norelco would want to know about this. I contacted Norelco to try to let them know about my experience. Because I had such great experiences in the past, I fully intended it to be a very positive review of just one bad egg in the batch. But I just ran into roadblocks all along the way. Despite hours of searching, I could find no good way to give them my suggestions. Instead I ended up on several email lists trying to sell me stuff I had no need or desire to have! Just unsubscribing from them was a major task for several days! So Amazon ends up getting my Sour Grapes Report. But at least this might be something Norelco/Amazon customers will learn from. I certainly hope so.