Isn’t it annoying when you get your favourite jumper or sweater from the laundry and it’s covered in those horrible little bobbles? Sadly it’s one of life’s inevitable facts, and you simply have to accept that it’s going to happen. Over time, the fabric comes loose and the result is these little balls that look horrible, and make it look as though you’re wearing old clothes!
It happens to all of us, and there’s little we can do about it. What we can do, however, is buy a fuzz remover! What are we talking about here? You may not have seen them, but there are in fact devices you can buy that remove the bobbles from your clothes quickly and effectively. You want to hear more? Here’s a quick look at how they work, and then we’ll tell you about 10 of the best, what users think of them, and give you our verdict on the best one for you.
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What is a Clothes Defuzzer?
So, you’ve just got your favourite sweaters or fleece out of the washing, and it’s covered in the dreaded bobbles! We reckon you can get a jumper bobble remover that will make it look as good as new so that you don’t have to buy new clothes. What on earth are we on about?
You might be sceptical, and we wouldn’t blame you, but the fact remains the clothing manufacturers – and a load of gadget boffins – have recognised the problem, and designed simple, effective and easy to use lint removers. They work in the same way as a new electric shaver, with a few changes.
You have a blade behind a perforated foil; the rotary blades turns, and the foil presses against the jumper, pulling the fuzz and bobbles – they are known in the trade as ‘pills’ just so you don’t get confused later on – into the path of the blade. They are cut off and fall into a lint collector fitted into the device. And once again, your jumper is smooth and as good as new! They can work on a wide range of materials but work best on jumpers rather than shirts.
Sounds too good to be true? We thought so, too, but when we started looking for the best clothes defuzzer UK buyers can get their hands on, we learnt quite a lot about how effective these little devices are, and how some work better than others! So, without further hesitation, let’s talk about the top 10 fabric lint remover for clothes. These are also called a fabric shaver but in the UK we do prefer the word defuzzer.
The Top 10 Best Clothes Defuzzers
1. Philips GC026/00 Fabric Shaver
First on our best lint remover list – which, by the way, is not in any order of preference – is a model from the electronics giant Philips, a company that seems to have products for just about every purpose. This one is what we consider typical of the wool bobble fuzz remover. It is a hand-held small device shaped like an electric shaver, it comes with three different foil sizes for different fabrics, and has a large blade area for better coverage.
The head settings can be adjusted for dealing with finer garments and the blade spins at up to 8800rpm, plus the removable pill container – remember, pills are bobbles in technical-speak – is easy to handle. As for what customers say, more than 2000 people have commented on this product and most are very happy with their purchase.
2. AERB Fabric Shaver
Not a name brand as the above, but AERB does have a range of products of this type that have a reputation for being good quality and reliable. This is a similar concept to the above – most of these will be of the hand-held, shaver-type designs – and features two settings for dealing with different levels of bobbling – or is it pilling? Triple blades give good coverage and it is USB rechargeable so is entirely portable – great for when you’re travelling.
This neat little device is ergonomically designed for ease of handling and is finished in a nice shade of blue, and is a similar price to the above.
3. Duronic Fabric Shaver
Duronic is a brand that offers a wide variety of well-priced, mid-market devices of this type. This fuzz clothes shaver is a neat design that is USB rechargeable – it can be used with the cord plugged in – and is supplied with a cleaning brush and a little carry pouch. The handle is ergonomically designed and can turn through 180°, and it comes with just one foil so there are no size options available. We won’t go into how it works as you’re aware of that by now!
The battery life for this one is a claimed 30 to 50 minutes – a strangely wide range that we can only assume accounts for harder bobbles. We like that its rechargeable as it means you don’t have to keep buying AA batteries.
4. Flyco Fuzz Off Lint Remover
A standard type of fabric shaver, with a single-size of foil and three metal blades. It’s nicely designed to be easy to hold, comes with a brush, and is very cheap indeed. Like all of the above, it has a good sized compartment where the pills fall into, that is easy to remove.
This one is not rechargeable and is powered by batteries – which are not supplied – and more than 120 buyers have commented on it.
5. Clever Bright Defuzzer Lint Remover
This lint shaver is shaped more like an iron than a shaver, and that’s the first way it differs the other best fabric shavers above. It also has, around the edge of the face, a brush which is designed to bring loose fuzz balls into the shaving area and suck it into the compartment. It has only one size of available foil but does come with spare blades – great for when the first set inevitably begin to go blunt – and it is cleverly designed with a touch of thought has gone into it.
It comes with a cleaning brush and recharger cable – it takes 8 hours to fully charge. Again we love the fact that it doesn’t need any AA batteries.
6. Minky Bobble Remover
If there is a ‘basic’ fabric shaver, this one might just be it. It’s the simple, standard design with just the one size of foil – but it does have an adjustable head for finer garments – and is powered by batteries, and is not rechargeable. It is perhaps best thought of as a model that would be great for having in your suitcase when on the move. Put simply, it’s very simple, with no frills, and comes at a price to match, being not much more than a fiver – you can’t really go wrong with that.
7. Beautural Fabric Shaver
This one is a more advanced model than the one above, and at around ten quid we reckon it’s certainly worth a look. It comes with three different hole sizes set into the shaving head for added versatility, has three different shave heights, has two-speed settings. You get a protective cap for safety protection from the blade surface and a cleaning brush, too, and it is simple in design, easy to use and comfortable to hold. It’s pretty good, apart from a couple of factors.
First, it is battery powered and not rechargeable. We don’t quite understand why a portable device such as this is designed this way nowadays. However, we think this could be the ultimate fuzz remover.
8. EasyLint Professional Sweater Shaver
We are always wary of items that use the word ‘professional’ in the description, as usually it means they have added a simple feature and hiked up the price. We fear that may be the case with this admittedly nice-looking clothes defuzzer, which may be pretending to be more special than it really is. It has a large shaving head, that’s true, and it is certainly heavy-duty looking with a nice handle grip. It can be used with batteries or with an ac adapter (it’s not rechargeable). It’s also a good bit more expensive than all the others, so what are you paying for?
It would seem the bonus here is a nice zipped carry case, for in truth, it does no more than any other on this list, and at five times the price of some.
9. Amfocus Electric Lint Remover
A standard model fabric shaver at a standard price, this one is very similar to a couple of the others. Triple blades give good coverage and it is USB rechargeable so is entirely portable – great for when you’re travelling. It comes with the recharging cable and has no adjustments, and just one size of shaving head. However, it’s cheap, and it’s presumably designed to travel use, which is promoted in the description by the manufacturer, and it claims a 50minute run time from an 8-hour charge.
So, it’s a no frills model, what do the buyers think? Around 60% of those who left comments gave it 4 or 5 stars – that’s rather less than most on here – and comment that it is a ‘great tool’ and ‘amazing’. Of more interest are the third of buyers who gave it 2 stars or under, with complaints that it ‘doesn’t even switch on’ is ‘totally useless’ and is ‘not fit for the purpose’, so there’s a concern about quality issues to take into account.
10. Fabric and Cashmere Comb Combo Set
Our final entry is this set of combs – it’s not an electric fabric shaver – that is designed to get rid of bobbles manually. The two different lint brush is intended to be used when you notice bobbles – and can be used on very fine material as well as wool and thicker fabrics – and come with a very nice organza carry bag, which is a neat touch. But, in the face of electronic opposition, do they do the job that you need them for – remove bobbles from clothes?
There we have it: a list of 9 best electric fabric shaver devices and a pair of brushes, but which is the best fabric shavers for you? Here, we would normally embark on our ‘important features to look for’ section, but we feel we’ve said it all in the descriptions, and that there is really only one factor that you might want to consider: rechargeable, or not? The answer is up to you, but we are dubious as to the claimed run time for some of these on a full charge. Dont worry about replacement blades, these things are so cheap that if it breaks just buy another.
So, let’s see if we can wrap this up – is there one that stands out from the rest?
Our Choice
With products of this type – especially electrical items – it’s often the bigger, name brands that come out top, and we feel it is in this case. The Philips GC026/00 Fabric Shaver comes out as our best fabric shaver, not least because it does everything you need it to do and at a sensible price. That’s not to say the rest are not worth looking at – there may be a reason you want to buy another – but that overall, it is the one we would recommend.
So, make sure your treasured jumpers look fresh and new with your brand new fuzz remover!
