Five figures worth finding
The step, not the range. “0.4–18 mm” says nothing about how many settings sit between 1 and 3 mm (0.12 in), which is where a stubble lives.
Airflow, not wattage. Wattage is what the motor draws; airflow is what dries hair. Two of the four dryers on this site publish it.
Charge time against runtime. Ninety minutes of use means little if it takes three hours to fill, and makers routinely publish one and not the other. Braun publishes no charge time on any of its eight products here. The Philips MG7962 at $125 — the second dearest kit on the site — publishes neither.
The replacement part price. On shavers, the heads are scheduled. Find the reference and its price before deciding which machine is cheaper: the SH30 heads are $29 against a $120 shaver, which is under a quarter of the machine every two years.
The water rating. The eight shavers here use four different phrasings — “100% waterproof”, “wet and dry”, “washable under running water”, “waterproof design, cleaned under water” — and they are not synonyms. One is about the body of the tool, one about shaving in the shower, one about the sink. Which one you have decides your routine.
Four claims that need a number beside them
Percentages without a baseline. Comparative speed claims without a stated comparison. “Professional” and “salon” as adjectives. And a temperature described as gentle without a figure in degrees.
What a silent listing tells you
The ghd straightener on this site publishes no temperature, no plate width and no heat-up time — on a shelf where eleven of the twelve publish at least a top temperature, and where the $29 Arkam publishes twelve heat levels with both ends of the range. That is not proof of a bad tool, but it means nothing about it can be checked before ordering, and on a product that heats, that is a real difference from its competitors.
Where this site does the thing it is complaining about
In fairness, the complaint lands on us too. Many of the American product pages here carry a specification line that is the merchant description rewritten rather than a list of figures — the same adjectives, in order, because that is what the listing published and we do not invent what is missing.
Where that is the case, the specification table below the line is the part to read: a field that says “Not published” is doing more work than a paragraph of claims above it, and it is the field we would rather fill.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-08-22. The live price is at the top of the page.
What people ask about this
What if the figure I need is not published?
Then it is not checkable before you buy, and that is worth knowing. Several pages on this site say "not published" precisely because the merchant page does not carry the number — we do not borrow it from another model in the range.
Are manufacturer claims worthless?
No, but they are claims. A figure with a stated test method — Panasonic naming how it aged its shavers — is worth more than a percentage with no baseline. Both are reported here as what they are.
Last reviewed August 22, 2026
