My biggest issue with electric razors is that they never gave me as smooth a shave as using a razor-blade (or cartridge). That annoyed me enough to stop using it.

But sure, they do last forever.

For some reason, my time shaving with cartridges gave me the worst acne of my life by far -- including one zit that somehow festered into a massive welt that continuously refilled with fluid and wouldn't go away for several years. (I still have the scar) I still think there was something wrong with the shaving cream because my dermatologist was just as perplexed as I was and he was clearly out of his element as he seemed to be blindly throwing whatever he could at the problem.

These were the inexpensive mail-order discount razors and the special shave butter they advertised, I forget the name of the company but it was the first one I was aware of that bypassed the Gilette racket by doing everything via mail. (edit- DollarShaveClub?)

Smooth or not, I'm sticking with my electric razor.

Smoothest shave I get from an electric shaver/razor is by shaving in the shower with some face wash as "shaving cream" and using a wet shaver e.g. from the Philips AquaTouch line. Quick, easy, everything is clean after etc.

I'd say it gets very very close to a manual razor in terms of smoothness.

+1 for a decent wet shave razor.

You’re supposed to replace the heads of electric shavers every year or two, they do dull. Whether you need to or not probably depends on your face and whether the blade irritates your face.

I’ve never replaced any heads on my shavers either. I lose them before that.

At a 50-100 price point they seem to break around the 3-5 year mark.

I got a cheap one sub 20 and it lasted 3 months.

I tried getting a wired one hoping it will last a bit longer.

It may just be me, my hair is really hard.