Customer Reviews

Philips Norelco QC5170 180-Degree Hair Clipper

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I was excited to get a preview copy of the new Norelco 180 degree hair clipper to try out. When I first took it out of the box, I was amazed at how light it was and best of all CORDLESS!

I'm a simple hair-cut guy and do #2 all the way around and a #1 on the goatee.

I gave the 180 degree clipper a whirl and it performed flawlessly right out of the box (it comes charged). I've been cutting my hair myself for the past 8 years and this is the first cordless clipper I've ever used. It was so much easier having the freedom to angle the clippers as you see fit.

I didn't utilize the 180 degree adjustment feature that much, but did find it helpful when having to do the left side of my head as I'm not that great with my left hand. Being able to adjust the clippers made it feel more natural in my left hand when doing the back of my scalp and on the sides.

The clipper also performed flawlessly on my full goatee as I simply dialed down the clipper from a #2 to a #1 with the push of a button. That's right...all the numbered guards (up to 5) are built-into the clipper. You simply adjust the dial to the number you want and you're off. No more changing guards!

Only thing was that the built-in guard guides are a little too long and it prevented me from getting up under my nose on my mustache, but other than that this product is a winner and is certainly replacing my corded clippers!

****UPDATE****
Six months later this thing is still my go to clipper for haircuts. I'm still hitting the #2 all over on a regular basis and the cordless clipper performs without a hitch. Battery life is still nice after multiple charges. This thing is a winner!

I've been cutting my own hair off and on for years now, so when I saw these new clippers from Philips Norelco I figured I had to give it a shot. Unfortunately, although it looks like a great idea, it just doesn't perform.

The head swivels in 90 degrees in either direction (for a full 180 degree turning base) which makes it much easier to hold and guide, especially if you're trimming your own hair. It's lightweight so fatigue from holding heavy clippers in weird positions isn't an issue. It comes with two guards, the one shown and one designed for longer cuts. It also comes with a second blade that's thinner for more precise trims. The guards are literally a snap to change and the red dot shown on the handle is used to slide it up and down for longer and shorter trims. This can be easily done while holding it with a simple slide of the thumb. It's cordless so no worries about getting all tangled while attempting to cut your hair.

So after all that, why did I give it only 2 stars?? Simple, it doesn't really cut. I would go over the same spot and all it seemed to do was comb the hair. I had to hold the hair taught to get it to cut. I tried both wet and dry, and several times it just pulled my hair. I even plugged it in hoping that direct juice would help, but to no avail. Unfortunately, I had to resort to my old Remington clippers I got at Target for twenty bucks a few years ago to finish the job. The difference was night and day.

As much as Philips Norelco did right for these clippers, they neglected the most important thing. To be effective, they must actually cut hair.

For more than one reason, I haven't seen the insides of a hair-cuttery in more than a decade. Flowbee was my trusted hair-management solution for all these years until I had the opportunity to try out Norelco's 'Philips Norelco QC5170 180-Degree Hair Clipper' and Philips Norelco QC5055 Power Hair Clipper. Now, I'm sold on these two.

Focusing on the QC5170, it lets quickly and efficiently do the back of my head and the sides and, thanks to the pivoting head feature, I can do it all by myself.

Operation:

Once charged, all you need to do is attach the proper comb (see below), select the desired hair length and proceed with cutting.

Hair-cutting tends to be a borderline traumatic experience for me - I'm a long hair type person - but this was a near-painless experience. I am looking forward to more future haircuts. It goes fast, smooth and easy and, in my case - I was only doing some advanced styling on the back and the sides following an initial cut - I didn't even need to clean the comb when I was done.

This may not apply to everyone but, speaking for myself, I can use either hands to hold the clipper. Even with both hands available, self-cutting would have been an awkward and difficult operation with a traditional tool but, on the QC5170 all I need to do is pivot the comb 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise and I could reach any spot on my head easily and comfortably. As for technique, I go against the direction of hair growth first then, for a nice finish, I go in the opposite direction to even things out. In the end, I'm pretty close to what most would get from a professional hair stylist in exchange for maybe $20 or maybe more.

What you get:

- The hair clipper body hosting the rechargeable batteries.
- The clipping attachment
- Stainless steel, self-sharpening cutting blades
- Precision cutter for contouring
- Large comb - .51-.83in. (13-21mm)
- Small comb - .12-.43in. (3-11mm)
- Charger
- Cleaning brush
- English/Spanish instructions
- Registration card with $20 coupon offer

Some specs:

- Battery life is rated at up to 60 minutes.
- Charge time is 8 hours.
- Cuts hair from .12 in./3 mm to 1.61 in./41 mm.
- 10 length settings between the 2 combs (5 on each of the large and small combs)

Returns and warranties:

There's a 45-day money back guarantee promise if the customer can provide proof of purchase and ships the item, insured, to Norelco at own expense.

The 2-year warranty promises to replace defective products for as long as the customer didn't do anything 'unreasonable' and he/she paid for shipping the item to Norelco, preferably insured. Proof of purchase of course, is a must.

What I liked:

Other than the surprising ease of use and operation and the quality of the haircut, I liked the easy cleaning and maintenance and the fact that, if needed, it can operate in a 'corded' mode. The easy grip makes self-cutting easy, efficient and confident.

The brief manual is written in good English and is very good at illustrating cleaning and assembly and has very good advice on maintenance, preserving battery life and even some haircutting tips.

Issues:

My big problem and the only one so far is the lack of some case or storage box. With so many parts of which some are small and/or fragile, not providing some way to store them, protect them and keeping them organized is inexcusable.

I am also having an issue with the maximum length. .83in. is too short for me. I can use this at the longest length setting for my back and sides but, for the rest, I will be using the QC5055. I understand that most men will be happy with the maximum length on this clipper so, for most, the QC5170 is all that may be needed to achieve hair-clipping peace of mind or even happiness.

Rating:

This would have been an easy 5-star if it came with a case. Since it doesn't, it gets 4.

I still recommend the QC5170 most highly but be prepared to supply your own box or pouch - I did - or risk losing combs or the cleaning tool or maybe misplace the all essential charger.

MYSTERY SOLVED: To get this clipper to cut hair short, you must hold the unit flat against your head and press it firmly against your scalp, and then slowly and repeatedly slide it across your scalp. Otherwise, it just slides over your head without cutting. At first, I thought something was wrong with the unit. But after a little experimenting, I found that I could hear it cutting hair, and as I continued, I discovered the unit is an ergonomic masterpiece. It's easy to hold, and the rotating cutting head makes it easy to properly position for cutting hair on different parts of your own head.

At first I was surprised by the way my hair looked when I was finished. I thought I had been getting an even haircut before, but this was visibly more even, even at a very short length. I am now enthusiastic about the results I get.

I use an Andis trimmer to trim the hair off the back of my neck because I already had it, and it works well. Maybe the Norelco unit's other trimming head which snaps into place would work alright there; I just haven't needed to try it. But I'm giving this unit a five-star review based upon the phenomenally even cut I get and the ease of use. Another plus is that the blades on this trimmer require no lubrication.

I'm not sure why this unit provides such an unusually even cut. Maybe the blades are incredibly sharp. But you must hold the unit flat against your head and press it firmly against your scalp to get it to cut short hair.

Admittedly, I was a little nervous trying out this product for the first time. After all, it is not natural for one to give himself a own hair cut, is it? At least in my world, haircut is one of those things - like having your tonsil removed - that you find a professional to do it. But it was summer, it was hot, my somewhat long hair was bugging me, and the weather was too hot for putting hair gel on my head every morning, so I figured what the hell. If it didn't work out, I will get my head shaved or something. Pleasantly, the experience was much easier than a DIY tonsil removal. For of all, the cordless nature of the hair clipper really added a layer of comfort and confidence. The pivoted, rotating clip also make trimming sideburns easy. I tried to think of it as a hair brush, and used it as such. Shockingly, at the end, I had a decent summer haircut. Recommended only for very short haircuts.

When I first unpacked the Norelco QC5170 hair clipper, I was a bit skeptical because it was lighter than what I had expected. But after using the clipper for the first time, the light weight was more of an advantage than a detriment because it seemed to give me better control of its functions.

The clipper's motor is strong and easily cut through my hair, which is fairly thick. The self-cleaning blades are also great; no more oiling! I also found the design of the clipper to be well thought out. Aside from being comfortable in my hands, the fact that it's cordless and with a pivoting head makes the clipper easy to use. In addition, the trim length is not adjusted by changing guides, but by adjusting the blade height. There is a red button that, when depressed, lets you dial the height of the blade in relation to the built-in guide, thus adjusting the length of the cut. The button also protects you from accidentally changing the blade position while you're cutting your hair. If you're used to the numbered guides that the barber shop uses to determine hair length, you will need to be aware that the clipper's numbering system is different. The number 5 setting with the shorter, built-in guide on the Norelco clipper is more like a number 2 or 3 setting on a standard barber shop cutting guide.

The clipper came pre-charged so I could use it right out of the box. And the clipper was conveniently packaged. One thing I hate are products that seem to require explosives to unpack.

If you like to trim your own hair, then I would recommend this product. This is truly a clipper designed with the DIY'er in mind.

I have been buzzing my head for years as I like my hair practically bald but with some stubble. This unit replaced a Panasonic trimmer with a flimsy plastic guard. I was going to buy this or the Remington Shortcut but I read some bad reviews on the battery for that one and you also can't use it plugged in which you can with this Norelco. While that doesn't seem like a big deal, it will if the battery ever dies and you are only half done.

When I took this unit out of the box I put on the shorter plastic guard and tried it out and it did not cut one hair on my head. Apparently even the #1 setting on the plastic guard was longer than my hair was after a week's growth. Initially I thought well this sucks, I can't use this at all. I then took off the plastic guard and tried it with no guard. With most clippers you really can't do this because the blade sticks out from the unit and digs into your head. But this unit has a flat piece before the blade which guides it as it moves on your head so it doesn't dig and just moves around smoothly. With the great ergonomics of this unit and the pivoting head it buzzed up my head very quickly, much faster than my old Panasonic and it didn't dig into my head.

So if you are a stubble buzzer like me, take off the plastic guard and go to town, because this will work perfectly for you without scratching the hell outta your noggin.

I've been cutting my own hair for around 10 years now. I'm not a stylist -- I just wait until the hair and my beard get unruly and then clip everything back to almost nothing. The Philips Norelco QC5170 clipper is great for this.

The clipper I've been using is one I bought 10 years ago in a drugstore for around $20. It worked OK but it took seemingly forever to cut my hair, at least 45 minutes. This was mainly because 1) the clipper had to constantly be cleared during the cut and 2) I had to constantly go over the same hair patches to ensure everything was even. I settled for this because I figured that this was the default experience when cutting your own hair (I had no experience with other clippers to make a real comparison).

With this Philips Norelco clipper, I was done in about 15 minutes, which includes a complete dome shaving and a beard trimming. One of the best things is that I didn't end up with red, irritated skin on the back of my neck and around my throat like I used to; since you don't have to keep going over the same areas with this more powerful clipper, you don't end up with sore skin. And you don't have to deal with a cord constantly winding around your wrist, which is very convenient.

The pivoting head, which locks in at three different angles, provides the same service as the two or three angled cutting heads that came with my old clipper. I never used those much, but I do use the pivot now. This takes some getting used to, especially for someone like me who has learned self-clipping using only one angle. But use the different angles a couple of times and they'll make sense to you as they did for me.

I like how many fewer parts there are to this clipper. The two adjustable heads and the trimmer head are designed to take the place of multiple clip-on heads found with old clippers. And the clipper needs no oil, so you don't need a little tube of said stuff hanging around. As someone mentioned here, though, it would be nice to have a bag included to throw all the parts into, one relatively small that can be tossed into a bathroom drawer. Instead, all you have is the original box, which is too cumbersome to open and to store in a bathroom; I'm using a kitchen storage bag for storage to hold everything, one with a ziplock. It works out OK.

When I think about how much I save each year cutting my own hair, the cost of this clipper becomes very reasonable. Mind, I don't get fancy cutting my hair, so if you do -- if you like a layered look, for instance -- your experience might be different from mine. But in general, I was surprised and pleased at how quickly this strong little clipper went through my messy hair.

The Philips Norelco QC5170 180° Hair Clipper is a neatly designed clipper for those interested in maintaining their own head of (likely balding) hair. The design allows for easy and fast coverage of your entire head. The pivoting head makes it simple to get the right direction and angle on any part of your head. While the plastic tines ensure you don't make any costly mistakes, they are a little long and can hinder your trimming around the ears and other tight spots. Also you are sure to create a mess. The Philips Norelco T980 Turbo Vacuum Trimmer (highly recommended for those looking to keep their beards neat) solves this problem with an effective (mostly) vacuum chamber. Certainly, giving your entire head a trim might pose a problem for a vacuum chamber, but I would have appreciated less clean-up. The other major issue I had with this clipper was the need to go over some areas multiple times. However, I expected as much and given how fast it is at trimming away hair, I wasn't annoyed to go back over a few spots. Overall, this is a great product for men looking to keep their hair very short but not completely shaved. The range of lengths on the clipper is great and for the money, it's a good buy.

This clipper is fantastic if cutting your own hair. Which is what it was really designed to do .... the 180 pivot rocks in this regard. The clipper also has some pretty neat hair length adjustments. The pivot does become a bit of a pain when compared to other clippers when cutting other people's hair. Big bonus - is that it is cordless.

So basically - if you cut your own hair with clippers - then get this. If you cut other people's hair more often - then get a standard clipper.