Conair HLM11CH Chrome Hot Lather Machine

 (31 customer reviews)

When I first got this last Christmas, this was great. The lather was hot and smooth. But, as I was approaching having this machine for a year, the lather starting getting colder and colder coming out, even when the machine were turned on for longer periods of time.I just threw the machine in the trash, because today, the lather was as cold as the regular can.

Everyone who tries my hot lather machine wants one, but the problem is they're going, going, gone. Sunbeam, Gillette and other companies have made versions in the past, but they never sell well enough to stay in production. Although this Conair machine is inexpensive, it's well-made and solves some problems of past dispensers. You shake the dispenser before use (which shakes up the can inside), then plug it in and turn on the switch. A red light indicates it's on, and when the green lamp lights, it's ready to shave.You dispense lather by pressing the top black button. The earlier Conair dispenser was white, but this deluxe one is silver and black plastic. It uses any standard 11 or 14 oz. shave cream can (like Foamy), and enhances any shaving routine. Use it with a blade razor (like a Mach III), or dispense the lather into a mug and apply it with a brush. Hot lather also works great with a wet/dry shaver like the Panasonic Sonic III. My suggestion is to get an extra dispenser as a...Read more

Mine produced barely warm shaving cream from Day One and never improved. I took it apart tonight after several months, and now understand why. The design is feeble. The lather moves through a disc-shaped, "flat tube" of metal which is adjacent to (and is supposed to be heated by) another flat, metal disc, which is connected to some simple thermostat electronics and then to the wall outlet.

There are several problems with this design. The first is that the thermostat is obviously inadequate and doesn't allow the disc to get hot enough to be effective. The second is that the transfer of heat from the heated disc to the "flat tube" bleeds off heat. Finally, the "flat tube" itself is made of a metal which isn't that great a conductor of heat. I held it with my fingertips and put a match to it, expecting to be burned and be forced to drop it in the sink in a few seconds, but that never happened; it just didn't get hot.

My guess is that due to the threat of fire,...Read more