The Best Fabric Shavers For Sweaters

Is your favourite sweater looking a bit worse for wear? Is it starting to bobble? With a small investment in money and time, a fabric shaver can help you make your favourite sweater look new again. 

In this guide to the best sweater shavers, you’ll learn:

  • Why do sweaters start to bobble
  • How to prevent bobbling
  • The best fabric shavers for sweaters available today
  • And, much more…

The Best 5 Fabric Shavers for Sweaters

Mugensa Mach5 Rechargeable Fabric Shaver 

Whilst at the top of the market price-wise, the Mach5 from Mugensa is one of the most powerful and efficient fabric shavers available today. With over 3 hours of shaving time on a single full charge and with 5-speed settings, that are adjustable depending on the fabric being shaved, this is a fantastic option for anyone looking to efficiently remove pilling from sweaters.

What we like:

  • Over 3 hours of shave time for each full charge
  • 5-speed options depending on the fabric being shaved
  • LED display
  • 6 blade cutters making it extremely efficient

Beautural Electric Lint Remover

The Beautural electric lint remover is a handy, light and easy-to-use fabric shaver with several useful features to quickly and effectively remove lint from your clothing. This device will cut up 85% of lint on any type of material in one pass - leaving your sweater looking nearly brand new in just minutes!

What we like:

  • Value for money
  • Not too noisy
  • Changeable shaver heads
  • Ease of use
  • Dual speed

We have a detailed Beautural electric lint remover review if you're interested in finding out more.

Beuatural Portable Fabric Shaver

Philips GCO26 Electric Lint Remover

One of the most popular and highly related lint removers on the market with over 60,000 5-star reviews on Amazon, this particular model is a great all-rounder and super-easy to use. Recommended for those looking for a well-known brand to help keep that favourite jumper looking great!

What we like:

  • Really easy to set up and use
  • Large surface area to cater for all types of clothes and blankets
  • A range of 3 colours gives plenty of options for the more image-conscious
  • A strong brand that most people will recognise

We have a more detailed Philips GC026 fabric shaver review if you’re interested in a more detailed look.

philips GCO26 Fabric Shaver

Upinmoer Portable Electric Lint Remover

A well-rated and reviewed lint remover on Amazon. An innovative dual-faced design and powerful 2-speed motor allow this fabric shaver to be used on all fabric types.

What we like:

  • Dual-faced design provides good fabric coverage
  • 2-speed motor gives variable speed option
  • Can be uses on all fabric types
  • Easy-to-remove lint bin
  • 2 hour charge time

Conair Battery Operated Lint Remover

The Conair Battery Operated Commercial lint remover is one of the most popular, powerful and effective options out there on market. It's a battery-powered shaver that safely and quickly removes lint from fabric without causing any harm or damage to your clothing items such as sweaters, clothing, etc. With its large shaving head, it makes quick work even over difficult fabrics like upholstery were some other fabric shavers struggle to efficiently shave.

What we like:

  • Available in 5 different colours
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Ability to deal with all types of fabric

We have a detailed Conair CLS1X Fabric Shaver review if you're interested in finding out more.

What is a Sweater Shaver?

A sweater shaver is a small electronic device that uses a rotating blade to remove bobbles and pills from fabric without damaging the fabric. Sweater shavers can be used on types of clothing, but are great for sweaters and all clothing made from wool, cashmere or angora. Fabric shavers are also often used on bedding and furniture as well. 

Think of a sweater or fabric shaver as an electric razor for your clothes except instead of cutting off hair, it removes fuzz, lint, loose threads and pilling from cloth. They can be used on almost any knit fabric including cashmere, angora and merino wool.

Sweater shavers are one of the simplest and easiest devices to use on the market today. 

How Sweater Shavers Work

Sweater shavers are made up of three basic parts:

  • Body, which houses the motor for electric shavers
  • Blades, which are responsible for actually cutting off the pills
  • Blade cover

Many electric sweater shavers also include a removable lint catcher, which collects the pills and bobbles once it’s been removed.

When using a sweater shaver, the device’s very fine blades slice off the fabric pills and exposed lint while the blade cover prevents those blades from making contact with (and therefore cutting) the fabric itself. 

Once a pill is removed by an eclectic sweater shaver, gravity does its work and the lint falls into the device’s removable catcher.

Do Sweater Shavers Really Work?

Yes! Sweater shavers are great little machines that save you time, effort and money and keep your sweaters looking their best. 

However, that comes with a slight caveat.

While a sweater shaver won’t ruin your clothes when used properly, there is always the chance that user error (such as not paying attention or not replacing dull blades) can result in a damaged garment. Luckily, using a sweater shaver is easy and straightforward so the likelihood of this happening is incredibly low.

Why do Sweaters Bobble?

Bobbling on sweaters happens when fabric pills, which are tiny lumps of fibre, form on clothes as a result of abrasion. Bobbling is caused by wearing and washing sweaters, but also just by rubbing the fabric against other fabrics in storage.

Bobbling usually occurs where sweaters crease or are folded, or around high-use areas, such as cuffs, forearms or elbows.

There are two types of bobbling: primary bobbling occurs when individual snags in the surface fibres of a fabric break, which results in puffs of fibre forming. Secondary bobbling happens after loose fibres from inside a sweater work their way to the surface and intertwine

Conclusion

We hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to the best sweater shavers. These small devices are a great and inexpensive devices that can really help in elongating the life of your sweaters. A small investment in time at the end of each summer is well worth it and will certainly save you money in the long run - and who doesn’t want that…?

If you’re interested in more sweater and fabric care content, take a look at some of the other guides we’ve created:

The Best Heated Clothes Airers

How to Remove Lint and Bobbles from Washing Machines

The Best Fabric Shavers for Travelling

How to Remove Bobbles from Sofas

Frequently Asked Questions

Our editors have independently selected and reviewed all of the products you see here. The reviews can contain links from affiliates, which means we may receive a small commission on editorially chosen products purchased through our links.

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