USB Electric Eraser
USB Electric Eraser
In this review we take a look at a USB Rechargeable Electric Eraser, in the past I have reviewed one or two battery operated erasers and for the most part they are all pretty similar. However, the reason this particular one caught my eye was its shape and design. I am aware that quite a lot of colored pencil artists who watch and subscribe to The Art Gear Guide have medical issues with their hands or wrists etc that in some way make art uncomfortable. When I seen this USB rechargeable eraser, I thought its design and shape may help such artists or at least be easier for them to use.
I also like the idea that all you have to do is plug the eraser in and wait for it to charge as opposed to continually purchasing new batteries. I know that some people use rechargeable batteries, and for those people there may be very little difference, however, lets take a look and see.
As I mentioned I have reviewed one or two battery erasers in the past, the Derwent Battery Eraser and the Tihoo Battery Eraser, which incidentally the eraser on review today is from Tihoo. But it is important to note that there are lots of identical erasers on Amazon and Ebay under a different name, now, although I have not personally tested any of those other erasers, I would take an educated guess and say that they are all the same and only different in name.
The vast majority of this review is quite self explanatory, nevertheless I have completed a test comparing the USB powered and battery powered erasers to see if there is a performance difference. I was curious to see if the charging power methods allowed the manufacture to install appropriately powerful motors, but hopefully the test will show this. I have completed a YouTube video review of the USB Eraser, which you might like to take a look at so that you can see the test being completed in real time. In this part of the review I can obviously only show you the before and after results, the YouTube video will show you the actual test.
USB Electric Eraser Contents
On opening the box of the USB Electric Eraser, you should find the following accessories. First you will see the actual eraser which will have attached to the end a clear plastic cap. You will also find a USB cable for charging, a pack complete with 5mm replacement erasers and 2.5mm replacement erasers, finally you will also have two spare adapters for accommodating the changing of eraser sizes.
Rechargeable USB Electric Eraser Features
As I mentioned the main feature and reason I wanted to showcase this eraser to you all was its shape and design. The eraser fits perfectly in your hand, it is incredibly comfortable and in my opinion also provides the artist with much better control for acquiring detailed work. On top of the eraser, close to the actual eraser is located the power button, this needs to be depressed and held into position by the artist, however it is the closeness of the button to the eraser that I feel lends itself to more control and detail.
The eraser will continue for as long as you keep the power button pressed in, on releasing your finger from the power button the eraser will stop immediately. The eraser also comes with a clear plastic cap which covers the element holding the eraser. I think this is a good idea as it should protect the working parts of the eraser during transit. The plastic cap can also be placed on the rear of the eraser which incidentally is the location of the USB port, not only does this help to protect the open port but also helps prevent you from losing it. Obviously the cap is beneficial but it is not the end of the world should you lose it.
Unfortunately I haven’t measured exact timings with regards to charging time and charge emptying times, but I have rough estimates. When I opened the eraser I purposefully emptied the eraser of power by continuously pressing the power button. At this point I plugged in the USB Eraser and started to charge it. When the eraser is charging a continuous blue light is emitted from the power indicator light located to the rear of the power button, the light does not flash. When the eraser is fully charged the light simply turns off.
From a completely empty charge to the blue light turning off indicating a full charge, this took approximately 20 to 30 minutes. How long the charge last is like answering the age old question, “How long is a ball of string”. The life of a charge will of course very much depend on how much you use the eraser. From completing a full charge, I am two weeks in and the battery is still going strong and this is with fair to medium use.
USB Electric Eraser Test
As I mentioned, I wanted to test the battery and USB erasers against one and other in the event that one may be more powerful than the other. This is not a scientific test, I wasn’t able to use exactly the same pressure on both erasers but I did my best to keep things exactly the same.
For the test I used four different colored pencil brands on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Velum paper, so the paper has a little bit of tooth as opposed to a Bristol Smooth paper or Hot Pressed Watercolor paper. When applying the colored pencil for testing I applied a light and heavy application of each pencil brand.
The first colored pencils I used was a Red Prismacolor Premier pencil, I thought I’d test a couple of the pencils using red pigments as Red is considered to be quite a staining pigment. The next pencil is a Red Faber Castell Polychromos followed by a Blue Caran d’Ache Luminance and finally a Green Holbein Colored Pencil.
As you can see from the image displaying the results, I always used the USB eraser to the left of the layer as you look at the image and tested the battery powered eraser to the right of the layers as you look at them. When completing the tests I did so using both the 5mm and 2.5mm erasers. Although the power for both sizes of erasers wouldn’t have changed throughout the testing process, I thought it would be beneficial to showcase the rustles using both eraser sizes.
USB Electric Eraser Pricing
As I mentioned earlier in the review, although I am using a USB Eraser branded Tihoo, its important to note that you may find erasers that look identical but branded a different company name. Although I have not tested the other brands and therefore cannot attest to this statement with certainty, but I would make an educated guess and state they are all exactly the same erasers just with different brand names stamped on them or if not exactly the same certainly incredibly similar. I only mention this so that if you should happen to find a USB eraser that looks identical to the one I have reviewed but has a different brand name stamped on it, please don’t think that you should only purchase the one with the name on it that I have reviewed, you are fine to purchase whatever you want.
Here in the UK the USB Electric Eraser will cost you approximately £12.99, for artists in the US you can expect to pay approximately $14.47 for the USB Electric Eraser and finally for those of you in Europe the USB Eraser will cost approximately €10.88
USB Electric Eraser Conclusion
A USB or Battery powered eraser is incredibly useful to Colored Pencil artist, erasers are much more than simply tools for removing errors, they are tools for art in their own right. Once layers of colored pencil pigment has been applied, it is very difficult to drop in highlights with a white colored pencil so erasers and in particular pencil erasers or TomBow Mono erasers. The problem with pencil erasers is, as with all erasers, the rubbing motion lifts the pencil mark, but in doing this, intricate details such as minuscule skin pores, or eye highlights are too small. With the power of an electrically powered eraser, the smallest of details can be achieved.
The purpose of this test was to showcase the unique shape and design of the eraser, displaying overall comfort for the artists, but also eradicating the need to be constantly replacing batteries in other erasers. The USB eraser is quite fast at charging and during the time it takes to prepare your pencils etc when starting a new project, the USB eraser is fully charged and ready to go.
I’ll leave the results of the test down to your eyes and perhaps watching the YouTube review will help you determine which eraser between the USB and Battery eraser performs the best. For me personally I like the convince of simply plugging the USB cable in and recharging the eraser also on this particular model the shape and design of it makes it so comfortable to hold in the hand as well as accomplishing excellent control for detail.
