Retractable Erasers - Overview

Since I started to use my first retractable eraser I never really came back to regular ones. There are couple reasons - first and probably most important, retractable erasers usually are thin which allows to erase small details without sharpening eraser in some way all the time. Here I will present all types of retractable erasers I ran into so far and small review of each of those.

Hardness - from + (softest) to +++++ (hardest)
Cover sturdiness - from + (not sturdy at all) to +++++ (really sturdy)
Prices given are real prices from Polish shops

1. Pentel Clic Eraser ZE80

Lead profile: square (7mm x 7mm)

Lead lenght: 88 mm

Hardness: +++
Smudge: none
Cover's sturdiness: ++++
Price: ~1,5€/2$/5,50 PLN

My favourite for very very long time - they stopped selling them here though and I couldn't find them anywhere else (but you can try to find some still : ) )  It erases really well and is absolutely amazing for details. It's hard to break lead but it's relatively soft. Thanks to that it doesn't smudge but doesn't break in numerous pieces while erasing. Thanks to it's hardness it's also really longlasting. Plastic cover is really durable, I never managed to break any of those (even with extended usage of 3-4 leads per cover). As far as I know, it comes in 3 colours - pink, apple green and yellow.

2. Pentel Air Clic ZE15
Lead profile: triangular (8mm x 8mm x 8mm)
Lead lenght: 120 mm
Hardness: +++++
Smudge: YES!
Cover's sturdiness: +++++
Price: ~2€/3$/8 PLN

Good as eraser for everyday school use but I don't recommend it for drawing. Lead is very hard and because of that longlasting. Unfortunatelly it causes smudging. Packaging though is very sturdy and hard to break. 

3. Pentel Clic Eraser 2 ZE11

Lead profile: round (7mm in diameter)

Lead lenght: 90 mm

Hardness: +
Smudge: none
Cover's sturdiness: +
Price: ~1,5 €/2 $/8 PLN; leads (pack of two): ~2,5€/3,5$/10 PLN

Theoretically better younger brother of number 1 but in my personal opinion worse than it.  Leads are much softer and it causes lead to bend easily as well as break! If you retract too much - part can easily break off, if you retract just a bit - because of its' softness lead will squeeze and you might scratch paper with edge of cover. Also, cover is easy to break - especially moving part responsible for retracting lead.

4. Brunnen Retractable Eraser

Lead profile: round (10mm in diameter)

Lead lenght: 80 mm

Hardness: ++++
Smudge: none
Cover's sturdiness: ++++
Price: ~1,5€/2$/6 PLN

Rather school's quality but nonetheless good eraser. Biggest distadvantage - diameter of lead is pretty big for retractable eraser which makes it not that perfect for details. It's retract system works as in mechanical pencil but when pressing lead it goes back in (but not that easily). Also it has to be turned with opening down to make lead retract. Cover is sturdy though. For unknown reason - rubber part responsible for easy grip is pretty hard and smooth which doesn't really improve grip at all.

5. Derwent Eraser-Pen 

Lead profile: round (7mm in diameter)

Lead lenght: 91 mm

Hardness: +++
Smudge: none
Cover's sturdiness: +++++
Price: ~2,5€/3,5$/10 PLN; leads (pack of 2):~1,5€/2$/6 PLN
Really high quality of whole product - both lead as  plastic cover. Hardness of lead is comparable with one of leads in number 1 which makes it my current favorite (together with number 1). Lead is long lasting, doesn't smudge and doesn't break. I really recommend this one. Again - retracting mechanism as in mechanical pencils.

6. Staedtler Retractable Eraser

Lead profile: rectangle (10mm x 20mm)

Lead lenght: 55 mm

Hardness: +++
Smudge: none
Cover's sturdiness: +++
Price: ~2€/3$/8 PLN

This one is probably most weird for me since it's really big eraser that without a reason was made retractable (probably to lift price). It's really good eraser but because of its' size it doesn't really need cover. I use to erase bigger areas, big plus is possibility to lock position of eraser in cover. Lead is longer than cover so even in 0 position lead is still peeking out of cover (which makes it easy to get it dirty in bag or pencil case). It is bit useless but I still like it a lot : )

Erasing test for each of those erasers for different hardness of leads.
First 3 ('blue') are traditional pencils with wooden covering of lead inside.
The ones written in red are leads for mechanical pencils - from top: 2 mm F, 0.7 mm 2B, 0.3 mm B and 5 mm 2B.
Visibly on this test all of them work really well (I pressed pencils hard into paper to make as deep colour as possible, except last one), except numer 2 which left really well visible smudges. Also numer 5 smudged a little but it doesn't do it usually (but as you can see, it is possible).

Thank you for reading, I hope you will find this overview helpful!