Repairing a Philips Sonicare toothbrush

Thanks - I've saved a copy of that for future reference.

Good to know that the Sonicare ones are disassemble-able. Had to bin an Oral-B because the battery wore out and it's impossible to get into them to replace it without destroying the waterproofing.

Theo

I shifted from Oral-B to Philips, but (I'm happy to say) I have yet to see how long the batteries will last.

P.S. I see toothbrushes and shavers which 'justify' high prices by having a whole list of bells and whistles (why do I need a bluetooth shaver?). Has anyone ever _used_ any of these bells & whistles after a day or so of playing with the new toy?

I've replaced the battery in a Braun. It was quite a while ago but I think I slightly warmed the bottom end and then used the lug on the charging base to turn it slightly and release the "bayonet type" fixing. Care is needed because the pick-up coil is attached to the base. The Sonicare is much easier, and the pick-up coil is attached to the assembly that slides out.

A friend of mine is looking for a new washing machine. At least she has the good sense to question why you would need to pay a lot more to control it via blutooth/wi-fi when you can press a few buttons when loading the machine by hand. How many special wash programs does the average user actually select? She is also aware that some of the brand names of the past are exactly that - just brand names and various "different" brands may be made in the same factory but sold at different price points based on misplaced customer loyalty and perceived past quality.

I have one of those, there's an app that can record analytics of brushing times and pressures. I never bothered setting it up. Somebody did an open source Python script which I tried for 5 minutes.

I think the brush only reports live data and doesn't store 'sessions', so the app has to be running at the time and close by - you can't just download the last week of brushing to find out your 'scores'. Which might potentially be useful in a nag-yourself-to-brush-longer kind of way.

I only bought it because it has a lithium battery, while the cheaper ones were NiMH which had poor performance when partially charged.

(Tip: buy open-box returns on ebay, sterilise the brush and fit a new head to it, and it's half the price of a new unit)

Although this is a neat way to keep your 5 year interested in oral care:

Good post but hopefully I won’t need the advice for some time. ;-)

As an aside, I’ve just moved from an rotary oscillating head electric toothbrush to an Ordo Sonic brush and although I don’t much care for the potential mess from splattered drool, my teeth have never felt cleaner. When it comes to cleaning the sonic ones seem to be in another class altogether. Wish I had changed sooner.

Tim

I have opened ones that have had a more substantial issues - the seal around the pushbutton splitting, then letting water in and the contact failing. I opened them more out of interest than to effect a repair. I was not particularly careful, but the reassembly really would not have been the reverse operation. :-(

There are a few bodies available on ebay, and I have had reasonable success with them.

One failed, in days, much as you describe, so I claimed for a refund.

The seller initially withheld £20, claiming that it "Wasn't one of his". Since he was selling them as "Genuine Sonicare", I was ready to argue that he could not have any knowledge of what was inside the one he sold me, but ebay stepped in and I got a full refund.

Chris

I use both but agree the sonic brushes do seem to work better. I use a Phillips sonic one (30,000 brush oscillations per minute) which was purchased during one of the regular half price offers for around £35.

I tend to use both types in rotation - use the rotary while the sonic is re-charging. The rotary one is coming towards the end of its life and doesn't seem to be hanging on to it's charge. It will not be replaced with another rotary brush.