Trials and tribulations of buying a new electric toothbrush
This morning, my old, Phillips, overnight charge, rechargeable battery, which lasted for an age, went wonky.
I suspect that the demise of this old friend, was mostly my fault/well, my Hygienists 😊.
I’m sat in the chair and apparently I’m not doing too badly, cleaning my teeth, but I have a feeling that it’s being toned down and that I’m borderline. I’m asked if I floss, to which I helpfully respond no 😊, because I’ve tried the string and because my teeth gaps are narrow, it gets stuck.
I have also tried the brush thingys and ditto.
Out to impress, I advise that I had bought a water jet, but what they don’t tell you, is that filling the tub using the cold water tap, results in the nerves in your teeth shouting STOP SPRAYING !
Par boiling a kettle, to warm, would just be too much of a faf and so this piece of equipment resides alongside a Breville toasted sandwich maker.
Obviously impressed with my time consuming, but comprehensive reply, she rather coldly/possibly impatiently says, “well, press the toothbrush harder then ! ”
And so, that is what I have subsequently done, probably to the detriment of my electric toothbrush, causing it’s wonkiness, failure to function and demise. I can’t floss so, over time and ham fistededly, I “pressed hard” and bugger up my electric toothbrush.
You’d think that finding a replacement would be a simple task of buying Phillips next gen toothbrush, but using Amazon as a starting point was not illuminating.
My now deceased old boy, cost about 40 quid, as I recall, but things have changed. The 3100 Phillips 3100, entry level starts at £55 quid.
I think, ‘well, that seems ok’, but apparently it’s takes 24 hours to charge ! Presumably, you are expected to miss one days, (twice a day) brushing ! It’s a gem init 😊, but wait reviews say that a charge will only last about a week ! In a month, that’s 4 days of not cleaning your teeth, in a year, 48 days !
Well, that’s just brilliant and there’s no way that I am lying below my Hygenist and giving that one a punt ! 😊.
One Amazon reviewer, a tad testily, says, “The new 3100 is terrible for battery life. How the manufacturers can possibly claim 14 days usage I do not know. I use it exactly as instructed (twice a day, for 2 minutes each) and it dies like clockwork on day 8.”
But, this is not an electric toothbrush review and so, onwards 😊.
I look at OralB and the same high prices, combined with some iffy reviews. Bloody hell, why is this so difficult ! ?
Ok, so, ‘what if’ and ‘I’m not gonna’, I go more expensive ?
And this is where we leave the world of just brushing your teeth and enter the twilight zone of ‘moronic’.
Seemingly, us, the public can’t think for ourselves and an app is needed for us to function, in the cleaning of our teeth ! Yep, Bluetooth (excuse the pun), and an app, to tell us how many times we clean our teeth, whether we spend 2 minutes (or 30 second/quarter mouth), pressure exerted etc, blah, blah.
A 3100 reviewer says, “…… It has the core features you need like a pressure sensor, brush head replacement reminder, timer and quad pacer, but there is no bluetooth/app connectivity or different brush modes – which to be honest may be exactly what you’re looking for.”
Hans Christian Anderson’s story of The Emperor’s New Clothes comes to mind.
https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html
Yep, seemingly, Homo sapiens are not advancing, instead advancing towards, not having to think and becoming a race of numb-nuts 😊.
I fear for generations following, who are being lead by various technologies, towards a reliance which dumbs down, seemingly encouraging less thinking, less self awareness, less common sense.
To conclude …
I messaged my bubble, asking her to see who Which recommend, whilst I used the web to check out Best Buy reviews and she came back with …
1 Phillips Sonicare 6100 £131
2 Oral B smart 5 5000 £75
3 Phillips Sonicare 9900 £300
During my Best Buy research, I chanced upon Ordo Sonic+ £50
https://www.techradar.com/reviews/ordo-sonic
Which I’ve just ordered.
This is not a recommendation, I’ve no idea how my new toothbrush will perform when it arrives, I’m not paid, it’s simply the outcome resulting from my old trusty electric toothbrush’s demise.
I want the toothbrush to brush my teeth, charge overnight, for the charge to last for weeks and to be reliable.
Doing my teeth twice a day is not fun. I don’t look forward to it joyfully. At one end of the day I’m semi comatose and at the other, want to get to bed and at no time do I want, have time or interest in seeking some form of performance analysis 😊.
Maybe bells and whistles appeal to some ……..bored, time on their hands, anally retentive – I don’t know 😊.
The problem is that those purchasing such unnecessarily expensive products, which probably won’t clean your teeth any better than a cheap one, is that it perpetuates the silly and the continuation of manufacturers price hikes.
Price is not necessarily an indicator of quality. Very often high prices simply indicate that the manufacturer wants to extend the product life cycle and profitability of a product, in the market, by adding the bizarre.
By buying what does the job and is reliable, you can send a message, by leaving the manufacturer with stocks of their silly and expensive.
Your message … by all means actually improve the product, but reliable quality at a sensible price, is what the market will buy.
My brief dip in to the electric toothbrush market, suggests that manufacturers are reducing their costs, by using cheaper batteries, (hence reviews of shorter battery lives) and increasing prices by adding shiny, irrelevant new stuff. Both measures are purely designed to increase profit.
For me, I just want to quickly, but effectively clean my teeth, without fannying around, post-mortem like, looking at an app, which isn’t going to tell me much that is useful, or that I didn’t already know.
Post, posting note …
It arrived in an Apple quality box, which oozed quality, but you have to mix that with save the planet stuff, so, good, but bad.
The toothbrush revs at 40,000, compared to the 60,000, of my old one, dunno what horsepower, or 0-60 mph, that is 
.
Its lighter than my old one and in terms of doing my teeth….it does that.
Its got mode options, the first 2 (White and Clean), are what you want the thing to do, as a given, so not sure and couldn’t be bothered to test the diff.
The 3rd (Massage), has a throbbing motion, which seems bizarre, but may be an attempt to provide multi functional use, in another, more personal, fun, market .
The 4th, (Sensitive), I can sort of understand.
When you repeatedly press the on button it cycles through the options, lighting them up.
I just want to clean my teeth, so I press ‘on’, once. There’s no app to fanny around with, so I’m appy
It charges overnight and its been over 2 weeks, since I first charged it.
Seems a goodun.
Trials and tribulations of buying a new electric toothbrush