Comments on: Philips Sonicare Toothbrush Rubbish Product

By: EngrJohn

EngrJohn — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:10:12 +0000

My Sonicare was purchased in April of 2004 – $101. It is the same as the one pictured except the batteries inside are labeled Ni-Cd. The case actually split apart with a screwdriver as the owners manual instructed, but it is was not easy. The two batteries (and everything else) is anchored in transparent green glue. I was wondering if there was an easy way to soften the glue! Other than the batteries, another problem has been the brush mechanism. The welding/brazing holding the torsion spring failed on several of my brushes as well as the magnets coming loose. At over $10 per brush, Norelco could give the brush away and make money..

By: sonicare for kids

sonicare for kids — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:48:45 +0000

Normally I don’t learn post on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, quite nice article.

By: pj

pj — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:23:50 +0000

I agree that the new generation Sonicare brushes are rubbish. I purchased a dual set 3 years ago and both stopped working the same day! My previous sonic tooth brush lasted almost 10 years -this was one hand held unit, used daily by 2 people. Philips certainly has the technology to make units last longer that 3 years, shame on them for producing such crap.

By: ancient

ancient — Thu, 12 May 2011 03:40:42 +0000

can anyone help the guy with the loose pin scenario ?

By: PDFarthing

PDFarthing — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:51:23 +0000

The pin that the brush heads snap on to is loose. Any ideas about tightening this part without opening the handle? Thanks.

By: ancient

ancient — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:03:34 +0000

8 years and its nicads inside ? your is due to die then lol :) the regime you operate for charging and discharging must be supreme, in order to keep it alive that long ?

By: WTF_Dude_

WTF_Dude_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:18:16 +0000

jeez, your toothbrush only lasted 3 years, burn the factory to the ground!
I’ve had one for about 8 years, uses 2 AA batteries.
I just dropped it and it quit working (that’s why I’m here).

Brushing manually is just not comparable
Nor are the ‘grinder’ type ‘automatic’ toothbrushes.

Time to fire up the dremel.

By: ancient

ancient — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:47:25 +0000

Theyre recomendation of putting the toothbrush on the charger everytime would in fact further reduce the charge time of a nicad battery as you correctly state. Nimh’s would not be so harmed by constant charging, and is an example of how people on helplines can feed misinformation, these people are not experts, theyre just your average joe paid a meagre salary for not much but following a script. Nicads need deep cycling to prevent them degrading, yet at the same time not many batterys benefit from being drained to an absolutely empty state. Also all batterys as they are chemical technology will degrade over time, as such access to the batterys is vital from an environmental perspective.

you were a lucky case, im guessing youre in the US ? the truth is this, one good example of customer service does not great customer service make, the majority of people here received bad service, and a bad product. And the issue is not just about whether you had your toothbrush replaced, which is of purely personal benefit to yourself. Where do you think your old toothbrush went ? Landfill, I doubt philips bothered to repair it, the point is design as philips did, with this toothbrush was bound to waste environmental resources and create pollution.

the flaws with the toothbrush design were the following.

They used nicad batterys in the manufacturing at a point when nimh were standard > FAIL
They sealed the batterys into the case with a glued case design, and also glued and soldered the batterys into said case, making it completely non user serviceable, thereby reducing its lifespan, thereby wasting resorces and creating pollution > FAIL

The attitude that philips displayed in these choices is typical of large biligirent corporates nowadays, and it will not do, Apples lack of battery access is also equally poor design.

By: happy sonicare user

happy sonicare user — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:18:04 +0000

they suggest that you put the toothbrush on the charger every time you finish brushing. I don’t know why they recommend that, from what I know, if you keep recharging, it will actually shortern most rechargeable batteries’ life.

anyway, this toothbrush may not last long, philips does provide excellent customer service. Here is what happened to me.

My sonicare loses its power really quick. If I charge it for one day, use it once, and forget to put it back on the charger again. I can’t use it again.

So I decided to call philips customer service. they first instructed me how to reset the battery power, but it didn’t work. So I called again, they decided to send me a new snoicare toothbrush. I just got it today! ;) brand new, the whole case just like the package you will get from the store. And they also send me a fedex prepaid label, so I can send back the old toothbrush for quality control.

So if your snoicare stops working in less than two years, you should definitely contact philips.

By: Valentine Szmalc

Valentine Szmalc — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:38:47 +0000

I normally dont spend time to drop a comment, however it is difficult to find good information on this topic today. You did a fantastic job in this article and I may just go read your other blog posts now. Keep up the good work!