How to maximise the life of an electric toothbrush?

Mrs_Money

This may sound very odd - but we've had a few electric toothbrushes over the years - they don't really last very long so aren't all that green in my view (but we really need them as dentist has advised - and he's right).
After a couple of years they don't really hold a charge any more - i.e. if they are charged up over night they'll be okay in the morning, but by nightime they are a bit flat and gutless!
Other than leaving them on charge all the time - def don't want to do that - is there any other way to preserve their life? They are too expensive to keep buying and throwing them away is def not green

Toothsmith

It's more about how you preserve the life of a rechargable battery. Toothbrushes still have quite 'old fashioned' rechargables in them, not the newer flashy lithium polymer batteries.

Don't charge it up too often. Let it get right down to the last bar before you recharge it.

Every few months, run it to a total discharge. Keep it going until it won't go at all, then give it a good long charge. (This can be quite a pain when they turn off after 2 mins anyway!)

Having said all that, the brushing action is at it's best when fully charged.

So - the choice is between preserving the battery life, or maximum brushing efficiancy.

Ben84

I bought an oral-b brush for about £12 (half price offer, they have them fairly often) and have had it around six years. The battery is getting a bit old now, doesn't last a full week any more, but I think it has lasted well. Probably because I let it run down quite often before charging again. For some reason UK houses rarely have shaver sockets in the bathroom, so I'm always forgetting to charge it until it's flat.

You can often revive ni-cad batteries by charging them as much as possible, running them until completely flat, then repeating this one or two times. They suffer from a problem called memory effect, where charging before fully empty makes the capacity seem much smaller than it is.

When the battery does fail I'm going to try opening it and replacing the battery before I throw it away. I'm hoping it has a standard battery pack of some type and I can simply add a couple of new rechargables. The manual says you can open it to remove the battery for disposal as hazardous waste, but that it breaks the toothbrush. Quite why it can't be replacable I don't know. My brush might be old technology, but it cleans my teeth very well and could last a few more years. I'm kind of sceptical about the fancy models anyway, they all seem to take the same brush heads, so I wonder just how much difference the base can make? Is it not just a motor to move the bristles?