Electric Toothbrushes for family use

sobeitjedi

Anyone tried Ordo , Colgate Hum or Spotlight ?

amanda1024

Another vote for the Oral-B range from me. I find the battery lasts well over a week - but dividing that by five people is still only a few days, I'm not sure it's realistic to expect a toothbrush to last longer than that since they're generally designed just for one or two people. I found the ones with a removable battery don't work as well. Boots do currently have a sale on - e.g. the Vitality Pro is £25: https://www.boots.com/oral-b-vitality-pro-blue-electric-rechargeable-toothbrush-10331086 or 2 for £40: https://www.boots.com/oral-b-vitality-pro-black-white-electric-rechargeable-toothbrushes-duo-pack-10318170 (having two would mean the battery would last twice as long); or if you really need the pressure sensor, the Pro 1 is £35: https://www.boots.com/oral-b-pro-1-cross-action-blue-10331085. The heads are still fairly expensive so I tend to look for bulk-buying options - e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oral-B-Precision-Electric-Toothbrush-Bristles/dp/B0C1H6SM8S

Emmia

sobeitjedi said:

Anyone tried Ordo , Colgate Hum or Spotlight ?

Are you specifically only interested in sonic brushes?

sobeitjedi

Emmia said:

sobeitjedi said:

Anyone tried Ordo , Colgate Hum or Spotlight ?

Are you specifically only interested in sonic brushes?

No, I'm interested in all electric toothbrushes 

sstevo19

sobeitjedi said:

sstevo19 said:

Also, every Tuesday Boots do a £10 offer and it almost always includes a pack of 4 Oral B brush heads (non iO range) 

The non-IO range don't fit the IO brush

What I meant was, get a duo pack of the Pro 3 brushes, then use the £10 Tuesday offer to get the heads for it 😅

Emmia

sobeitjedi said:

Emmia said:

sobeitjedi said:

Anyone tried Ordo , Colgate Hum or Spotlight ?

Are you specifically only interested in sonic brushes?

No, I'm interested in all electric toothbrushes 

That's interesting, the IO and all the ones you link to are sonic brushes - hence the question.

Kim_13

I would caution against Oral B Pro 1's, the battery life of that line seems to have declined over the past decade. I would recommend the Pro 3, by far the best battery life I've had since my original Pro 1, but I haven't wanted to move away from Oral B as the heads are very reasonably priced overall and it would have been a waste of the stock of them I had having bought when they were on offer. The Pro 3 is my 5th Oral B toothbrush, the first 4 were as follows:

I was given a Pro 1 for Christmas 2012. Loved it and when I was going to be away for two nights, I didn't even think about taking the charger. I would never have had the confidence to do this with my next two Pro 1's.

As I had had a good experience with the Pro 1, I bought another in mid 2018 as it was on offer and the battery on mine was showing its age. No complaints about this after 5 and a half years use, as it isn't top of the range or anything. 

I bought another Pro 1 in February 2021.  The battery of the second had never been exactly great but I assumed I'd just got a not so good unit. 

By June 2023, the battery of this Pro 1 was absolutely diabolical and needed replacing moreso than the previous two when they had been replaced. I decided at this point that the Pro 1 just wasn't so great anymore, and bought the Kids one. It was important to me to spend sub £50 and that it had the charging indicator - and I liked the purple. 

The battery of this was never great, but it hadn't annoyed me enough to replace. I moved it out of the bathroom while there was COVID in the house and managed to misplace it. Looked for it for over a week with no success and then bought the Pro 3. Of course I then found it and have since used it whenever the Pro 3 is charging, as it can take a day for a full charge - no more manual brushing for me. If you can get a pack of two for a decent price I would advise this, especially as there are five of you. 

As far as heads go, my Pro 1's twice came with a 3D White head and once with a Precision Clean one. My Pro 3 came with a Cross Action head and the Kids one with a Sensitive Clean head.

I would recommend the Sensitive Clean head for younger children and the Precision Clean for older ones. Either 3D White or Cross Action for the adults depending on your preference. 

Most Oral B brushes will take the full suite of heads, so you just need to make sure you aren't getting one of the few that will only take a specific and more expensive head (the io ones I believe.)

Edited to add: Oral B make pink, turquoise, yellow and blue rings and you get one of each per 4 pack, though sometimes an 8 pack have come with a colour duplicated rather than two complete sets. These can be removed when disposing of a head so that everyone keeps their colour. If the kids were using Sensitive Clean/Precision Clean and the adults the 3D White/Cross Action, there are enough combinations to tell everyone’s heads apart. 

The Pro 1 doesn’t have pressure sensitivity, but the Pro 3 does (and presumably any higher number within the Pro line.)

Toothsmith

I don't have an issue with a few people sharing a toothbrush motor and all having a head each. Seems sensible to me - so long as you know who's is who and clean down the handle.

As others have said though, 5 people brushing for 2 mins a time twice a day is 20 mins a day toothbrush use.

I have an iO to myself and probably get just under a week out of it brushing twice a day for between 2-3 mins so I would guess I get a 25-30 min run time per charge. So I am a bit surprised/concerned that you're getting 2-3 days from yours.


Also as others have said - stick with the Braun Oral B range, just go down range a bit. They are the best electric brush.

If the iO still has decent life in it, then why not you & your partner stick with that one, and get the kids a new one from the cheaper Oral B range. I'd generally say look for one at £50-60 normal RRP that's on a half price offer. There's always somewhere doing a half price offer, and that means you'll spend £25-30 on it.

Just make sure you get proper Oral B heads for it (The pound shop compatible ones really are rubbish) Which can also often be picked up in bulk if you see them on a supermarket offer.

If you had 2 motors, then the queue at toothbrushing time wouldn't be so fraught, and everyone could spend a decent time on the brushing.

Floss

I have an OralB one & use heads from Home Bargains - pack of 4 Wisdom ones is £3.49

Toothsmith

Floss said:

I have an OralB one & use heads from Home Bargains - pack of 4 Wisdom ones is £3.49

I'm really not a big fan of the cheap heads. The bristles are harder, and long term, could do more damage to your gums & teeth than the proper Oral B ones

You can find decent deals on the proper ones - which I know that at £2 a head is still over double the Home Bargains price - but for something that lasts 10-12 weeks, I'd still say this was worth if - especially if you factor in possible tooth damage caused by cheaper ones.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oral-B-Electric-Toothbrush-X-Shape-Bristles/dp/B0C1H3KJ2C/ref=sr_1_5?crid=15KZT2GIG8DZ6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.thwrm6n_PRvkbnIEK3m9vY6HGjFGFybppfeqOiUKdGPsTTbFtFfG7XkfoaSW5VE_eshzScJ2LjtQ1hWOaKFZ1KAgUgKytpRuNfuoILDGrcyomQimJy7MtB1ivNUvSxigaPP6VW0HnD2_ADVDGOhceXAqcrQAElQNWhr9RcUPBDwID1CrlQ_tM-P11rhG8rwg9w48iqiWvrQ-7bhVGAnQZgngPSY_hvZb4tzp3406NYtYUAuA5wfjquPgpG8dOzrP4yZdEDdhSJ0tZEEQ1BmD1w2wrwSWzXimn5ku_YX-aDU.uqofzMjRv69Fh4sMUezJcLyCPyBNbmdjDoqBtlDXghY&dib_tag=se&keywords=oral+b+heads&qid=1710850616&sprefix=oral+b+heads%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-5