Ordinarily, I have really great luck with store brands and knock offs. In this case, that idea didn't pay off. I bought some Equate brand (Wal-Mart's store brand) compatible toothbrush replacements, "Sonic Smile". They were nearly $10 less than the $25-27 price tag on the Sonicare brush replacements.
I got them home, popped one in and knew immediately this was a mistake. I can't tell you exactly what the problem is engineering-wise, but here's what happened. I turned it on and the noise was really really loud...a loud clacking vibration...and when I put the toothbrush in my mouth, the actual bristle portion had very little vibration going on at all...it was all in the handle. So it was super loud and like brushing with a regular brush. Well, THAT'S not gonna work.
I examined it. First of all, the Sonicare design has a small notch in the inside of the head that slides into a groove in the base...like a guide. This holds the brush head in place so it doesn't spin around (not spin so much as shift). Also the Sonicare must have a tighter fit between the magnetic base and the handle so that the vibration carries up to the bristles vs staying in the base at the connection level.
I read a bit online and the loud sound is the biggest complaint. Not sure if others noticed that the bristles barely vibrate too.
Luckily, Wal-Mart has a very generous return policy so I returned them (told him not to reshelve it since it had been in my mouth...hopefully that didn't happen...or...you're welcome...enjoy my spit)...AHAHAHAHA. No...couldn't happen...I inihilated the package trying to get into it.
So I bucked up and bought the ridiculously-priced Sonicare brush replacements. This is my second Sonicare toothbrush. I will give serious consideration to not buying another because it's just dumb to pay that much for a toothbrush...I'll go back to the cave days and get a plain-Jane, garden variety toothbrush at the dollar store and wiggle it around really fast...I'll never know the difference :-)
I was put off by the price of those too, and then found a Safeway brand one for less than $10, and the replacements aren't bad either. It is not rechargeable, you have to use batteries, but they last a long time, so that cost is not bad either. I have had a couple of them and been happy with them.
ReplyDeleteIf you have time, send me a link so I know exactly which toothbrush you're talking about. I'll run this one till the battery will no longer recharge, but then I need to figure something else out. I ain't made of money :-)
ReplyDeleteCan't find a link, but I found my first one in the Baker store, which is much smaller than ours, and then here. It is just a Safeway electric toothbrush, and they have replacement heads too, but I think other types of replacement heads work too. If I remember next time I'm there I'll take a pic on my phone to send you.
ReplyDeletecool! Gotta love technology. I just bought a new (cheap) phone that has a camera on it. A. I'm not sure how to take a photo with it and B. I'm not sure how to upload said photo once I've done that.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I just have a prepaid phone through Verizon and it is a cheap one too that has all kinds of bells and whistles I don't use. Apparently I can surf the web, but I'll be damned if I know how. I did figure out the phone part (for the most part, because sometimes I forget to "save" the photo after I take it). To 'upload, I just send a picture message to my email and then save it to my computer. I know there is a way to plug it into my computer, but this is working for me, so why mess with it, right.
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