2d ago

You Can’t Even Replace The Battery in the “Green” Suri Toothbrush

www.ifixit.com

Suri claims its toothbrush is repairable—but not by you

24 comments

I've had a Philips Sonicare brush for ten years at this point. Do they just not make them well anymore, or did I just luck out? I only need to charge it like once very month or two.
- I bought one recently and this still seems to be the case.
- How often do you brush?
  I guess ours last about 7 or 8 years before they start noticeably degrading. I certainly have to charge at least once a month, though.
  Years and years ago, we started with Sonicare, and when that died I got an Oral-B. It was categorically worse, and my dentist even noticed. So I went back to Sonicare. My wife never switched.
  Sonicare's QC is very poor. My wife's been lucky, but I went through two Airflosses in as many years before I stopped getting them; the first died within the warranty and I got an exchange; the second, just after the warrantee expired.
  My current Sonicare is about 5 years old, and the battery is holding up, but about a year after I got it it developed a loose part in the head and it is super noisy; like, you can tell I'm using it from across the house. My wife's is the same age and is almost silent, so I think it's just a QC issue.
  However, to stay in topic: the batteries in these are also not-self-serviceable. Is there an electric toothbrush whose battery is?
  
  It's a loose loctited (red) screw that holds the brush head handle in place, bunch of videos on YouTube how to fix it. Bit of a PITA to get it open - but I cleaned, tightened and loctited again the crap out of it and going another 3 years strong since that fix.
  
  That is fantastic, thank you! It's not so bad I considered replacing it - almost nothing short of complete failure or battery death will prompt me to buy a new one - but it'd be awesome to fix the noise issue.
  I didn't even think about looking for a fix. IME, they're basically glued together, and I didn't consider they'd have any accessible screws.
  
  1-2/day, using the default 2-minute routine. I do not leave it on the charger after using it. I only charge when it does the little vibrate pattern indicating a need to.
  
  Yeah, me too. You got lucky, or I've been unlucky!
  
  I have an oral b IO9 that I just replaced the battery with a new 14500
  
  Did you have to crack it, or is it user serviceable?
  
  It’s in a weird spot where if you’d ask Oral B they’d probably say it’s not replaceable. But in practice it’s as simple as the old electric brushes that took AA batteries to change.
  https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Oral-B+iO+Battery+Replacement/136696

24 comments