When I first heard of Sonicare coming out with a toothbrush with replaceable batteries, I was excited. I upgraded to this from the Sonicare Advance after it failed to hold a charge any longer. With the other Sonicares, you have to throw the whole unit out if the batteries inside die. With these you just change out the batteries. I liked them so much I bought 2. Now after 3 months, both of them have already died. The end cap where you replace the batteries is not water tight. The O-ring that seals the battery compartment is not made very well. There are also 2 holes at the bottom of the toothbrush next to the metal clip on the endcap, which I believe is a design flaw. Although Sonicare sent me replacement units, I believe these replacements will also only last a few months. This is a great toothbrush for brushing, except they need to send it back to the design stage for the water resistant problem.
Yipee, I'm the "first to review this product". I'm doing so to save you time and eyestrain. Put yourself out of web-reading Hell, and just buy this Sonicare Xtreme model now.
It costs less, does the exact same job as the more expensive Sonicare models, and the best part: The Xtreme runs on 2 regular AA batteries, avoiding the one problem you'll see mentioned in many user comments of all the other Sonicares, that of short battery life w/no way to replace the rapidly dying built-in ones.
Sonicare told me this model runs at the same speed etc, and does the job every bit as well as their higher-end ones, but lacks the following non-essential features:
No beeps every 30secs, no battery life indicator, and no soft start (a slower speed that's programmed in for its initial 12 uses).
This model uses the E-series of replacement brush heads, same as the high-end models.
I was told by Sonicare to expect 80-100 uses per set of alkalines.
If you don't want to keep buying batteries, get yourself a set of 4 AA rechargeable batteries and charger, and you'll be set for years. You'll also be able to take advantage of longer run times as longer-lived rechargeables come on the market (this happens about every year).
I have one, and see no negatives to its design at all. -And a bonus- You can store it horizontally (no charging stand to deal with), and it even has a little no-roll ridge on the back of the handle. Nice.
Do not base your purchase decision on any reviewer who has had the product for only a day, two days, or even a week. My Sonicare Xtreme e3000 brush died about 3 weeks after first use. All owners of this brush will, sooner and probably not much later, find that water will invade the battery compartment and corrode the metal contacts and your batteries. That's what happened to mine and, after reading other reviews here and elsewhere, apparently is also happening to all other users of this brush. The O-Ring rubber seal suffers a design flaw and cannot maintain a water-tight seal. It's very obvious from the moment you first install the batteries...the bottom cap just will not seal tight enough! This product needs to be recalled by the manufacturer and Amazon needs to stop selling this garbage. I'm assuming that I'd be better off if I had instead bought one of Sonicare's reachargeable brushes with the sealed battery.
This item worked wonderfully for about 1 month, then water must have gotten into it or the battery connection went bad. I would have to change the battery every week, later, realizing it was not the batteries but the connection.
A cheap replacement for the real thing.
As a former owner of a Sonicare 7500 Elite, I can tell you definitively that this unit is LESS powerful, but in and of itself, plenty sufficient to keep your pearly whites plenty pearly white. It actually (on the surface) has some advantages: My 7500 died after about 3 years. It seemed that it could no longer hold a charge. This unit uses replaceable AA batteries, and being quite fond of rechargeables, this for me is a good match. (Another reviewer mentioned she had problems with 1.2V rechargeables vs. 1.5V standard batteries. I have had no such problems with my 1.2V's. Been running on the same set (same charge) well over 2 weeks now and still going strong. Curious. Hmm...).
That being said, I absolutely CANNOT believe some of the MAJOR design flaws that are absolutely MORONIC and baffling. 1) The battery cap at the bottom of the unit does not seal very tightly. The interior black ring is made of some slick "plastic-y" material instead of a better sealing "rubber-y" material. 2)(And THIS is the incredibly MORONIC part) At the bottom of this orange battery sealing cap, there are 2 HOLES! YES, REALLY! Somebody on the Sonicare/Philips industrial design team thought it was a good ideal to design into this "sealing" cap TWO holes so that water can get into the battery chamber when you rinse the foam off of your electric toothbrush everytime you use it (presumably every single day).
Does water actually leak into this battery chamber? I took my batteries out and tested it. Yes indeed water gets in here. Now, it blows my mind that this can pass the designers, the execs, the production line and everyone in between and after, and reach you and me, the consumers. It blows my mind that someone got paid a goodly amount of money to make this happen. Then again, MORONS in high places seems rather commonplace these days (ha ha). Now, what does this mean to me and you. I'm fairly sure that 1.5 Volts won't ZAP! us into a coma, but I think we all know that batteries and water = NOT GOOD ... or even = RATHER BAD. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even a highly paid toothbrush designer ...
My solution so far has been to use some very sticky tape over this area. It makes the otherwise fairly spiffy design a tad less pretty, but I'd rather have that than rusty and leaky (and useless) rechargeable batteries (they aren't cheap! ... and after all, the point is "re-use-ability" and "re-new-ability", is it not?). Even with this precaution, I check this chamber now and then, and water still gets in (and toothpaste foam, too). Not by the buckets full, but enough noticeable traces to make one wonder.
Now, I know it's not a matter of prohibitive cost, because I have used [...]-pola Crest battery toothbrushes that have found a better way of sealing off the batteries. What I suggest is that we all rather politely let Sonicare/Philips know of what we all now know, and ask them to design a new cap, and quietly send them out to all current owners. No need for a Ford or GM major recall type scandal. Just get it done and send us that piece that will cost Sonicare/Philips less than 50 cents to make and ship.
Thanks for reading, and be warned. Also know that with the right precautions, this can be a good little enamel scrubber. Except for this one major issue, it's pretty nifty and nicely priced (about 1/3 of the 7500 Elite).
Cheers!
URGENT UPDATE: FORGET THIS PRODUCT!!! In fact, run the other way! My unit died just very shortly after this review. The water leak problem proved unavoidable and did eventually short out the circuitry. Totally useless and maddening. Horrible. Too bad I can't edit the stars for the review (can I?). It would be a resounding ZERO stars. One positive note: Even though it was briefly past the warranty period, Philips offered a return for refund, which I took. The check arrived in reasonable time. AND the customer service person I spoke with was extremely nice and helpful. - Sonic Toothbrushes - Sonicare - Battery Powered - Electric Toothbrush'
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