Review (3/5): Great brush, some drawbacks
Update: I am lowering my rating to 3 stars because of the difficulty and expense of finding and buying replacement heads. I couldn't find any for quite some time. I've since found some online, not on Amazon, but from a low of $19.99 (but out of stock) to more than $25 for a single head. The difficulty and cost makes buying this brush too impractical, which is too bad because I like the unit.
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The toothbrush I reviewed is the similar model, EW-DE92. I was taken to this page when I tried to post my review.
First, and most important, I love the way this brush cleans my teeth. Using the "white" mode, they feel nice and fresh and thoroughly cleansed. According to the owner's guide, some people can feel that slight electric charge, the ionic feature, when using the brush, and I am one of those people. However, it is extremely mild and not the least unpleasant.
I like that there are various settings on this brush although I use "white" most often. The gum brush may be useful but I don't use it as routinely as suggested because it just doesn't feel like it is doing much for me. I do like to use the little pointy rubber head but again, not as often as the regular head. I do like the tongue cleaner on this brush.
Which brings me to one of the drawbacks. I cannot seem to find replacement heads for this product. I looked on Amazon and I went to the Panasonic site with no success. I went to the same model toothbrush on both sites and there are no links to the replacement heads. I wanted to order some in advance so I would have then when needed. Perhaps this is a new model and replacement heads will become widely available, but this toothbrush is expensive to begin with, and much more so if heads cannot be found.
Compared to my basic but rechargeable Philips Sonicare toothbrush, this one is nicer to hold because the handle is much slimmer. The Sonicare seems to have a more robust brushing action, but this one seems to get my teeth just as clean, perhaps marginally cleaner.
The charger seems to work well. I took the brush on a 10-day trip and chanced not taking the charger with me, and I had no loss of power during that trip. It seems to hold its charge quite well.
But there is a downside to the charger too. According to the manual again, the lithium battery lasts about 3 years. When the battery is dead, I am supposed to "Contact an authorized service center for repair." Now that is just not practical and probably not cheap, and this toothbrush costs too much to not be able to replace the battery without service costs.
One more drawback is the storage of the various heads. This set comes with a little stand to store the heads, but none of the heads have a protective cover and the storage stand does not have a cover, so the heads are sitting out in the bathroom air, something I don't like at all. The travel case holds the handle and one head but not the extra heads. My cheaper Sonicare has a plastic cap that comes with each head to protect it.
While I think this is a very good toothbrush, the drawbacks need to be fixed before I would consider getting another one. At current prices, this one costs more than twice my Sonicare, and while this one has more bells and whistles, I don't believe the price difference is justified.