Review (3/5): Doesn't hold charge as long as claimed
I've had this Oral-B Smartseries 4000 Professional Care electric toothbrush since June, 2012. The charge has never lasted more than 10-11 uses of two minutes apiece. The owner's manual claims that a full charge will give you 20 uses of two minutes each use. That's two times what I actually get. AND, it takes in excess of 13 hours for the brush to fully charge. I say 13+ hours because I set it on the charge cord when I get the red low charge light, and the elapsed time I observed that the re-charge lights are still flashing is 13 hours. Full charge occurred some time after that during the night. The 3 green re-charging lights go off after a full charge.
The brush head that comes with this unit has odd little paddles and different bristles, and is a little rough on my gums, so I use a spare one I had for my 10+ year-old Oral-B electric toothbrush. I don't really use any of the fancy additional settings, just the basic 2-minute, and it cleans very well. I only changed out because the rechargeable battery on the old one was finally giving out, and wasn't accessible to replace. WARNING, if you open the battery compartment before the warranty is up, the instruction booklet states, "Caution! Opening the handle will destroy the appliance and invalidate the warranty." As little charge as I get on this, I wonder if it will last for the two years?
Three stars for the sucky battery life and lack of ability to replace without destroying the unit. But it does clean my teeth very well!