Customer Reviews

Philips Sonicare Xtreme Power Toothbrush (Blue)

5 star:		(123)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

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.

Too many reviews;
I'll do this one in Haiku!
Let's dive into it.

Saw all prior views
of Sonicare customers
Amazon provides.

Key to the debate:
whether cheaper is better,
or price wins the day.

Higher on dollars --
e7300 ("e seventy-three hundred") --
link given below.
Philips Sonicare Elite e7300 Power Toothbrush

Then there is this brush.
Cheaper, with features to match
(save only a few).

We bought both brushes,
one each for my wife and me.
Experimented.

Used both Sonicares.
Brushed ev'ry night, she and I.
Same treatment, same care.

Endlessly we sparred.
Three months later, here we are.
One emerged victor.

Three months was too much --
for the cheaper brush was crushed.
Suddenly it died.

No water damage,
no mishandling, no neglect.
It just died -- kaput!

Here is my advice:
for relability
shun the cheaper brush.

Yet consider this:
THAT costs three times more than THIS.
It should give you pause.

Seems the math is thus:
THREE times failed before we must
declare one the best.

For is this not true:
fail three times before I do
end up losing out?

The price of one though
more reliable, cannot
beat the other's cost.

Friend, it's up to you.
Buy the best or try for two;
Less than three duds wins!

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.

Great product, and there's no problem with the batteries if you take some minimal care. Read on...

I'm a traveling consultant, and I've had two of these 3000-series toothbrushes over more than a hundred trips over the past two years -- only because the first was damaged during a trip to India. I stopped using my previous regular Sonicare unit because these work very very well, and with a pair of rechargeables, I get the benefit of both worlds.

Power and performance -- The brush head action feels the same as my older Sonicare. This is to say, strong and thorough with no complaints at all. The 3000 has a 2min timer and not the quadpacer control, but I don't miss it. As set of alkaline batteries lasts me for a month or more, while 2300mah NiMH AA's last 1-2 weeks between charges.

Maintenance -- The skreechy complaints from previous reviewers about the battery compartment leaking water and destroying batteries are nonsense. Let's get real here: the 3000 is not the same design as the sealed-cell Sonicare units, and the fact that it has electrical contacts in an open-able compartment is not a design flaw (as some have declared). In fact, I find this unit to be quite well-designed and simple, but it does need a little bit of care. Anyone who has used an underwater camera case or gone diving already knows how to take care of water gaskets, but for the uninitiated: Dry gaskets do not provide a perfect seal on *any* product. In order to seal out water, the battery compartment gasket needs to be prepared before the first use, by swabbing a little bit of Vaseline or similar on all sides of the gasket surface. This will eventually degrade the gasket (lithium grease would be more appropriate), but it's worked fine for more than a year on this last one. If I were hostile, I would take away a star because Philips/Sonicare should provide a small packet of gasket grease in the box, but other than that, it works perfectly after lots and lots of use.

I totally agree with the first review. We have a Sonicare and got this "Xtreme" for my 14 year old son to encourage more teeth-brushing (and not having to use ours!). He has braces as well, and it works great. I wanted to especially mention the batteries because this works a lot better than having to replace worn Sonicare batteries. (plus, you don't have to plug it in; much easier to take on trips). This model is just as powerful as the other Sonicares, btw, but at a MUCH better price.
The colors are fun; maybe it will help your kid with teeth brushing. Can't hurt, right?

For the two weeks or so that it worked, the Sonicare Xtreme e3000 did a nice job cleaning my teeth. Then it stopped working. The problem seemed to be in the on/off switch. I sent it back to the company, which refunded my purchase price a couple of months later.

This brush is awesome. I've had mine for well over a year now and it is still going strong. The other reviewers that speak of the water getting into the battery compartment; they are correct, it is a poorly designed watertight compartment and the rubber o-ring does tend to stop sealing correctly after you change the batteries out one or more times. However, I have come up with a very simple solution: when you first get the toothbrush, remove the end cap and lubricate the o-ring with plumbers grease. Granted, I'm sure alot of you do not have plumbers grease handy and if that is the case, petroleum jelly will work just as well. Make sure you apply liberally to the o-ring all the way around and once you place the cap back on, you can wipe any excess from the outside. Voila, now you have a watertight seal that actually seals.