Perfectly simple and functional battery powered toothbrush
Basic but functional, it helps do more of the work for you, to maximise plaque removal.
You can't really argue for the price, but if your budget can stretch, consider premium models.
Pros
- 1 cleaning mode
- Long battery life
- Small round brush head
- Low price
Cons
- No timer
- Stiff battery cover
- Long term cost
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Which other brushes should I consider?
If you are willing to consider a toothbrush with a built-in battery, we have put together list of the UK's best electric toothbrushes, which you should take a look at.
The current best all round electric toothbrush is the Oral-B Pro 3 3500. It delivers dentist recommended features at a good price.
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Design, usability, clean & general use
This is arguably the most powerful battery-powered toothbrush from the Oral-B range, and although it may lack in some of the features that other premium toothbrushes have, this doesn’t limit the toothbrushes cleaning ability.
The brush is a bit chunkier than others I have used, however this is probably due to the fact that the brush handle contains two AA batteries. Measuring a maximum height of 21cm and no more than 3cm thick, this brush weighs in at 138g when the brush head is attached.
On the front is a soft rubber grip which is dark blue in colour whilst the remaining body is made up of a high gloss white plastic.
You may well notice the sound of the brush motor straining and slowing down if you do apply too much pressure. Reduce the force you are applying if you start to feel the motor straining.
The bristles of the brush should virtually skim the surfaces of the teeth and do not require a lot of force.
A standard brushing cycle is for 2 minutes, but there is often different cleaning modes on more expensive premium brushes that may go on for longer.
During your daily 2 minute brushing cycle, when using the Advance Power there is no indication of when the 2 minutes has ended as there is no timer on the toothbrush. Again a lot of more expensive toothbrushes will have this feature, but if you have your own timer such as a stopwatch on your mobile phone for example, this feature isn’t really essential.
Brushing for the full 2 minutes is very important, but just as important if not more so is the right technique. Make sure you learn how to clean your teeth properly.
If you struggle to keep yourself cleaning for 2 minutes or forget, timing your cycle could be the answer.
To start the toothbrush you press the slightly raised power button found in the upper third on the front of the brush.
One press will launch the toothbrush into the only cleaning mode available, the standard daily clean, which will continue to run until the button is pressed again to turn the brush off.
There are ridges or grips above and below the power button and on the rear and sides of the brush handle.
There is only one brush head included, a precision clean brush head. However Oral-B brush heads are designed to fit a variety of different brushes so when it comes to purchasing new brush heads, there is a range of different ones you can choose from. On the back of the toothbrush packet, it gives you a list of the different brush that can be used for the Advance Power.
This includes the Floss Action, the Dual Clean and the 3D White brush heads.
The Floss Action brush head also oscillates and rotates like the cross action head does however in addition to this it has micropulse bristles which help to achieve a deeper clean.
The Dual Clean is a two in one brush head that oscillates, pulsates and moves side to side. With the two brushes in one, it delivers a thorough clean and helps care for gums too.
The 3D White brush head has a polishing cup in the centre of it which helps buff teeth up to give them the dentist shine.
Remember to replace your brush head at least once every 3 months or 90 days if not sooner.
An Oral-B brush head will actually fade in colour as it ages giving you another visual indicator that it is time to replace the brush head.
Included in the plastic casing along with the Advance Power toothbrush is two Duracell AA batteries and an information leaflet. The information leaflet isn’t very detailed, however some of the information about the toothbrush is located on the back of the toothbrush packaging.
When the brush requires new batteries it will start to slow down and won’t perform as well as it usually does. There is no battery status icon like more premium brushes.
Any electric toothbrush irrespective of brand will be more effective at removing plaque and this is why Oral-B state that up to 100% more plaque can be removed in comparison to a manual toothbrush. This is in part due to the power and consistency offered from a powerbrush along with the brush head design and then equally as important is the brushing technique.
With this brush, maintenance is pretty simple, all it requires is a wipe of the brush head after use and the toothbrush will continue working as usual. The toothbrush itself isn’t waterproof and issues can be encountered if water makes it into the battery compartment, however being careful whilst using it and general maintenance should prevent any issues. Should something go wrong, this brush isn’t covered under warranty, so you will have to purchase a brand new one.
Summary of design, usability, clean & general use
- Easy grip handle
- No timer
- One mode – standard daily cleaning
- Alternative brush heads available
- Easy to maintain
- Not water-resistant
Battery life
As this toothbrush is powered by batteries, and not by a charging point, its battery life may be very different to a more premium brush.
After reading up on Duracell AA batteries, they are said to last for approximately 15 hours. This means that your toothbrush can be powered for 900 minutes, which when used for 2 minutes a day will last you 450 brushes.
If you brush your teeth twice a day as recommended, these batteries will power your toothbrush for 225 days, which is about 32 weeks.
This is a lot compared to the more premium toothbrushes which will only last an average of 7 days before they need to be charged.
I would, however, recommend replacing the batteries before they run out as the toothbrush will become less and less powerful as times goes on.
450 cleans worth of battery life is more than sufficient, and the toothbrush is portable as there is no charging station with it because it is battery powered. This is good because it means you can take your toothbrush away with you and you won’t have to worry about it running out of power. Great for travellers.
Summary of battery life
- 900 minutes of usage time or 225 days usage based on 2 cleans a day
- Portable toothbrush
- Should replace batteries before they run out to prevent a decrease in brush power
Price & where to buy
The Advance Power has a recommend retail price of £12, but in most places you won’t have to pay that much. Typically prices range from £8 to £12.
At the time of writing the cheapest we found the Advance Power to be was on Amazon.
This brush like every other requires replacement brush heads for each user every 3 months. Replacement heads can be purchased in packs of 8 on Amazon. Prices start from as little as £2.06 each.
Using the Advance Power on a daily basis for 3 years will cost the owner roughly £37.66 (£10 for the brush + 11 brush heads at £2.06 each + 10 replacement AA batteries at $0.50 each).
This is about 0.03p per day.
This price does exclude the cost of water and toothpaste but you get a rough idea of how much it will cost you.
There is a good chance the brush will last longer than the 3 year period and using the same brush handle but switching heads with other users in your household will only help bring the cost down and drive more value from it.
This is one of the cheapest investments you can make for a toothbrush. As soon as you move past the battery powered feature, the toothbrush becomes way more expensive to purchase and will cost you more on average per day. For example, the Vitality, which we have talked about throughout this review, could cost you roughly £0.05p per day. Although this doesn’t seem like that much, it is still significantly more than the Advance Power costs.
Please note that all prices quoted are approximates and will vary based on location, supplier and time of purchase. These figures were correct at the time of writing and should not be relied upon as hard fact, but used as a guide during your decision process.
Summary of price & where to buy
- Recommended retail price of £12
- Generally available from £10 but purchased for as little as £8.66
- Works out at around 0.03p per day over 3 years
- Share brush handle with another user to extend value
Reliability & long term use
As is standard for any brush that comes into Electric Teeth HQ, we will test it.
The experience may be similar to other brushes in the battery powered range but we like to ensure we give you the facts.
A few weeks is not really long enough to say how well it will stand the test of time, but all Oral-B brushes go through a strict quality control programme.
Unable to do long term tests on all the brushes we do have some other models that are going through such.
Our Pro 2000 is 18 months in and doing well and an older Triumph 5000 is now over 4 years old but still continues to perform, although the battery life has deteriorated slightly.
When buying Oral-B you are getting a good quality brush.
To prolong the life of any brush giving it a rinse and a wipe down to remove grime that builds up is a must.
The weakest point is the battery. After many uses it will start to become less powerful but you can easily combat this by replacing the batteries more often.
Conclusion
There is nothing wrong with the Advance Power, no design or usage faults. Giving this toothbrush a 5 out of 5 shows that it does everything I would expect a toothbrush of this standard to do.
Spending a little more and investing in an electric toothbrush with a built-in battery can pay off in the long term and it is the Oral-B Pro 3 3500 that gets our vote. With the same small round brush head, it is more powerful and benefits from features such as a pressure sensor and built-in timer.
Size Guide
- Height (without head) – 17.2cm
- Height (with head) - 21.1cm
- Width - 3.2cm
- Thickness – 3.7cm
- Weight (without head) - 133g
- Weight (with head) - 138g
All are approximates
Note that this brush works perfectly with rechargeable NiMH AA batteries so the "long-term cost" does not have to be there unless you want to. Get a pack of Eneloops or cheap IKEA Ladda's and you're set for decades if not the rest of your life since it requires battery changes so rarely that you'll likely never exhaust the charge cycle life of the batteries. The battery life is honestly quite mind-blowing, it feels like this thing runs on magic as it goes on and on for months and months. It puts the "more advanced" brushes to shame and I can't for the life of me understand how a pair or rechargeables can power a toothbrush for tens of times longer than the exact same battery technology built into the handle, much less supposedly much more powerful Li-Ion versions. It does have one major drawback that you mention in the review: "As the battery wears out, the toothbrush head will start to slow down and not brush as effectively." and unfortunately since it happens so gradually over many days it's very hard to notice that loss of power, until you replace/recharge the batteries and it's night and day.
It is hopelessly difficult to replace the cap after changing batteries. Only recommended for strong people, younger than 50 years.
why is it that two of our tooth brushes will not allow us to change the batteries. once we open the toothbrushes to change the batteries, they no longer work. We have checked the batteries are in the correct way round but neither will start up again.
Hi Alison, Sorry to hear this, seems a bit odd that both should stop working as soon as you remove/replace the batteries. Is the cap fitting tightly on the bottom? Perhaps the batteries are not tightly fitted inside.
Thank you for getting back to me. My mum has one and hers stopped working once she removed batteries to change them. She thought it was something you couldnt do I.e. a sort of single use thing once the batteries ran out. my daughters toothbrush a few weeks later has done exactly the same. toothbrush was slowing down so we tried to change the batteries, brand new batteries, out of the packet and now that one has stopped working. will not start. I've redone it many times. I've cleaned it. ive checked how the batteries fit, if they are the right way round etc. But nothing it still doesnt work!
Odd Alison. Faulty by the sounds of it. I am not sure how long you have had them, but could be worth a call to Oral-B to see if they can assist - 0800 731 1792.
I bought one, and the battery cover is not only stiff... it's a real struggle to open it, and almost impossible to close it once you changed the batteries!!! ok I'm not very strong, but since when do you need to be to use an electric toothbrush? So when the batteries run low, I go back to my mechanical toothbrush until I feel like Superman and finally manage to change the batteries... definitely not the best investment I made!
I've had one of these for 3 years. What type of adult needs a timer? Who can't count to two in their head? You could hit 2 minutes and have spent 3 seconds each on the top and 1 on the bottom. Split the mouth into 4 quadrants" (in case you miss a tooth). Lord above. Buy one of these and 4 rechargeable AA'S. Change them on the 1st of every month. Or spend £100 and get the same result in a more inconvenient way. These are brilliant and all you need. Get two.