If you are not familiar with the Oral-B Hummingbird, it is a compact, battery-powered flosser that comes with 2 interchangeable attachments.
Despite its popularity, it was discontinued by Oral-B some time ago and is now very difficult to source. There was even a petition created asking Oral-B to bring it back, but alas, it didn’t happen.
The good news is that even now, you can still get replacement flossers for it.
You can get replacement parts on Ebay
Last time we checked, Hummingbird replacements parts were still available on Ebay.
Previously they were also available from Amazon, but this no longer seems to be the case. It might be worth checking just in case a new listing has cropped up since we last checked.
Click here to check for Hummingbird listings on Ebay.
Click here to check for them on Amazon.
Hummingbird alternatives
A cordless water flosser
Your best bet at this stage may be to switch to a cordless water flosser. They are larger and more expensive than the Hummingbird style flossers, but if you go with a well-known brand, you won’t run into the issue of replacement heads being unavailable.
The main one we recommend is the Waterpik WP-560 Cordless Advanced (Amazon, Ebay). You can find out more in our post on the best cordless water flossers.
Alternatively, you could try non-powered interdental brushes, which are the best way to clean in between your teeth. You can find out more in our post on the best interdental brushes.
Waterpik Whitening Power Flosser
The closest possible option, that works in a similar way is the Waterpik Whitening Power Flosser FLW-220UK.
It has mint-flavoured replaceable tips, which are reasonably priced.
You can buy it on Amazon, and last time we checked it was also available on a website called Dental Mania.
That being said, last time we checked it was difficult to find replacement tips on their own.
Power Pikster
A bit different, but a possible alternative is the Power Pikster, which is designed to bring sonic vibration cleaning to the Piksters interdental brush.
It’s available here on Amazon.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Power Pikster | £36.01 £29.99 | View on Amazon |
Why was the Hummingbird discontinued?
The Hummingbird is as far as most are aware, now discontinued and no longer manufactured or sold by Oral-B.
All products typically undergo regular review by internal product teams and decisions are made whether a product should be updated, replaced, removed from sale etc based on a number of commercial factors including demand, actual sales figures and the company focus.
Whilst Oral-B have not stopped operating within the oral healthcare space it is quite likely the demand was not high enough to warrant continued production and the company appear to have deviated from electronic flossing products like this to focus on the electric toothbrush, toothpastes and more traditional flossing products.
The Humming Bird was one of the most popular dental cleaning devices. Do not understand why it was discontinued. I have bought and tried other devices, but find them not as good as the original ‘Humming Bird’. I note some people are selling Humming Bird devices on eBay at extortionate prices!
I really really want to buy an oral B battery operated flosser !! Not a.water oil if any description
Help!
There is on ebay https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Oral-B-Hummindbird-Picks-Flosser-refill-10-pks-of-10-picks-Mint-Flavor/361213836272?hash=item541a05bbf0:g:xCwAAOSwCTpb-tWM&frcectupt=true
Is this this a con or can you now get new head tips for the Hummingbird. (I note the misspell in the ad of Hummindbird.
thanks Peter
Hi Peter.
I can’t necessarily say it is a con. There is greater opportunity for this to happen with ebay. It looks ok, and the seller appears to have a good rating. I should imagine it is old stock sourced from somewhere. It probably is new, but just manufactured some time ago.
you can find the floss heads on ebay but they are pricey.
i hate that they discontinued this product, they should try it again.
people buy disposable floss picks like crazy.
i still have my little hummingbird
if you put a placker on it and twist it a bit you can make it work somewhat although you have to grip the flosser and the unit so it’s not enjoyable like letting the little hummer do its thing between your teeth.
try the plackers that bend…and let me know if you find anything else that you can improvise.
they’ll take my hummingbird out of my cold dead hands!
Might be a good idea to produce these if Oral B can give licence to produce and market this product. This has been the best Flossing product and its very disappointing to note that its been not available. I am still using mine and have now run out of refills. Tried to replace the batteries but it unit is not working.
been using this exclusively for 10+ years now. havent been to dentist in 5 and my latest visit the hygienist said my teeth were in better condition than someone that comes in every 3 months! I need refills, not paying $65 for 15 on eBay, sorry. Please bring this back. Name it something else if need be, but for god sake, bring it back!!
you can get replacement parts for the battery compartment at walmart.com
I still have my Hummingbird but sadly no refills. I should have kept some of the flosser frames and just replaced the floss…hindsight, sigh.
May try and make a frame from scratch.
A real shame the Hummingbird was discontinued though 😢.
On the plus side, I have just bought a Waterpik 660 Ultra Pro which is to be honest an absolutely brilliant piece of kit.
Most flossing kit is useless for me. I have fat fingers and a small mouth so the Hummingbird was a godsend.
When the hummingbird was discontinued I resorted to adapting my standard, philips electric toothbrush by cutting off the toothbrush head and sticking a Hummingbird flossing head onto it (any make of electric toothbrush will do).
This works even better than the original Hummingbird as it is more powerful and has a longer, broader handle.
Sadly, I am finding it harder and harder to get the refills, the price of which is skyrocketing.
Someone could make good money by copying the refills and selling adapters so they fit on any make of electric toothbrushes.
Where are you Mrs Hummingbird?
It amazes me with all the demand and petitions for the Hummingbird, that Oral-B hasn’t seen fit to re-release the product. I have 2. Both are functioning and I have a ton of floss replacements that’ll hopefully keep me going for quite some time. But what is the deal?? I’ve even spoken to Oral-B directly and they always say something like… “Thank you for your interesting in the product!”
probably cause they make a bigger profit off more expensive items but that’s just my cynical side. their toothbrushes are overpriced and garbage. i got 3 for a buck at dollar tree that work better. has anyone really improved on the basic toothbrush? i wonder.
but that hummingbird, that’s a little engineering marvel and actually fun to use. no wonder they pulled it!
The Humming Bird I am referring to cost £1.99 and I have been using it for years. In fact I bought at least twelve – one each for my family and grand children.
Good for you……I have an oral B humming bird flosser but it doesn’t work anymore for some strange reason. I put a new battery and still doesn’t work. I think it’s broken somehow?? I looked this on Amazon and eBay, both sites say this brand cost over $100 bucks. What a rip offf, I probably paid for mine around $10-$15 bucks in a store yrs ago. Anyway good luck with yours.
hello , there is nothing to touch a hummingbird. i buy then when i see one on ebay/ glad to hear that the motor is re[placable. i have several u/s ones
I bought an Oral B water/air flosser which cost £100 and am very disappointed. Getting spares for my Hummingbird has proved difficult and the air flosser is very easy to use but not very effective at cleaning. The Hummingbird is much, much better. I wish they would continue production.
one idea that works for humming bird is dental floss picks.by cutting the tips to the right thickness of the shaft they fit in place ….humming bird picks sorted.
I had one Hummingbird that served me for a few years until the motor went dead last year. Searched for a replacement motor and the best I could get was a 3V motor of similar dimensions that I have replaced last weekend. Happy with the result but the vibrations of the battery case is more than the tip itself. Will be trying to glue the cover more securely over the weekend. Now back to the search for replacement tips.
One thing I have come to learn painfully though is that no and I repeat NO manufacturer is interested in creating a product that you will purchase and walk away with only small returns to them through inexpensive replacement consumables. Much more so if the company in question is a multinational. They will sell you an expensive main product at a throw away price and bleed you through their replacement consumable for a very long time.
The examples of my views are:
1. The Humming bird flosser.
2. Home colour printer – printer throw away price and company gets money through cartridges.
3. Double edged blades: Remember that when the design got perfected with butterfly opening and adjustable angled cutting edges, the industry killed the product and replaced it with 2 edged, followed by 4 edged and now should have reached 100 edges? The new razors are thrown in for a song and charged for the replacement cartridges. The industry is not interested in giving a product with a thin metallic replaceable blade and all plastic as a part of a strong reliable razor that need not be disposed with every blade.
If a product reaches a mature state of design perfection, there is nothing that the company is able to do to increase its revenue. It might try to steer you to an alternate product and it will have no hesitation to kill the mature product.
Case rests.
Great to hear you got it working again. I tried mine following your instructions but no luck. I think the motor must be gone. It was such a great product. I am sad to have to give up on it
Further to this mornings email re Oral-B Hummingbird.
After removing the outercase:-
I removed the blue collar – two clips.
Then removed the white motor cover – pulls straight off.
– exposing a tiny electric motor driving an out-of-balance shaft/weight – this creats the vibration!
Gently rotating the shaft whilst pressing the switch got the whole thing working again – a tiny drop of oil was applied to the shaft where it comes out of the motor – applied using a toothpick – will (I hope) make sure that my Hummingbird will live a few more years…
Glad to read you have got it working again Martin. 5/5 for perseverance to get it to work.
Have had a Hummingbird for years with sufficient refill packs to last me several more years!
This morning it wasn’t working (I haven’t used it for a while) the battery was dead and leaking a little so I cleaned the contacts, removed the battery ‘gunge’ and put in a new battery – still not working…
Invistigated further to see if I could ‘fix’ anything but the wires from the switch lead into a sealed plasic cylinder – a piezo unit?
Have had a Philips Sonicare for a couple of years and recently bought a Pro version ‘body’ (uses the same induction charger) very cheaply on the internet. Very pleased with both of them – the Pro is a little larger with a larger water reservoir because it can ‘deliver’ 1, 2 or 3 ‘squirts’ per operation – but otherwise it’s the same machine – maybe with a larger battery as well…
Curious to know exactly how/what creates the vibration in the Oral-B Hummingbird…
Martin Bronsdon, Ex-pat, retired mechanical engineer, Gothenburg, Sweden
We have been using the Hummingbird for years and have a few. It’s the refills ( tips) that are so expensive now. Not sure how people have managed to stock pile so many, now that they are out of production since 2010! The motor is gone on my hummingbirds but I don’t mind as they are still as effective for flossing the hard to reach spots.