The battery in my (fairly ancient) Boots electric toothbrush had died,
and I am wondering if it is worth-while opening it
and putting in another re-chargeable battery?
Has anyone tried this?

I don't see any obvious way of opening it,
so will probably have to be rather brutal.
The charging socket appears to be glued inside the cylindrical container.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Timothy Murphy wrote:

The battery in my (fairly ancient) Boots electric toothbrush had died,
I don't see any obvious way of opening it

Don't know about Boots ones, but with Braun ones the hole that sits on
the charging spike is slightly non-circular, you shove something into
the hole that will wedge rather than turn and give it a good twist to
break open the case, it comes with a warning that this is not reversible
and only to do it when you're ready to dispose of it.

On 09/04/2014 17:47, Timothy Murphy wrote:
The battery in my (fairly ancient) Boots electric toothbrush had died,
and I am wondering if it is worth-while opening it
and putting in another re-chargeable battery?
Has anyone tried this?

Yes, on an Oral-B toothbrush. Frankly, it wasn't worth the hassle.
By the time the original battery died, enough water and toothpaste
(i.e. fine grinding paste) had leaked down the drive spindle to
wreck the gear mechanism. It didn't last long with the new
battery.

I don't see any obvious way of opening it,
so will probably have to be rather brutal.

On the Oral-B you give the base a partial turn and push the mechanism out
using the drive spindle. Only the elderly toothbrush I put a new battery
in actually allowed re-assembly. A later model resisted attempts at
replacing the innards correctly.

I suggest you are better off getting a new toothbrush. The leading
brands are the Braun Oral-B and the Philips Sonicare. I've used
both brands.

The Sonicare had an edge over the Oral-B for cleaning ability. Its
lithium battery and control circuitry maintained a constant speed
over the 2 week life of a charge (so little need to pack the charger
when travelling). The mechanism does have a tendency to suddenly
break though. Mine lasted a decent 3.5 years but there are plenty
of complaints of much shorter life in Amazon reviews so keep your
receipt. Mine did come with a 2 year warranty so you should be
good for at least that long.

The Oral-B is still better at cleaning than a manual toothbrush
used with anything other than perfect technique. My model has
a Ni-MH battery. The brush speed slows down as the charge
diminishes so the need for top-ups every few days makes the
per-charge life irrelevant. On the plus side I'm now on my
third Oral-B brush and the mechanisms do seem to soldier on
until the batteries lose their ability to re-charge.

Two minute and 30 second timers are handy but lots of cleaning modes
get as much use as lots of cleaning programmes on a dishwasher so
there's no point in paying extra for them (on either toothbrushes
or dishwashers!) It is worth paying for a mains rechargeable
model though. The cheap ones that use disposable batteries are
underpowered and a false economy.

Boots (in both .ie and .uk) have periodic special offers on both
brands that makes them competitive with the usual online vendors.


--
Graham Nye
news(a)thenyes.org.uk

Brauns that I have opened need you to push the spindle inwards 3 or 4 mm to
release a bayonet latch whilst twisting the charging socket. quite a
powerful spring to overcome.

FWIW the cheapest replacement Braun heads I've found are the 8-packs at
Costco, particularly when on special offer.


--
Reentrant

Ho to open a Braun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3ncK4FonM

- Mike

On Sun, 20 Apr 2014 15:40:42 +0100, Mike wrote:

Ho to open a Braun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um3ncK4FonM

- Mike

fascinating!
What I'd like is a good-quality brush that takes rechargeable cells - 30s to
'recharge' rather than 18h - but all brushes that do are the cheap 'n' nasty
ones.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway