UPDATED: Another day, Another toothbrush (Colgate Motion)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Colgate Motion
Date:	07/03/07 (1471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap to buy and cheap to run

Disadvantages: Replacements for original brush head unobtainable ; new version uses AAA batteries

I've not had a lot of luck with electric toothbrushes. I've tried several and all have given up the ghost after far to short a time. Of course, I should have realised that buying Braun would be a mistake. Not only are they very expensive but the rechargeable batteries are not replaceable so when they finally die, as all rechargeable batteries eventually do, you have no choice but to throw them away. Mine lasted a couple of years and that was it. Was it really worth nearly £50?

That was followed by a Braun battery toothbrush. I bought it at Heathrow the day after the other one failed, as I needed it on a trip abroad. It was £12. At least it used proper batteries. I used rechargeables in it. Those I could replace when they died without having to throw the whole thing away. Still had to though. That also only lasted a couple of years before it stopped working completely.

At this point I decided to buy as cheap as possible. I went for a battery one again, this time a Boots own brand one. I had also seen the identical model under the Superdrug brand name. The replacement brush heads were even interchangeable. It had the decency to cost less than £5 so when this one lasted on 18 months before the electrics died through water leaking into the battery compartment I felt I'd done quite well!!!!!!

So, once again the time had come for yet another electric toothbrush. Now, you may wonder why, with such a history of failure I persist with what would, judged by these results, be considered a basically flawed technology. Well, it's because I continue to have faith that somewhere out there there is a manufacturer who has at least a fairly reasonable idea how to build a decent product. It's my challenge to discover them.

I was in the Budgens supermarket in Ascot before catching a train into London when I spotted a Colgate Motion battery toothbrush that looked like it might do the job. It was priced at less than £5 so it met the first criterion of being cheap. It looked well manufactured but then so did all the others.

The Colgate Motion battery toothbrush follows what is undoubtedly the standard format. The base of the handle has a cap which, when removed, reveals a compartment in which fits two AA batteries. These can be either standard or rechargeable. It is supplied with standard batteries and these should last a reasonable amount of time. I've been using mine three months now and they are still working fine.

The body is blue and transparent so you can see all of the internal mechanism. The operation is with a pair of buttons on the edge of the body. The handle isn't round but is a sort of oval shape, though not quite. The buttons operate with a definite click that gives a feeling of solidity and quality. The upper button is On and the lower button is Off. Nothing sophisticated. There isn't any timer so it's up to you to decide when you've completed the job. On the back is a vertical slot that seem to be designed to allow any gunge to escape from the slot where the brush head fits into the handle.

The oddest thing though is the brush head. The stem is straight and ends in a brush that is in two parts. At the tip is the normal rotating brush whilst behind it is a set of static bristles. The explanation for this given by Colgate is that the rotating brush carries out the normal function of electric toothbrushes of loosening the plaque whilst the static bristles sweep the debris away.

You use the brush more like a normal toothbrush, rubbing it across your teeth, letting the rotating head do its job as it goes rather than the recommended method for electric toothbrushes of just leaving the brush in contact with a tooth at a time for about five seconds before moving on. In use I found it did a pretty good job, especially on the tongue, which is where most of the microbes that cause bad breath actually live. I found that it did a great job of removing that yucky yellow coating that occasionally afflicts the tongue.

So, quite a good package and very good value for money. However, when it come time to replace the brush head you find a strange situation. The heads such as are supplied with the brush when you buy it are unobtainable as replacements. The only replacement heads that you can buy are the Actibrush heads. On the packaging for these brushes it even says that they are intended for Actibrush and Motion handles. True enough, they fit the Motion handle perfectly. I find this really bizarre.

The Actibrush head is a totally different design. Instead of one rotating head and a set of static bristles the Actibrush has two rotating heads, a smaller one at the tip followed closely behind by a larger one. Consequently the brush surface is narrower than the original Motion brush head.

I have now started using the Actibrush head and find the bristles stiffer than the Motion head although very effective in cleaning the teeth. Cleaning the tongue though, does require a fair bit more work. However, it does do a good job there though it takes a bit longer. The Motion motor seems perfectly capable of driving the Actibrush head's two rotating brushes even though it clearly wasn't designed to do so. There is a bit more motor noise than with the Motion head but nothing untoward.

So, at the end of the day I suppose that buying the Motion brush instead of an Actibrush, once the original head is replaced, leaves you with an Actibrush but at about half the price. In that respect it must be considered good value for money. I'd rather have the original brush head though.

UPDATE ~ Feb 2009
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I happened to be in Wilkinsons recently (always a good place for bargains) and happened to spot that they were selling the Colgate battery toothbrushes. They had the usual Actibrush version but then I noticed that they also had a Motion version as well. The difference was, though, that the toothbrush branded as "Motion" looked exactly like the Actibrush handle and nothing at all like the Motion that I reviewed here a couple of years ago!

It seems that the old design Motion is no more. The current Motion looks like the Actibrush but comes with the old Motion brush-head and at about half the price. I have no idea what the difference is in use but what this does mean, of course, is that the Motion now uses AAA batteries rather than AA and so the batteries cannot be expected to last as long.

Loses one star!

Summary: A perfectly decent electric toothbrush at throw-away prices.

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