Stiftung Warentest: Electric toothbrushes in Warentest: The best result does not come from the expensive test winner

January 18, 2023

Stiftung Warentest compared 17 electric toothbrushes. The test winner does not do the best cleaning – and only one candidate rushed through with a “poor”.

The good news first: Most of the electric toothbrushes that Stiftung Warentest has tested are “good”. Of 17 brushes, only four devices received the grade “satisfactory”, one specimen rattled through completely and received the disgrace of “poor”.

It was tested in three categories. Teeth cleaning had the greatest influence on the overall result at 60 percent, followed by handling at 30 percent and the remaining ten percent was durability and environmental properties of the devices. Both sonic toothbrushes with an elongated brush head (e.g. Philips) and oscillating-rotating models with the small round attachments (e.g. Braun Oral-B) were tested.

Sonic toothbrush or oscillating-rotating?

Before you decide on a toothbrush, you should observe yourself and see how you brush your teeth. If you are one of the more comfortable people who drive relaxed over the rows of teeth, Stiftung Warentest recommends the elongated sonic brushes. Meticulous people who want to take more time and work precisely should, on the other hand, use the round brushes, which should be used to treat each tooth individually. As far as the quality of the corresponding devices is concerned, it hardly makes a significant difference.

The test winner for the sonic toothbrushes is the Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige for around 267 euros. The device received an overall rating of “good” (1.8) and was particularly impressive with its cleaning performance, which was rated “very good” (1.4). However, the device is not only by far the most expensive choice when it comes to the new price, but also when it comes to replacement brushes, which cost around 12.30 euros each.

It gets cheaper with the best oscillating-rotating brush, the Braun Oral-B Genius X 20000N for 87.50 euros. The device received a “Good” rating (1.9) and in the most important category with a rating of 1.7 it was only just behind the long-running competition from Philips. However, Braun makes up for this with much lower prices: A round replacement brush costs around three euros on average.

Both devices could not claim the best tooth cleaning for themselves. The boombrush for 89 euros convinced the testers the most with the sub-grade “very good” (1.2). According to Stiftung Warentest, the comparatively poor overall rating of “Good” (2.3) is due to weaknesses in handling. The testers complained about mediocre handiness, a missing charging station and average stability and stability.

Bargain foxes should be happy that the cheapest toothbrush did surprisingly well in the test with the grade “Good” (2.5). The drugstore chain “dm” only charges 20 euros for the oscillating-rotating Dontodent Active Professional – and only 1.49 euros for a replacement brush. The testers rated the tooth cleaning as “good” (2.5). In terms of handiness and cleaning, you have to live with smaller compromises.

The testers were surprised by the Sunstar Gum Powercare, which has meanwhile been taken off the market. It turned out to be one of the worst toothbrushes tested in recent years. For the fact that “the majority of the devices could neither be switched on nor charged at the beginning of the test”, the device received the grade “poor” (5.5) from Stiftung Warentest. You can no longer buy the total loss anyway.

Do you need a tooth brushing app?

If you spend a lot of money, you usually get an app with it. This can be used to accompany the cleaning processes, check results and train habits. Stiftung Warentest writes: “No one was completely convinced.” This is not only due to the sometimes incorrect analyzes of the apps, but also to data security. Because it doesn’t matter whether it’s Philips, Playbrush or Oral-B: Almost all apps send unnecessary data to third parties, sometimes for advertising purposes. Only the Philips iPhone app was reluctant, but showed weaknesses in accurately recording the cleaned mouth areas.

You can find the complete test and other devices in comparison for a fee on test.de.