Consumers should be aware of cheap replacement toothbrush heads that say they are compatible with official Oral B electric toothbrushes.
These cheap replacement toothbrush heads are cheap and the bristles can come loose which is a health risk.
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There are a variety of alternate suppliers. Is there a specific brand of replacement head and which supplier does the observation relate to?
Note users can add a picture to a post using the tool (icon) that looks like a landscape mountain with dot for the sun.
Of interest at least one Oral-B electric tooth brush model is packaged with advice the charger and electric brush holder are “Made in China”.
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Given the inflated price of the replacements supplied by the OEM many go looking for a cheaper substitute. Some more specific information on the failures would be very useful.
Which brand(s) have the problem?
How do you know this?
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Perhaps as others have mentioned, it is down to individual manufacturer’s products. I have bought toothbrush heads which work on Oral B directly from China and quality-wise have found them to be on a par with the Braun/Oral B product, and they are a fraction of the price. Perhaps we were lucky?
Has this happened once, or on several occassions?
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This is the shonky culprit. During use the bristles come loose
They’re $9 from coles
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That’s good to see, @Read_Choice.
It will be useful if others relate a similar experience with the exact same product.
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We have had new standard branded toothbrushes (Colgate, Oral B) where the bristles have separated from the toothbrush shortly after commencing use. It possiblity comes down to quality control and picking up manufacturing problems when they occur. It appears any brand or brush type can have issues with a batch at the times. It is worth letting the manufacturer know (and Coles know since it is there branded product) of the premature bristle separation as it is hoped they improve their quality control/manufacturing processes.
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You should be returning the product for a refund. From the Coles customer care page on their web site. A complaint and return would be an indirect contribution to their QA monitoring.
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Thanks for the advice however they were purchased months ago and the general quality of the product is too low to justify getting a refund/replacement although I would have done so at the time.
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Or similar products
Time may or may not matter, but if problems are never reported they do not exist as far as a business is concerned (P/L implications for the SKU are ignored for the purpose here). You would be doing a service to Coles and Coles customers re the product if you make your voice heard at the service desk.
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I expect them to all be similar in the sense they fit in the same toothbrush.
What do you mean by similar? Do you mean anything that is not OEM? Perhaps anything where the bristles fall out. But how would we know which ones they are before trying them?
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Very good point… Yeah I’ll email customer service
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Yeah not oem because you can trust oem
I don’t use them but a relative does and gets “EB25A” brand - now there is a name to sigh over, the marketing department must have racked or whacked their brains to come up with that. She says they do just as well as the originals at a fraction of the price. YMMV
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I’ve bought cheap replacement heads - in bulk. They worked fine but sometime they were not a tight fit in the toothbrush
I now wait for my local supermarket to have oral b toothbrush heads on sale @ 50% off and buy at least 1 packet. Been doing this for a while now and even have a storage of spares!
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Yeah nice one! The price of these things seems designed to make profit for Oral B and whomever is selling it. ($4.50 per head) But I think Catch has some good deals on them.
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Same here, bought lots of cheapos via ebay and generally had no problems. Only once I got a batch that did not fit tight but I never had bristles coming of.
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I actually had an everyday manual drive toothbrush loose bristles while in use. It’s not a very pleasant experience, much like the feeling of a mouth full of fish bones and plastic. Gag!
There was no reflex to swallow them. Just a hurried attempt to spit all out and rinse until there were none left, with a little manual assistance for the last one.
I don’t eat or swallow toothpaste or the water when rinsing a clean. Only one bundle of bristles had come loose. Is it fair to suggest loose bristles are a health hazard, or are they an inconvenience that is not unique and possible with any number of tooth brush products?
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I bought Phillips Sonicare copies from China. Straight into the bin as they did not fit the toothbrush.
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