I Spent $500 to Find the Best Electric Toothbrush. The Winner Was a Brand I'd Never Heard Of.
I bought the top 5 electric toothbrushes and used each one for at least a week. Here's exactly what I found - no fluff, no ads, just the results.
I've used the same Oral-B for years. It did the job - or so I thought. My dentist kept flagging the same spots at every checkup. Same buildup, same mild gum irritation, year after year. He never told me to switch. But I started wondering: is the brush I'm using actually the best one available, or just the one with the most shelf space?
So I bought five of them. Spent just over $500. Used each one for a full week, twice a day, two minutes a brush. Tracked battery, cleaning feel, travel ease, and build quality. Here's what I found, from worst to best.
Runs on AAA batteries - no charger to pack, which is handy. But at 20,000 strokes per minute it's noticeably underpowered. No timer, no modes, no adjustments. I kept adding manual effort to compensate for what the brush wasn't doing. Good backup brush. Not a serious daily driver.
- No charger required
- Easy to pack and travel with
- Tongue cleaner included
- Underpowered for daily use
- No timer or modes
- Batteries need replacing often
Quip is the best-looking brush in this test and the worst performer. At 15,000 strokes per minute - less than half of the top brush - it barely vibrates. Quip themselves recommend adding manual brushing to compensate. I shouldn't have to do that with an electric toothbrush.
- Best design of the five
- No charger needed
- Very lightweight
- Weakest clean in the test
- No modes or pressure sensor
- Quip says to brush manually too
The Oral-B iO Series 9 was my brush going into this test. It has a colour screen, an AI app that tracks your brushing, seven modes, and magnetic fast charging. It cleans very well. Placing it at #2 was genuinely uncomfortable.
But at three times the price of #1, the battery only lasts 10-14 days. The screen drains power even when you walk past it. I charged it four times during the test versus once for MiroShine. A lot of features I stopped using after week one. The price just doesn't add up against what's above it.
- Cleans exceptionally well
- 7 modes, AI app, colour screen
- Pressure sensor included
- Fast magnetic charging
- 3x more expensive than #1
- Only 10-14 days battery
- Screen drains battery passively
- Most features go unused
This is the brush I would have recommended before doing this test. 31,000 strokes per minute, a pressure sensor so you don't brush too hard, a proper 2-minute timer. It cleans well. The main frustrations: 14-day battery means packing the charger on every trip, there's no travel case, and after six weeks the base had started collecting the same toothpaste grime I always see on plastic brushes. Good - just outclassed.
- 31,000 strokes/min - solid clean
- Pressure sensor included
- 2-min timer with quad pacer
- Only 14-day battery
- No travel case included
- Plastic base collects grime
I want to be honest about how unexpected this result was. I went into this test assuming one of the four brands above would win - probably Oral-B, maybe Sonicare. The brand at #1 was a wildcard I added to make the comparison complete. It didn't just edge the others out. It won every single category that matters - cleaning power, battery, build quality - and it wasn't close. By the time I finished the six-week test, I wasn't surprised it won. I was surprised it took me this long to find it.
First use. My teeth felt polished - the way they feel walking out of a hygienist appointment. I thought it was a fluke. Six weeks later I can tell you it wasn't.
32,000 sonic vibrations per minute - the highest of anything in this test. That frequency drives toothpaste and water below the gumline and between teeth, into spaces bristles never directly reach. That's the difference you feel on day one and every day after.
The body is aircraft-grade aluminum - not plastic. No seams, no charging cradle collecting toothpaste residue on your counter. After six weeks it looked identical to day one. No other brush in this test could say that.
60+ days on a single charge. I charged it once in six weeks. I used to charge my Oral-B twice a month and pack the stand every time I travelled. With MiroShine I stopped thinking about it entirely.
Three modes - Deep Clean, Whitening, Sensitive. A smart timer that pulses every 30 seconds and shuts off at 2 minutes. Travel case in the box. At 51 grams, lighter than my phone.
The only con I could find: it's a new brand with no shelf presence. That's the entire list.
- 32,000 strokes/min - most powerful tested
- 60+ day battery - charged once in 6 weeks
- Aluminum build - zero gunk after 6 weeks
- Travel case in the box
- 3 genuinely useful modes
- Smart timer + quad-pacer
- Money-back guarantee
- Newer brand, less recognition
- Sells out frequently
I started this test expecting my Oral-B to win. It didn't. MiroShine is my honest recommendation - not because of the brand, but because of what it actually does every morning. Nothing else in this test comes close.