The trouble with electric toothbrushes...
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I like my electric toothbrush. When it's freshly charged, it's actually really good at what it's supposed to do. The small round oscillating head is infinitely better than any standard toothbrush and much more effective at cleaning teeth. Admittedly, by mid-week it’s starting to wane a little and the motor inside doesn't quite seem to be as enthused about oral hygiene as it was when it was first plucked from the charger, but nevertheless, for those first couple of days it's great.
The thing is, it's not particularly energy efficient. My electric toothbrush takes what seems like a disproportionately long time to charge. I've long since disposed of the instructions—it's a toothbrush after all—but I vaguely remember the recommended charging time being approximately eight hours. Not bad, one might think, but then it only lasts for a week if I'm lucky. That's still not too bad though is it? Well, actually, yes, it is.
The act of brushing one's teeth should take an average of two minutes. If we assume that we do this twice a day (yes, I know dentists the world over would have us brushing our teeth at least hourly, but sometimes that's not possible for normal people), that means that in a week, we're going to spend twenty-eight minutes brushing our teeth. So, four-hundred-and-eighty minutes of charging for twenty-eight minutes of use. Surely that's recklessly wasteful?
Okay, let's accept the fact that batteries do run down naturally even when they're not being used. It's not great, but it happens. This device does sit idly for extended periods of time between uses and we have to accept that the battery will naturally run down in this time. However, consider the fact that a toothbrush is not doing anything at all in that time and, when it is used, it is for just twenty-eight minutes in a week.
Compare this to the battery in a mobile phone. My mobile takes about forty-five minutes to charge from flat to full and lasts for over a week. Unlike my toothbrush, my mobile is constantly on for the whole time, night and day, waiting to receive all the calls I don't get. Okay, so admittedly I'm not a heavy phone user, but it does still get used and I'm positive that I clock up over fourteen minutes use, even if most of that is only sending texts to find out why nobody has called. The rest of the time, it's still on though. It's still doing something, even if it is simply poling the mobile phone network and mocking my lack of social life.
If only an electric toothbrush could be as efficient. In an age where energy saving is so in focus, it's perhaps disappointing that we can't find a similarly resourceful technology for toothbrushes as we have for mobile phones. But then if we're to be so energy efficient, perhaps we shouldn't be using electric toothbrushes after all and I should let the battery linked to that delightful round oscillating head run down just once more.
Update: It feels weird re-reading this old blog. It's now 2017, more than nine years after I originally wrote it. I have a new toothbrush. I use it for about the same amount of time as before, but I now need to charge it for twenty-four hours. I have a new mobile phone too. On a good day, I can still mostly charge it in forty-five minutes, though realistically, it's going to take a few hours. Oh, and I need to charge it twice a day. On reflection, electric toothbrushes don't seem too bad anymore. Brace yourself, 2008-me. You're in for a few surprises...