This Sonicare Water Flosser Is Like a Spa Massage for Your Mouth (2024)

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“Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000” is a mouthful to say, isn’t it? So much so that maybe a bit of it gets caught in your teeth. A bit of pronoun gets wedged up between the incisor and canine, or a syllable sticks into the gums around the molar.

Now you have to dig it out. You know your toothbrush alone won’t dislodge that clumsy piece of grammatical debris, so you turn to your floss. But wait, you remember, flossing is kind of a pain in the ass. And your mouth bled the last time.

We all know by now that flossing is good for your teeth. Butf the unpleasantness of dental floss is keeping you away, there’s another, gentler way that’s at least as effective: the water flosser.

I hung up the dental floss to review this Philips Sonicare water flosser. This competitor to Waterpik makes flossing feel more like taking your mouth to the spa than to the gym, but it dislodges plaque and food bits all the same. Here’s where it excelled and where it fell short.(I also shot it out against the corded version, so read on to see which is the better choice for you.)

The strong and sensitive type

Back when I had braces as a kid, I used a power flosser because using regular dental floss was nearly impossible. The power flosser was much quicker and easier. If you have braces or other obtrusive dental work, I’d say a power flosser wins over floss, hands down.

Both power water flossers and dental floss are suitable for keeping your teeth cleaner than brushing alone. Plaque and bits of food like to hide in the spaces between your teeth and along your gum line, which are often overlooked by mere bristles.

As long as you’re not afflicted with gum disease such as gingivitis, bleeding when flossing is a temporary reaction to your gums not being used to it. “But I have sensitive gums! It’s a thing!” you may be thinking. And that may be true.

Here, again, a power flosser can be gentler on your gums. Normally I floss every night and, if needed, during the day. I gave up flossing for a week to lay the groundwork for testing, though. The Philips Sonicare water flosser didn’t cause any bleeding.

Also, despite the fact that you should be flossing nightly, not everyone will commit to it. If that sounds like you, then a power flosser could be a gentler way to get out the odd bits of stuck food and plague without the drama of bleeding that comes with infrequent flossing.

Philips sonicare water flosser: The Test

Using it felt kind of… fun. Is that weird to say? Like a gentle water massage on the gums. I’ve got a couple of tight spaces in my teeth where food likes to collect (yeah, gross, I know, but you chose to read about mouth stuff) and it had no problems dislodging stuff from there.

Two attachment heads come in the box, a regular one that just shoots water straight and a “quad stream” head, which was quite trippy. It shoots water in an X-shaped pattern in four directions that clean more of the entire tooth at once.

I couldn’t discern if the quad stream head worked better than the standard head. I thought each had their places. The quad stream make quicker work of flossing, and it felt like the outward- and inward-facing sides of each tooth was blanketed with more of a blast of water.

The regular head was better for sniping stubborn pieces of food and plaque from between teeth, though. When I had a particular offender tucked between two teeth, the narrow jet from the regular head was my tool of choice.

There are three power levels on the Philips Sonicare, plus a button that cycles between “clean” and “deep clean.” Selecting deep clean increasing the volume of water but decreases its intensity. It comes out in more of a pulse, rather than the constant stream in “clean.”

Deep clean seems like a bit of a misnomer, and it’s presented by Philips Sonicare as offering short pauses to help you know when you move from tooth to tooth. Honestly, I’d just say using the slightly more intense, normal “clean” mode, but having options doesn’t hurt.

But not (That) hard to handle

In my spare time I work on old cars and motorcycles, and that comes with all the split fingertips and bruised knuckles of working around heavy machinery. Sometimes at night, flossing is clumsy because of my swollen, stiff fingers.

That got me thinking about the dexterity required to floss. Power flossers are just easier to use for those with dexterity issues. Forget merely bruised fingers—that’s peanuts—but folks with arthritis, missing digits, and such will likely have any easier time using a power flosser to floss.

Maneuvering the Philips Sonicare around my mouth, it was just a point and shoot interface, pure and simple. There’s no delicate finger work of finagling tiny bits of dental floss between and around teeth.

The flosser itself is made from plastic that feels durable and not at all flimsy, and my medium-glove-wearing man hands found the handle well sized, large enough for a solid grip but not uncomfortably so. I’d have liked to see some textured ridges for better grip when wet, though.

That said, it’s not a small unit, and with its reservoir full of water it’s not exactly heavy, but it weighs more than an electric toothbrush. If your dexterity issues made holding moderate weight for a few minutes, then the Philips Sonicare water flosser may be uncomfortable for you.

For me, an apartment renter with a lack of power outlets in the bathroom, the convenience of a rechargeable cordless flosser outweighed the bulk of holding up an entire unit, electric motor, brush head, water reservoir, and all.

If you have the countertop space and free outlets in your bathroom, you very well might appreciate a plug-in unit where the water reservoir stays planted on the bathroom counter and all you have to hold is the water head.

I tested the corded version of Philips Sonicare’s Power Flosser 3000, which I detail more below, but it was easier to maneuver around my mouth and offered more power settings.

On the corded version, you can easily position the head in 360-degree adjustments, though, by turning a notched wheel where the head meets the unit. It’s easy to turn but stayed in place solidly enough that it never accidentally slipped or spun during use.

Smooth operator

Filling is easy. There’s a hatch in the side that can be popped open to fill it from a tap. It doesn’t leak, thanks to a rubber O-ring, but it seems unnecessary. The 250ml reservoir unscrews so easily from the handle, and I just fill it up that way because the opening is larger.

The buttons are a bit mushy, but they don’t feel cheap. There’s no detailed battery level meter to tell you how much charge is remaining, which is annoying. There’s just a light that tells you when the charge is low, but it can’t sneak up on you if you don’t charge regularly.

Charging takes a while, up to eight hours according to Philips. The upside is that it only takes 60-90 seconds to clean your mouth, on average, and so you’ll get at least two or three weeks of use between charges. I haven’t had to charge it fully since I got it.

I don’t know what kind of Willy Wonka magic the Philips Sonicare engineers have worked with the battery and electric motor, but it’s the least needy electrical appliance in my bathroom. My electric toothbrush, shaver, and beard trimmer all need charging every few days. Not this, though.

Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 vs. Philips Sonicare Power Flosser 3000 (Corded)

Well, the big hint is the fact that one is cordless. Philips advertises the cordless 3000 as 150% more effective than flossing and the corded 3000 as 180% more effective than flossing, but at that point I think it’s splitting hairs. Usability and space constraints are the deciding factor.

With the corded Power Flosser, the water base stays planted on the counter and requires more bathroom real estate. Only having to hold the nozzle rather than the whole cordless unit was nice, and it was more nimble and less tiring on my wrist, too.

The attachment heads are the same, and the corded version has a wider range of intensity settings. But it required an outlet, which is a precious commodity in my bathroom. If I had the space, I’d go with the corded Power Flosser 3000, because it was less unwieldy to use.

Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000 vs. Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0

The Waterpik, despite being more pear-shaped than the straight-sided Philips Sonicare, somehow feels a bit less clumsy and more nimble since more of its weight is centered low. The textured grip of the Waterpik is more ergonomic, too.

The Waterpik also comes with more attachments heads (four, plus a travel plug versus two), a carrying case for ’em, and a microfiber travel bag. The filling hole in its water reservoir is smaller and harder to fill than the Philips Sonicare’s, though.

Philips Sonicare also gives you a wall charger to use with the included USB-A cable, so you can use a regular outlet, if you wish (and I do). The Waterpik only gives you the USB-A cable, so charging is more of a pain in the ass because it’s less handy than the common wall outlet.

The power, water flow, water capacity, and runtime are similar to each other, but overall I prefer the Waterpik. Read my full review of the Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 Water Flosser to learn more.

The rinse

I’ll be honest: at least half the reason I liked using that Waterpik when I was a kid had nothing to do with my braces, but rather because I could shoot water all over the place and get away with it by saying that’s just how water flossers are.

But now that I’m (mildly) more grown up, I have to appreciate that today’s modern Philips Sonicare is a bit more of a tamed horse.

Through its three power levels and two attachment heads, I can wrangle the focused intensity of a miniature water jet without feeling like I’m wrangling a rogue firehose in a Three Stooges film. It works without being intimidating.

Sure, dental floss is cheaper. But if something has been holding you back from it—limited hand dexterity or sensitive gums—give this Sonicare water flosser a serious look. Your chompers will be clean faster than you can say “Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000.”