The toothbrush has a pressure sensor. Press too hard while brushing and you get a pulse through the brush handle warning you to loosen up. It’s a neat way of keeping you brushing properly. As with other models, there’s a two-minute timer, with a pulse every 30 seconds encouraging you to move onto the next quadrant. Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 – Brush performance Testing on myself, the lightweight brush was easy to manoeuvre, and the sonic vibrations did a good job cleaning my teeth and leaving me with a fresh mouth. On inspection, my teeth were impeccably cleaned. The intensity setting is great to have, letting you to adjust the power for more sensitive areas.

To give comparison I and the team here at Electric Teeth like to price the brush over a 3 year period. The vast majority of Sonicare models offer 31,000 brush strokes and 62,000 movements. There are some exceptions to this though. 31,000 brush strokes/62,000 movements The UK electric toothbrush market tends to operate on a policy of very high recommended retail prices, but in reality, sell at significantly lower prices anywhere between 20-60% less. Brush performance from the Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 was excellent. To test, I loaded up my test teeth with beetroot and spinach, pushing bits of food between the gaps in the teeth. For example, on some models, you have ‘White’ as a cleaning mode, whilst on others, it is labelled as ‘White+’. They are the same mode, just with a different name as far as I understand.The ProtectiveClean 4300 has 1 cleaning mode (Clean) compared to the 3 cleaning modes (Clean, White and Gum Care) of the 5100. Unless you need or want the extra cleaning modes that come with the 5100 and 6100, the 4300 is the brush you should opt for. This is one of the most essential features of an electric toothbrush. Brushing for the right amount of time and using the correct technique will improve your oral health.

Keep the power on/off button pressed until you hear a series of two short beeps (after 4-5 seconds). Now what you feel this brush is actually worth may differ and I will say that personally I do not think this is the best value for money you can get of an electric toothbrush today.At the end of the 2 minutes, the toothbrush automatically turns itself off. This is a very obvious sign that the required brushing time has passed.

Slightly disappointing accessories aside, particularly the bog-standard travel case, the Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 is a top electric toothbrush. Yes, it’s comparatively expensive, but it’s smart brush-head technology and excellent cleaning ability make it a winner. If you want clean teeth with the minimum of fuss, this is the best sonic toothbrush that I’ve tested. Verdict What I call ‘power’ is actually made up of 2 different variables. They are amplitude and frequency. I don’t yet know the frequency, but Clear mode produces a pure sine-wave frequency. Pulse seems to be the same frequency passed through a flange filter. The other three modes are more difficult to describe at the moment as I haven’t paid them enough attention yet.Sonicare doesn’t share the technical explanation, but premium Sonicare models are programmed with an extra dimension to the brushing experience that allows the 62,000 movements to be achieved.

Triple tone of high-med-low means the EasyStart feature has been deactivated. The brush head replacement light and battery light will also blink amber 3 times in unison to confirm deactivation A useful mode to also use fairly regularly to give your gums a little extra attention and keep them in good shape. Naturally, Sonicare deems a lot of this information to be confidential and getting a clear answer hasn’t been possible.

The following lists show which brushes have each of the various Sonicare cleaning modes. Clean mode The chart summarises the information provided above and you can see which models of toothbrush offer which cleaning mode. An explanation of power delivery: the number of brush strokes and movements Yes, as strange as this might sound in reality there is little actual need for all of these extra modes. In theory, the more speed the motor has the more effective the clean is, because the bristles move more frequently over the tooth and gum surfaces.