Suri sustainable electric toothbrush review

In a mission to create “sustainable rituals” (hence the product name), Suri has rethought the toothbrush to create a product to help users live in a more environmentally friendly way, without compromising on quality, performance, or design.

The brush comprises a recyclable, plant-based toothbrush head with medium-soft bristles that sits atop a longer-lasting, repairable aluminium handle. It delivers 33,000 vibrations a minute – fewer than Philips Sonicare brushes but enough to be effective. The entire toothbrush is fully waterproof with an IPX7 rating, and it has a mighty 40-day battery life, with a four-hour fast charge.

If that’s not enough, Suri will recycle the brush heads for free. Simply return the used heads in the prepaid mailer.

And for an additional $24/ £20, you can buy the toothbrush with a travel case that not only charges the brush while it’s inside but kills 99.9% of bacteria on the brush head using a UV-C LED. 

Design and appearance

• One-button operation
• Two brushing modes: everyday clean and polish
• No pressure sensor

Castor oil and corn starch: that’s what Suri has used to make the bristles and the toothbrush head for its Sustainable Sonic Toothbrush. And they’re surprisingly effective as materials. 

Slim and easy to hold, the toothbrush is 22cm long from the top of the brush to the bottom of the base, and the oval shaft is 2cm wide by 1.5cm deep. The brush head itself is 2.3cm long and 1cm wide with the bristles cut into a 3D wave shape.

It comes in three colour options: midnight black, sea mist (whiteish) and winter fern (pale green). We tested the midnight black and found it to be very black, and maybe a little incongruous against the stone-effect magnetic mount.   

It has a simple, one-button operation. Press the button on the front of the toothbrush to turn on everyday clean (the toothbrush light will be white), push it again for its polish mode (the light will turn blue) and when you’ve finished, press the button again to stop the toothbrush.

There’s also a battery indicator light on the brush. It flashes when it’s in need of a charge, and when charging it blinks blue. Once it’s charged, it glows white.  

But there are no fancy modes here. You can’t change the intensity of the vibrations, or programme a specific time limit per quadrant of your teeth, and, of course, there’s no app. So if you want a 3D model of your mouth on your smart phone to check you are giving your upper left molars as much attention as the bottom ones, this is not the toothbrush for you.

But the simplicity itself makes it a very easy toothbrush to use, and probably saves a lot of power. You just pick it up and brush. That makes it a remarkably stress-free way to clean your teeth – nothing beeps at you.

However, its pared-back design means it’s lacking a pressure sensor, so it may not be the brush for you if you tend to press too hard.

In the box, you’ll find the Suri toothbrush, a separately packaged brush head, a slimline USB charging stand with integral USB cable and a magnetic wall mount.

The magnetic mount is a light grey, stone-effect, bevelled oblong 6cm long by 3cm wide and carries a sticky pad on the back that you can use to fix it to glass, plaster or tile.

Once you’ve stuck the magnetic mount to a wall or tile in your bathroom, you just pop the brush up there until the next time, which is a handy way to keep clutter off your sink.

The charging stand is roughly the same shape and size, and the white integral USB cable is 100cm long, which gives you lots of leeway in terms of charging points and surfaces.

Performance

• Quiet
• 40-day battery life
• Good cleaning performance

We found the Suri gave a consistently good and deep teeth clean. Suri suggests the sound level is about 54dB, but this seemed on the high side to us – it’s certainly not a noisy brush.

It was notable how much the bristles of the brush head (made out of castor oil) kept firm during the testing period when we might have expected them to wilt a little. We found this impressive and would possibly suggest that Suri’s bristles outperform other, more conventional, bristle materials.  

Our testers used the toothbrush for two months, twice a day each day, and charged the toothbrush once in that time, so we’re confident that Suri’s claims of a 40-day battery life are accurate. 

Price and availability

The Suri brush is available direct from the makers in the US and the UK, and also from Amazon UK. If you just buy the toothbrush, it’s $92/ $74, which we think is terrific value for a sonic toothbrush with eco-credentials.

If you can spend an additional $24/ £20, you’ll also receive a UV-C LED self-cleaning travel case and a separate white USB cable. There’s no power adapter provided but you can use any phone or tablet’s 5V USB 2.0 charger.

The UV-C case charges the toothbrush and cleans the brushing head. At 24 cm long, it is a rectangle 3.2cm wide and 4.4cm high, and hinged on one side. The bottom is a stone-effect colour and the top is white with a button to one side. This button starts the cleaning process, which lasts for a minute. The case will charge the brush at the same time.

Replacement heads come in packs of three and cost $17.50/ £14.40, which is relatively pricey but understandable, given that they’re not plastic. Suri also makes a wash bag, a shave point charger and spare magnetic mounts as accessories, should you need them.

As another eco-bonus, Suri partners with Climate Partner to offset 100% of all the manufacturing and transportation emissions of the toothbrushes’ production.  

Verdict

We really liked the Suri. It’s simple. You don’t have to download an app. You just charge it and brush – and with its phenomenal battery life, you won’t need to keep it in its charger or take the charger with you when you travel. And it’s a great price for a sonic toothbrush that uses far less plastic than normal and has recyclable heads.

All in all, it’s a great electric toothbrush.

If you’d like to see which other electric toothbrushes we’d recommend, have a look at our round-ups of the best electric toothbrushes and the best cheap electric toothbrushes we’ve tested.