Quip is a company with a plan to help us form better tooth brushing habits using holistic design rather than gimmicks. They’ve designed a simple electric toothbrush they hope will help promote dentist-recommended habits, without any bells and whistles.
With Quip, you can get an electric toothbrush, toothpaste, and a subscription plan to replace your brush head every three months.
The important brushing habits that Quip has set out to help us remember are these:
- Brush gently for 2 minutes at a time.
- Use short, tooth-sized strokes.
- Brush at the start and end of the day and between meals.
- Brush with soft, rounded bristles.
- Replace your brush every 3 months.
Despite many toothbrush advancements lately, like Bluetooth connectivity for instance, many people still fail to remember these important rules. To combat this, Quip designed a simple electric toothbrush that makes your tooth brushing routine easy, so that you can repeat it each and every time you brush your teeth.
Here are the main features of Quip’s toothbrush and service:
- A soft vibrating motor to promote gentle brushing.
- The vibrating motor automatically stops after 2 minutes, so you know to keep brushing.
- The vibrating motor also pauses every 30 seconds to remind you to move around the four quadrants of your mouth.
- The toothbrush comes with a wall-mount that doubles as a travel cover. The wall-mount has a special sticky surface that can be cleaned and re-stuck over and over.
- Takes AAA batteries, so there’s no bulky charger.
- Replaceable brush heads have soft, round bristles and are delivered to your door every three months, along with another AAA battery.
As you can see, Quip’s features are fairly simple…and that’s the point. Quip’s toothbrushes come in plastic handles, starting at $25, and metal handles, starting at $40. Quip’s toothbrushes come with a lifetime guarantee and you can get a refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied. Each refill costs $5, with free shipping, and comes automatically (and optionally) every 3 months, but you can cancel at any time. So, the big question is, does Quip’s service work? Is it worth it?
In my experience…yes and no, but as with anything, it’s really up to the user to create healthy habits; a toothbrush won’t do that for you. The toothbrush is well designed, albeit very basic. It’s slim and light. I went with the silver metal handle, which happens to match my Macbook Pro nicely.
The toothbrush does what it’s designed to; it does help make sure you brush for at least 2 minutes and to move the toothbrush around to different areas of your mouth. The vibration is fairly weak, however, compared to other electric toothbrushes I’ve used. The Quip toothbrush is very easy to hygienically store and travel with, thanks to the wall-mount/travel cover. I also really enjoyed the reminder to change my brush head after three months.
But here’s the thing, there are less expensive ways to get a good electric toothbrush with automated brush refills…hint: digital calendar reminders or Amazon Subscribe and Save. Quip would be good for someone who travels often and therefore doesn’t want to pack a bulky charger, however if you don’t mind a rechargeable toothbrush, you can get a similarly priced toothbrush that has been reviewed by dentists to confirm it’s tooth cleaning ability. Although Quip has a dentist recommendation on their site, there haven’t been large-scale studies done to confirm the merits of the Quip toothbrush.
There’s also the fact that Quip is the only place you can get replacement heads. If you don’t have the head subscription and you need a head, you’ll need to order it from Quip and wait for it to come. Also if you’re out of AAA batteries, you’re out of luck as well.
While I like the idea and the design of the toothbrush, the single-source and not to mention expensive head refill is what bothers me the most. $5 per replacement head is a lot compared to what you can get buying replacement heads in bulk.
If you’d like to give Quip a try, head to their website to order with minimal risk, considering their 30-day money-back guarantee.
Note: Links to Quip within this review include a referral code.
Source: The Quip Toothbrush was provided at a discount by the manufacturer for this review.
What I Like: Nice, simple design; 2-minute timer with 30 second intervals; Combined wall-mount and travel cover; Automatic reminder to change head every three months is nice.
What Needs Improvement: You can only get the replacement heads from Quip; Expensive head replacements; No real studies to prove the quality of the toothbrush.