Design, usability, clean & general use
Many of us buy our oral care products online nowadays, but it is safe to say the box for the Sonic-Fusion 2.0 grabs your attention.
Firstly it is really quite big and the use of a bold orange color really works.
What I do like is that there is quite a bit of information on the box to explain what the product is, so you can make a bit more of an informed purchasing decision even if you had never come across this before.
The exact box content will depend on the variant you have opted for. The different variants I have listed above.
I have the standard SF-03 Sonic-Fusion 2.0 in black, although you can get it in white too.
Overall it is a smart and fairly compact unit that sits nicely on most bathroom countertops. If space is at a premium then this might not be ideal, but I don’t think they could have made the footprint much smaller.
I like the chrome accents on the unit. They give it a more premium look, even if it is just painted plastic. The whole unit is primarily of plastic construction.
This shouldn’t be an issue for most, but because it requires mains power to function, you need to be in range of a power outlet. The lead is approx 4ft in length.
The Sonic-Fusion 2.0 is essentially made up of two main parts, albeit they are integrated too. You have the water flosser and then the toothbrush.
The basic design of the Sonic-Fusion 2.0 is similar to most of other Waterpik’s countertop water flossers. You have a base station which has all the electronics inside and then a water tank/reservoir that sits on top.
Where you would normally have a handle connected to the unit via a hose, in this instance you have an electric toothbrush.
The SF-03 has a slightly different design to the Professional SF-04.
Both have a rounded esq shape to them, but the SF-03 I have here is a little more rounded. There are no harsh edges and the reservoir and base unit has a rounded rectangle, almost oval shape to it. You are best off looking at the hands on images to see what I mean.
At the top sits the reservoir that has a 16 ounce (473ml) capacity.
The tank itself is transparent, with a completely removable lid. Alternatively you can leave the lid attached and one half of the lid opens to easily fill the tank.
On the base of the tank is a sprung loaded plug that fits into a hole on the main base station and lets the water flow into the pump below.
The reservoir is easily removed and replaced onto the base station. This makes it easy to fill the unit.
The whole unit is actually marginally thinner at this point, giving a slightly tapered look to the Sonic-Fusion.
Sealed inside the unit is the pump and all the technology needed to make this unit function.
The front of the base station is extended out to provide a platform onto which the toothbrush sits.
The removable brush when placed here clips into the detachable hose.
It is this hose that feeds the water from the main unit into the toothbrush handle.
WIth a length of about 3 feet you have a reasonable stretch from the base unit. Therefore at full stretch, you can be about 7 feet away from the power socket.
The hose tucks neatly away into the front of the unit for convenient storage. There is a slight recess in the body of the water flosser to allow the hose to tuck away.
The right side of the Sonic-Fusion flosser is free of buttons or controls. On the left side is a large rotatable dial, this controls the pressure of the water.
You have the choice of 10 different settings ranging from 10 to 100PSI and this can be controlled before or during the use of the Sonic-Fusion. The pressure control knob is easy to rotate and there is a marker to make it clear which setting you have chosen.
It is powerful and most will settle around 6, 7 or 8 in my opinion, a balance between comfort and flossing power.
The base of the Sonic-Fusion has 4 rubber feet to keep it securely in place on a countertop, along with some regulatory information.
Extending from the back of the unit is the power cable.
At the end of the 4ft power cord is a 2 pin US power adapter that supports 100-240v.
Taking a look at the toothbrush in a bit more detail, you will see that it sits centrally on the base unit. It has a recess in this base unit so that the brush sits more securely and won’t fall over.
When in this position, provided mains power is connected, the toothbrush will recharge the internal battery.
The toothbrush is an electric toothbrush, which can function independently of the water flosser.
With a conventional water flosser there is a handle with a nozzle at the top, in this instance, the toothbrush is the handle and the nozzle is the brush head.
The toothbrush handle has to connect to the water flosser via the hose that clips into the base of the handle.
The hose actually sits proud of the base of the toothbrush handle. The attachment is designed in such a way that the hose rotates a full 360 degrees, so as not to limit your control and movement of the handle when flossing. That said, the nature of having a hose attached does cause a slight resistance when handling the brush.
The hose clips in securely and is unclipped by pressing a large circular button located on the back of the brush handle.
If you have ever used an electric toothbrush before you will notice that the handle is slightly chunkier than a Sonicare or Oral-B brush. For some this is a positive, for others, the larger in hand feel isn’t as comfortable.
The design of the handle is fine, but it doesn’t feel quite as refined as the likes of Sonicare. It is also a little heavier.
There are no rubber grips like you see on some brushes nor textured surfaces on the rear of the handle. It is really quite smooth to the touch. The older model did have a textured surface on the back of the handle.
The brush and floss button both stand fractionally proud of the main body and the floss button does have 4 raised dots which help detect and hold the brush a little.
The front of the handle has a long oval shaped panel, within which sits the main controls and LEDs for the toothbrush.
The top button is the ‘Brush’ button and underneath this sits the ‘Floss’ button. Both of these have a silver border around them to make them stand out. They do too have an LED above them to signal they are being used.
Below these is a much smaller ‘speed’ button which allows you to select between the 2 different power settings of this toothbrush.
2 LED’s underneath are used to signal which power setting is selected. 2 LEDs lit means the highest power setting has been chosen, while only 1 LED will be lit when the lower power mode is selected.
The power/speed can only be changed once the brush has been turned on. It will default to the last speed setting used. You don’t have to change it each time you use the brush, unless you specifically want to change the speed.
All the buttons are slightly concave helping the fingertips naturally fall and rest in place.
With the SF-04 Professional, rather than LEDs above the brush and floss button, the light is emitted around the side. This is something that differentiates the professional model slightly.
On the lower part of the panel is a battery icon, with 3 LED’s stacked below it. Each LED shines white light and indicates the battery charge.
Roughly speaking each LED represents 33% battery power remaining. If all three are lit then there is plenty of power. Just the one lit, then a charge will be required soon.
Underneath this is the Waterpik logo.
All wording on the handle is silver in color, matching in with the theme.
At the top of the handle is where the brush head attaches.
A metal tube feeds out from the motor inside the brush handle.
Unlike other brushes, this tube has a small hole in it, through which the water comes if being used as a flosser.
With the SF-03 variant, you get 1 x compact brush head included in the box. It simply pushes onto and pulls off of the handle. The SF-04 comes with 2, 1 x compact and 1 x full size.
When you want to remove the head, you simply pull it off.
The actual brush head is shaped similar to that you might see on a Philips Sonicare brush. It is not a circular brush head like you get with Oral-B electric toothbrushes.
Like any head it is made up of a whole number of bristle clusters. The compact head has 16 bristle clusters whilst the full size has 26. The bristles are not all the same length, you have a few clusters that are taller in order to try and achieve the best clean possible.
Towards the tip of the brush head, just below the upper bristle clusters is a small tube that acts as the nozzle for the water flow, it is the blue bit within the bristles.
The bristles feel a little firmer to the touch than you might expect but they are actually quite soft on the teeth and gums. There is quite a lot of flex in them.
It is worth knowing that at the bottom of the brush head is a small plastic ring. It is black in color on this model, although they come in white or silver. This is actually removable. These colored rings are designed to make it clear whose head is whose.
Imagine a husband and wife sharing the brush handle, they each have their own brush head. The husband may have the black ringed brush head, whilst the wife has the silver color.
There is no place on the base unit to store additional brush heads with the SF-03 variant. With the Professional, you get a removable magnetic attachment that adheres to the base unit and gives a place to store 1 brush head upright.
If you have the SF-03, you could potentially use the included travel case. More on this shortly.
Unlike Oral-B and Sonicare who offer a vast array of different styled brush heads, Waterpik offers just the one, albeit in a standard and compact size.
You don’t really need lots of different styled brush heads. Generally, more benefit is going to be gained from your brushing time and technique than the head itself.
The heads should be replaced every three months. Unlike some brush heads that have fading bristles or icons that light up on the handle, there are no reminder systems built into the brush, so it is up to you to replace it regularly.
Replacement heads come in packs of 2 and cost $25.
Sealed inside the brush handle are the motor and battery.
The handle/toothbrush is water resistant and is fine to be rinsed under the tap. You can even use it in the shower if you really desire. Just avoid submerging it completely.
It is a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery inside the handle that offers 2 weeks of use on a full charge according to Watepik.
This flossing toothbrush offers 3 cleaning modes.
These are not the clean, sensitive, massage, whitening and deep clean style modes you might see on other electric toothbrushes.
In this instance this flossing toothbrush offers:
- Brush
- Floss
- Brush and floss
You control each mode by a single press on the relevant button.
Press the brush button once to turn it on and press it again to turn it off.
Press the floss button once and the water will begin flowing out the brush head, press it again to stop it.
To brush and floss, first press the brush button, followed by the floss button.
Although you press a physical button on the handle, it is worth knowing that the handle communicates wirelessly back to the main unit to enable and disable the water flow.
The actual clean offered by the toothbrush is very good. In my tests it did a great job of cleaning away the plaque, even along the gumline and in between the teeth. Better than I expected to be honest. And these results were from brushing alone, no use of the water flosser.
But, the actual cleaning experiencedoesn’t feel quite as thorough as what you get from Sonicare or Oral-B electric brushes. I am not sure if I can really explain why, just a psychological feeling. The actual plaque disclosing tests I completed were certainly comparable to these leading brands. I think it is the brush head itself. It is doing a good job of the cleaning, but the cut of the bristles just offers a different brushing sensation that feels less invigorating.
Like a Philips Sonicare toothbrush, this actually offers up to 31,000 brush strokes per minute.
Waterpik hasn’t been explicit in how the lower of the 2 speeds options on this brush differs from the full/higher speed option. I can say it did feel less intense and powerful. It felt like the power dropped by about a third.
What I particularly welcome with this newer 2.0 model is the noise it makes.
It is by no means quiet, but the sound is more like a regular sonic electric toothbrush. This is unlike the first generation which had a very irritating whining sound.
Like any good electric toothbrush this has a timer and pacer built-in. They are very important and help encourage you and me to brush evenly and for the right amount of time.
Once powered on in the brushing mode, the built-in timer is activated. At 30 second intervals, there is a slight pause in the brush head motion, which also causes a change in sound. This is your alert to move from one quadrant of the mouth to another.
Once you have cleaned the upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left quadrants for 30 seconds each, the 2 minutes has elapsed and the brush will automatically turn itself off.
This feature is disabled when flossing. The unit will continue to pump from the moment it is switched on until it is turned off.
Not present in the Sonic-Fusion 2.0 is a pressure sensor. It is a shame it does not have such. This is much more common now in other electric toothbrushes like the Sonicare 4100 Series and the Oral-B Smart 1500.
In those brushes with a pressure sensor built-in, it will alert you, usually via a change in sound or some sort of visual alert if you are applying too much force when brushing.
Bristles need essentially only skim the surface of the teeth, you don’t need to scrub.
With this Sonic-Fusion, you will hear the brush staining a little if you brush with too much pressure but there is no actual pressure sensor built in to offer any other form of alert.
Despite having used the first generation of the Fusion, and Waterpiks toothbrush heads for their standalone water flossers, I still find it a bit strange using a toothbrush as the tool to floss your teeth.
Maybe it is because I am used to the smaller handles and slimmer nozzles found on most other water flossers, but using a toothbrush handle is a bit more clunky in a way.
Yes, I could use this daily, but it still doesn’t feel optimum.
You are not able to control the water jet in quite the same way as you can with a regular water flosser. For me, the brush head restricts the accuracy you have with the smaller nozzles on classic water flossers.
Even when you are using the flossing mode only, you kind of feel like you are brushing your teeth because the bristles inevitably make contact. Maybe this is a good thing, I am not so sure.
You can use the sonic toothbrush and the water flosser at the same time rather than independently.
A clever concept that kills two birds with one stone as they say. I don’t dislike it, but it takes a bit of getting used to.
My testing was not to the standards of clinical trials, but you generally hold a toothbrush head at 45 degrees to the gumline, whilst with a water flosser this is at 90 degrees. The manual suggests you use the 45 degree angle.
I am sure overall it helps get a good clean. My teeth feel cleaner in this mode than brushing alone. The water being fired in at the same time certainly gave the sensation that it was doing a better job.
This combined brush and floss mode would work well if you are in a bit of a rush and have limited time to clean the teeth.
It also works well for the self-confessed lazy flossers, who would simply skip the exercise otherwise. I have to give credit to Waterpik here.
Many people don’t brush for long enough, let alone clean interdental spaces, so if you can do both at the same time with some effectiveness, then wonderful.
And it has proven to be effective in the testing Waterpik has conducted.
But a point I want to raise is the sequence for brushing and flossing.
In Waterpiks demonstration videos, they suggest using the brush and then flossing.
However, assuming you brush with a fluoride based toothpaste, flossing with water afterwards will wash away much of, if not all of the protective layer left behind by the paste.
Therefore flossing first, then brushing is likely the better option.
The Sonic-Fusion 2.0, like the original, can work for the average user, with no overly complicated dental history. But, for those with more advanced oral care needs or conditions are likely better served by other products.
For example someone with periodontal pockets will not be able to get the same deep cleaning as they can with a conventional water flosser with specialized tips.
Interdental brushes and string floss are still considered the best options for cleaning between the teeth by many professionals.
The pressure setting used (controlled via the rotating dial on the left) does dictate how much flossing time you get.
Waterpik claims 60+ seconds of flossing time, but I think they are selling themselves a little short here.
Set to pressure setting 10, from a full tank I achieved 1 minute and 6 seconds of flossing. That is 66 seconds in total. But few would ever want to use the 10 pressure setting, that is quite intense.
When dropped down to the lowest setting, I achieved around 4 minutes and 40 seconds, that is 280 seconds in total.
Of course, you need to find what works for you, but you can more than likely get 2 flossing sessions from a full tank of water.
It is possible to use mouthwash in the flosser if you want or prefer. It is overkill and expensive to replace all water with mouthwash. A dash or 2 of mouthwash in with the water often works well to give that extra freshness.
Giving extra credibility to the Sonic-Fusion is the fact that it is ADA accepted.
What does this mean?
Well, the American Dental Association (ADA) is one of the leading dental bodies within the USA and to earn their seal of acceptance, the product has to go through a series of tests and be scrutinized by many professionals.
Essentially, this is a great accreditation to have and it can give you extra confidence that this is approved by dentists and will help you improve your oral health.
Included in the box is a travel case, a useful accessory.
The case holds the brush handle and up to 2 brush heads, as is common.
It is hinged on the left side and opens up like a book.
Rather than being a solid color, the back half of the case is black plastic whilst the front is a transparent/clear plastic, so you can see the brush in the case.
There are vents built in so that air can flow and reduce moisture and bacteria built up.
The clip on the right side locks reassuringly into place protecting the brush in transit from damage and accidental activation.
The edges are curved and the overall size is fractionally taller than the brush handle itself and about twice as wide.
This case is for the brush only and not the water flosser element. Whilst you can move the water flosser itself, it is not travel friendly.
If going on vacation, the idea is you take the brush and leave the flosser at home.
And finally, Waterpik does offer a 36 month/3 year warranty as standard, should anything go wrong, which is excellent.
The Sonic-Fusion is well built and looks good. The cleaning results from the toothbrush are impressive. Whilst the flossing and brushing combo performs ok, this second generation still hasn’t won me over.
I feel that a separate water flosser and electric toothbrush suit most people better. This is because you have more choices. You can gain extra features in the toothbrush and you can get a dedicated water flosser that better serves more specific oral care needs. Not to mention it is a little easier to control and move around the mouth than this flossing toothbrush solution.
