The pacer momentarily pauses the brushing action every 30 seconds to tell you to move on to the next part of the mouth. After 2 minutes the alert changes slightly to tell you that you have brushed for long enough. When low, the battery notification LED will flash red and you may notice the motor slow. A full recharge takes up to 12 hours. The battery LED will flash green whilst charging, before turning off once complete. As standard, you get a 2 year warranty but for the sake of a few minutes of registering the brush online, you can gain an additional year for free. No other leading brands are doing this. It will stand upright on a countertop and strategically placed raised dots on the rear of the handle prevent the brush from rolling along a flat countertop.

If you know you have a habit of brushing with too much force, the Pro 3 will help you rectify this.

Great cleaning, useful features and superb battery life – this is the best affordable electric toothbrush

Each function button has a slightly concave shape and a different material finish to the rest of the handle, thus it’s obvious to the fingertip where it is positioned This is common amongst electric toothbrushes, but it has not been designed to be easily repaired by yourself. Trying to replace parts like the battery will likely break the brush. This makes it more likely to be discarded rather than repaired if broken. This is a result of the brushless magnetic drive system used exclusively in the iO Series. It directs the cleaning energy to the bristle tips along with what is known as micro vibrations. An intentional design choice, it does make for a more enjoyable experience. Typically, my recommended model, the Pro 3 3500 is the same price if not cheaper than the Pro 3 3000.

As soon as you power on the iO3, the 2 minute timer and pacer are activated. The pacer momentarily pauses the brushing action every 30 seconds to tell you to move on to the next part of the mouth. After 2 minutes the alert changes slightly to tell you that you have brushed for long enough. For the vast majority of us, 1 cleaning mode is all we need. I don’t use all 7 modes on my iO Series 9.There are no gloss plastics here. Instead, there is a matt finish to the plastic body that somehow feels quite grippy to the touch despite the reduced number of textured surfaces and gripping points compared to models like the Vitality Pro. But, at 2+ weeks it falls short of the industry average which is really at 3-4 weeks. By no means is this a deal breaker when considering the Pro 3. Yes, some may have a display built-in; the iO3 doesn’t. But it does mean the Series 3 looks much more premium and desirable than some of the more affordable models from Oral-B. Applying excessive force when you brush can be damaging to the teeth and gums, but too little pressure can result in less effective cleaning.