Oral B electric toothbrush charger compatibility

May 22, 2014 12:05 PM

I currently own an Oral B electric toothbrush with charger unit #3757, 110-130V, 1.3W. I'm moving to Malaysia soon which has the 240V/50Hz power, so I got someone to bring me a new fancy Oral B from the UK which has the same electric supply. This comes with a charger that is also labeled #3757 but says 220-240V 0.9W. So my question is, can I safely charge the new toothbrush with the old charger until I leave the US? Or will the slightly higher powered charger fry it?
posted by hibbersk to Technology (3 answers total)

Best answer: That power rating is the peak capacity of the charger. The toothbrush draws the amount of power that it wants, and doesn't necessarily take everything available. (When it's fully charged, for instance, it stops drawing power entirely.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:16 PM on May 22, 2014

It will FRY it. I am saying this from bitter experience with the same situation with a toothbrush mix from US/UK with chargers. A loud bang and fizzle. So not what you want.

The UK only one is what you want to use in Malaysia where the plugs match up. Do not charge the new toothbrush with the US charger. Switch to a manual toothbrush in the meantime.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:46 PM on May 22, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies. After a bit more research I risked the brush on the new charger and it's been totally fine so far. viggorlijah, sorry to hear of your experience. Did you use a US charger in the UK? A friend had a similar problem with a hairdryer due to the UK voltage being higher.
posted by hibbersk at 6:38 AM on June 10, 2014 [1 favorite]