The Oral-B iO Toothbrush is no doubt one of the best electrical toothbrushes in the market right now. I recently made the switch from the normal manual brushes to the Oral-B electric brush and it has been a positive change in my hygiene practice.
Not only does it have multiple motor settings but it also tracks the usage on its app, making tech enthusiasts like me very interested in the device.
In the last few months of using the brush it never really gave me any issues or errors with the usage with the brush until a few days ago when I turned on the brush as usual and it didn’t do anything- no lights, no rotating, no nothing.
At first I thought it was a charging issue, but the charger stand was on and I use it everyday and it never really gives a problem like this so I decided to inspect.
By the way, I also made a short video about this topic which I uploaded on my YouTube channel but you can also watch it below.
On the video, I showed how I fixed this issue by disassembling the brush and checking if there’s anything wrong with its battery or motor.
How to Fix Oral-B iO Toothbrush Won’t Turn On
Here’s how I troubleshooted and fixed the problem, follow along if you face a similar issue.
Disassemble The Brush
When I couldn’t figure out the problem on the surface or the app, I decided to look inside the circuit of the brush to check if there was a short component.
To do that, I started by disassembling the brush, which seems difficult thanks to its sleek design, but after trial and error I figured out that if you place the brush on its stand, hold it firmly and gently twist it, the bottom comes right out.
Next, I pulled out the brush head before taking a very small screw driver to prying and removing the small metal cover on top to take out the inner circuit and battery. Just remember to keep an eye on all the parts you take off of the brush.
Remove and Reinsert the Battery
After the circuit was out of the body, I decided to restart the brush by removing and reinserting the battery.
Now since it is a closed mechanism, taking out the battery was a bit tricky, I tried taking it out with my finger like you do with remotes and torches, but it was really jammed in there.
So I took the small screw driver again and shoved it to the side to shimmy the battery out and waited a few minutes before putting it back in.
I tried restarting the brush, still outside the casing to check, but it did not work even after triggering it with the charger base.
Next I tried testing the battery once with a battery tester and found out that the voltage was around 2V, when it should be over 3.4V according to the manual.
Now, the issue was clear, the battery was too drained to charge anymore and needed to be replaced. Thankfully, I had batteries of that size laying in my electronics box so it was an easy replacement.
I tried triggering it again with the charger before powering it on and et voila- the brush started working again.
Case2: Motor Issue
Now, replacing the battery fixed my issue but if it wasn’t the battery that was at fault for you, there could be another component that could need replacement.
Sometimes, the light turns on but the brush head does not spin or vibrate, this could be a motor issue.
To check that, disassemble the brush to reveal the inner elements and check if there is any visible damage to the motor part which is located right below the brush head.
If there is no visible damage but the brush still does not move despite having the lights on, try inspecting it further by giving the motor direct power.
To do that, I once took a spare battery and connected that to battery clasps and trigger pins, positive to positive terminal and negative to negative terminal.
If the brush spins with direct power, then the motor must be working and it could be a loose connection which needs to be spot welded. But if the motor does not spin even with direct source, then it might need replacement.
I hope these points help you in isolating the issue next time your Oral-B iO brush decides to give you a problem.
