Skip to content

Toothbrushes

Working name: OpenBrush. The pilot category for Open Consumables.

What's documented here

  • Ecosystem, which manufacturers we map, which ones we don't, and why.
  • Compatibility and head families, the head-to-handle interface families we're measuring, organised by ecosystem and aftermarket vocabulary.

Why toothbrushes are the pilot

Toothbrush heads pass all three gates cleanly:

  1. The spec is complete. Shaft geometry, anti-rotation feature, retention force, vibration coupler, and bore tolerances capture the dimensions buyers care about. There is no fit-feel-fashion residue the spec cannot reach.
  2. The buyer has opted out of choice. The realistic buyer is someone who already picked their ecosystem (often years ago) and just wants the head to keep being available.
  3. Rebuyability beats novelty. Nobody wants a "new and improved" toothbrush head every 18 months; they want the one that fit last time to fit next time.

GB/T 40362-2021 covers retention performance but not interface geometry, so no pre-existing industry standard for the head-to-handle interface itself. Existing-layer check passes.

Stage

Phase 2: physical measurement. Desk research first pass is complete. The bottleneck is sample acquisition and measurement (Batch A: ~6 Xiaomi T-series handles and heads, both genuine and aftermarket).

The single highest-information question Batch A answers: do HOVEY/Meihong's T500 socket, Meitianlai/Ledi's T500 socket, and the official Xiaomi DDYST01SKS socket actually match? Track 13 found many factories converging on a branch taxonomy; whether that convergence is engineering or marketing is decided by these samples.

Scope

In scope:

  • consumer rechargeable electric toothbrushes (sonic and oscillating-rotating)
  • the mechanical interface between handle and head
  • compatibility documentation across existing ecosystems
  • printable adapters and reference CAD
  • test methodology for "compatible head" claims

Out of scope:

  • bristle-field design and clinical efficacy claims
  • charging interfaces (deferred to v2)
  • regulatory certification
  • taste calls: handle finish, head color, bristle stiffness preference, packaging design