Electric Toothbrushes Achieve Much Greater Reliability Using Reed Sensors

Introduction

For years manufactures of electric toothbrushes have used mechanical slide switches to power the toothbrush on and off.  The mechanical slide switches are subject to very harsh environments having to deal with chemically active toothpastes, acidic saliva, and running water at various temperatures and acidity/alkalinity levels.  This environment attacks the electrical contacts in the slide switch and in many cases, after a short time the slide switch fails to turn the toothbrush on and off.  Going to a Reed Sensor has eliminated this problem. 

Full write-up: Electric toothbrush sensor application

Features

• Contacts dynamically tested
• Magnet and switch are isolated by the toothbrush casing
• Magnet is not affected by the environment
• Millions of operations reliably
• Reed contact is sealed in the casing of the toothbrush
• Reed contact never comes in contact with the outside environment
• Reed switch is hermetically sealed
• Surface mount or through hole mounting