You really ought to be flossing your teeth. The benefits are too great, and it doesn’t much of a leap of imagination to see firsthand that the plaque you’re pulling out from between your teeth is better left in the trashcan than eating away at your enamel.
But some folks—lots of folks—don’t dig dental floss. It makes their gums bleed, at least until they make it a regular habit, or they have sensitive gums that don’t like bits of string jammed up in their face every night. Consider a gentler way to floss: the water flosser.
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power, pop, and lock
There’s good button feel, with fairly crisp response for water-resistant buttons, that toggle the Waterpik on/off and cycle through the three power settings. The jet always pulsates slightly.
Whether it knocks away plaque more effectively than a steady stream, I don’t know. But I did like it how felt.
I wish there was more detail to the battery charge level indicator on the front, such as showing roughly how much charge is remaining. Waterpik says it should take about four hours to fully charge it.
That’s longer than I’d expect from a device with an internal lithium-ion battery, but it doesn’t matter that much because it also claims to supply about four weeks of daily use on a single charge, so you won’t have to charge it often.
Waterpik’s advertising of a 45 second supply of water is accurate, given my (repeated) testing of shooting full tanks of water across the room into the sink, the dog’s water bowl, and a few lucky houseplants who were bored anyway.
There are four attachment heads, including two Classic Jet Tips, which is just a bare plastic tube that shoots water, like a Super Soaker that’d be used by the Geico gecko.
The Plaque Seeker Tip, which seems to be amusingly trademarked and consists of three long tufts of brush bristles arranged around the water jet nozzle for navigating around implants, crowns, bridgework, and retainers.
And the Orthodontic Tip, especially for braces, consists of a continuous ring of brush bristles in a circle around the water jet nozzle. I don’t have braces with which to test it out, but it worked pretty well for clearing plaque away from around the gum line.
There’s also a travel attachment that locks in place of a head but is sealed off to prevent the Waterpik from turning on in transit accidentally and soaking your luggage. Nice touch, but any idiot would empty the water before packing it anyway, so I think it’s unnecessary.
All the heads lock into the top of the unit securely, with a satisfyingly tactile click. You can turn a notched knob 360 degrees to angle the head how you like it, and to remove the head you just press a button and it easily slides out.
The grip is textured on the back to keep the slick plastic from slipping out of your grasp when wet, and it’s comfortably sized in my medium-sized man hands.
Cables and Hatches
The Waterpik comes with more little thoughtful details than most of its competitors. The translucent snap case holds all the attachments heads for organization and travel, and there are even little vents in the top so that bits of water have a way to evaporate and not mildew.
The microfiber, cinch-top bag is big enough to hold the flosser, charger, and attachment head case with room to spare. The magnetic charger is sweet. It just hops into place over the front of the unit, which is wide enough on its base to stand up without tipping over.
What’s annoying is that only a USB-A cable comes with it. I’m sure plenty of people are fine and dandy recharging all their home electronics by plugging them into their computer, but it’s almost 2025 and an awful lot of computers (and any MacBook) don’t come with USB-A ports.
The last time I had a computer with a USB-A port and not just USB-C ports was sometime in the mid-2010s, so to recharge the Waterpik I had to go hunting for novel ways to do it.
If they were intent on going the route of including a USB cable, they should’ve packaged it with a wall charger so that you have the option of just charging it off a standard wall outlet in the bathroom.
There’s a filling latch in the water reservoir that flips open, but it’s rather small and you have to pinpoint the flow of water from a faucet into the hole. It’s no big deal, because the Waterpik is waterproof and there’s no real downside to getting the whole thing wet, aside from some drippiness.
The latch doesn’t leak, thanks to a rubber O-ring, but like with The Philips Sonicare cordless water flosser, they could’ve just eliminated this part for simplicity’s sake since the whole reservoir is easy to remove via a locking latch on the bottom of the unit, and easier to fill that way.
Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 vs. Philips Sonicare Cordless Power Flosser 3000
Cordless Power Flosser 3000 (opens in a new window)
The Philips Sonicare is more straight sided than the Waterpik, but the Waterpik doesn’t just feel not clumsy. It somehow feels a bit more nimble, since more of its weight it centered low. The textured grip of the Waterpik is more ergonomic, too.
The Waterprik also comes with more attachments heads (four, plus a travel plug versus two), a carrying case for ’em, and a microfiber travel bag, plus that nifty magnetic charger. The filling hole in its water reservoir is smaller and harder to fill than the Philips Sonicare’s, though.
I also don’t like that you only get a USB-A charging cable, whereas the Philips Sonicare also gives you a wall charger so you can use a regular outlet.
The power, water flow, water capacity, and runtime are similar to each other, though the pulsating “deep clean” setting on the Philips Sonicare is mildly neat. But overall I prefer the Waterpik. Read my full review of the Philips Sonicare water flosser to learn more.
Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 vs. Waterpik Radiance
Swapping to a corded water flosser means gaining a more nimble water nozzle head that’s less tiring on your wrist to hold, although the cordless Waterpik isn’t that heavy or tiring to use for a normal water flossing session, unless you have mobility issues with your hand.
The Radiance comes with a water reservoir large enough for about 90 seconds before needing a refill, which is more than enough time for normal flossing jobs. It also comes with seven attachment heads, 10 power settings, and a sensitive mode for sensitive gums.
You trade away a fair chunk of your countertop space, though. If I had more counter space, I’d pay the paltry extra few bucks and go with the Radiance, but with bathroom real estate at a premium, the cordless Waterpik gets my vote.
Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 vs. Philips Sonicare Power Flosser 3000 (Corded)
Power Flosser 3000 (opens in a new window)
The corded Philips Sonicare has the same two attachment heads as its cordless cousin, although the corded version has a wider range of intensity settings that are adjustable via a knob from 1 to 10.
Using it is less unwieldy than the Waterpik Cordless Advanced 2.0 Water Flosser, or any other cordless water flosser, because the nozzle where the water comes out is smaller and more nimble when the water reservoir stays planted on the counter.
Even though the nozzle is smaller, it wasn’t particularly ergonomic, even compared to the cordless Waterpik’s much larger grip. In my bathroom, though, power outlets are few and far between. That nudges me toward a cordless flosser.
final thoughts
The Waterpik impressed me the most of the cordless water flossers I’ve used so far. While the price and basic operations, such as power and runtime, are in line with its competitors, the small details of attachment heads, carrying case, and textured grip win me over.
Waterpik has long been nearly synonymous with “water flosser,” and judging from the Cordless Advanced 2.0, it’s well earned. Regular floss may be cheaper, but for sensitive gums or folks with hand dexterity issues, it may just be your pi(c)k of the year.
