SmileDirectClub Smile Spa Ultrasonic and UV Cleaning Machine for Alingers, Retainers, Toothbrush Heads, and More

I'm on my third unit and I will buy another when this one breaks down because despite the eventual failures this is still convenient and effective. This has been my experience: 1) First unit, 4 months in: The hinge broke and the lid separated. I had to buy a new one. Fix: Right out of the box, lay a narrow strip of duct tape across the hinge to reinforce it. 2) Second unit, 2 months in: The UV bulb partially burned out. On activation, the bulb came on to full brightness but then, within a second, dimmed to half brightness. The bulb should come on and stay on at a consistent brightness level. The sonic cleaning process doesn't rely on the UV bulb, so I continued to use this unit despite the bulb failure. 3) Second unit, 10 months in: The start button stopped working consistently -- the unit would turn on about once every 5-10 button pushes, and eventually stopped coming on at all. I bought a third unit. 4) Third unit, 2 months in: Going strong. Hinge is reinforced, UV bulb is bright. Why I keep buying it: It is very well designed for cleaning my retainers and keeping them safe and out of sight when I am not wearing them. I use plain tap water (no cleaner tabs or mouthwash) and the sonic cleaning appears very effective -- even when I brush my retainers before putting them in for cleaning, the left-over water shows debris that has been detached from the surface. This is exactly what I want. I don't know what difference the UV light makes but I can say that my night-time retainers that I've worn for 5 months are squeaky clean. During the day I keep my retainers in the empty cleaner where they stay dry and out of the way. This unit does take up some bathroom counter space but it is more space-efficient than rectangular sonic cleaners and doubles as a discreet retainer keeper as well. I gave this five stars because I find it very effective to clean my retainers and no other sonic cleaner is as space-efficient as this one.

The hinge is a little fragile, but an amazing sonic cleaner.

This thing sucks, plain & simple. I ordered one, it broke within a month so I got a replacement and now that one just broke. It held on for a few months longer than the first one but overall, it will always break. It’s just a matter of when. The plastic top has also loosened and fell off as well as cracks formed where the lid connects to the base. The top is also broken on one side of the hinge that holds it in place. It’s not very sanitary either considering you can’t (if it’s NOT broken) take the plastic, see-through dome off to clean/rinse out so it gets all foggy, moist & cloudy in there. Overall just a waste of money and not built for everyday use.

Works great! Love it!

Here are my thoughts, initial impressions on this ultrasonic cleaner and ultrasonic cleaners in general. If you don't want to read all of it, just get this for now but pay attention for new ultrasonic cleaner releases in the future because the current selection is a major letdown. Especially when you're taking about maintenance of people's dental hygiene, one of the most important pillars to one's health, this is a a major problem. Hopefully a reputable brand comes into the space soon and creates a reliable ultrasonic cleaner. I tried 2 Chinese cleaners before this one and before iSonic. The 2 Chinese cleaners had good ratings, 4.7 and 5 stars. You soon realize all these reviews are paid off the moment you get these cleaners and try them out. One stopped working on the second try and the other made a synthetic buzzing noise and wasn't not actually doing anything. You can put your finger in the cleaner after turning it on and should feel the micro vibrations in the water. You should also see the water moving albeit very slightly. Also the 2 Chinese cleaners didn't have a window to look inside while it was cleaning, I wonder if this is intentional to the hide the fact they're not actually doing anything. Very worrisome there are products like this on Amazon flying under the radar and there are probably people using them right now without realizing they've been scammed. I couldn't find any other reliable brands that I'd heard of or seem legit so I guess it kind of comes down to this and iSonic. To me, this wins out for 3 reasons: relatively small size, holes to let the potential heat escape, longer run time before auto shut off. Upsides: Size: the iSonic is the same height but twice in width making it difficult to fit on a small bathroom counter. It's just massive and will stick out like a sore thumb on any counter setup. Heat: heat is very bad for retainers and will warp the plastic. putting my finger in the iSonic using room temperature water I could notice the water heated up very quickly. Also it doesn't have any holes in the lid to let the heat escape which you can tell by the foggy lid. I think Smile Spa can still get very hot but only if you make the mistake of using hot water to begin with. Run-time: the Smile Spa runs at a nice lengthy 10 minutes albeit with slightly less strength than the iSonic. The iSonic is probably slightly stronger, more vigorous ultrasonic technology, but the trade off is that the autorun stops after just 5 minutes. I guess it just depends on your preference but I prefer the less strength of the Smile Spa since that is probably what keeps it from overheating and potentially warping the retainers in the future. Those are the upsides to the Smile Spa here's the downsides. There is a common defect where the plastic in the back starts to break, exposing the wire after a few months. I've only had it for a few days and it hasn't happened yet but it seems very common. If it happens to me outside the return window you can bet I'm going to bother Amazon about it when it happens. That's simply unacceptable. Hopefully SmileDirectClub resolved the issue with their last batch. You probably noticed I didn't say I'd bother SmileDirectClub if it breaks. Well you can't since the company shutdown last year. Meaning you're buying a product that has no support from the manufacturer. This is a major downside. The thing I'm realizing with ultrasonic cleaners in general, regardless of the brand, is it's meant to be more like a "sanitizer, not a dishwasher". It says this in the Smile Spa manual itself. My retainers were really dirty, I left them this way for a couple days to see how effective/ineffective the ultrasonic cleaner would be. It took off some "dirt" which you could see at the bottom on the tank but not a whole lot. Likely these are most effective if you're using it daily to get the bits off of it before they get larger and stick on too much, requiring a brush. But we'll see, it may be that you still have to manually brush the retainers every couple days or week to get rid of the stuff really stuck on there. I'll update this once I've had more time with it and know the results. Overall right now I think this a good addition to my bathroom counter and I wish I had started using a ultrasonic cleaner sooner.

I got Invisalign this year and got this cleaner in February. I've now just finished my 30 tray set and this little pod is still going. I've used it every day, twice a day for almost a year and I've been very happy with its performance. Eventually I know this will die, and I do plan to purchase another as I transition to my retainers. For anyone looking at this one vs the Invisalign branded ultrasonic cleaner, I hope you get this one. I bought the Invisalign unit from their website and it did not power on, I sent several emails to their customer service for a return and they never responded. If this review loses them even one sale, I will have done my part for a more fair and just society!

Works until it doesn’t. We have purchased two now over the last two years. They have stopped working between 10 and 14 months. Like most other reviews the top cracks or the wires exposed. This time the bottom fell off and the start button stopped working.

I don’t know what kind of plastic they use on these things, but it breaks off in bits. The whole thing finally fell apart. Does not seem like a thing you wanna clean your retainers in.

Dejan los alineadores súper limpios usando solo agua! Y no queda ni una mancha (como cuando los lavas con pasta de dientes)

Broke after a few months of use, now it won't even turn on

I've worn retainers to sleep every night for about 13 years, and I was looking for a way to prolong their life. Honestly, it could work but I really can't tell - at least comparing them before and after and to the videos I've see online of other products that showcase the same benefits.

This came with a U.S. style plug, but luckily I had a travel converter. For the first couple weeks of use it was great and worked how it should. Slowly the UV light would come on/off randomly, then the it started randomly stop/starting and then even when it was on the power would seem to be at about 10%. As of now I am just using it as a bath with none of the benefits it's meant to have. I would highly suggest not buying this.

The title is a bit of a joke; everything was all going well, working effectively and easily set up until I noticed the plastic around the UV light had started to crack and subsequently fallen off. It still works fine, just less appealing to look at.