The Waterpik Cordless Professional is the update to the much loved Cordless Plus. The Cordless Plus has been going strong for nearly 10 years and is about due for an update.
But the Cordless Professional isn’t an update…
Besides a slick coat of paint and a fancy name, the Cordless Professional is the same water flosser as the Cordless Plus when it comes to features and functions.
The main difference is the price:
Waterpik Cordless Professional – MSRP $69.99
Waterpik Cordless Plus – MSRP $54.95
So why the increase in price? Well the Cordless Professional does ship with a battery powered toothbrush, but you can buy that separately for $10. It would appear that the main reason for this update is so that Waterpik can charge you more for the same product.
So while the Cordless Plus is still available on store shelves, I recommend voting with your wallet and not pay more for the same product instead of overpaying for the same product that has not been updated in over 10 years.
WaterPik Cordless Professional
Unboxing the Waterpik Cordless Professional
If you were to tear open the box of your brand new Cordless Professional, this is what you would find inside:
Let’s break it down:
- Waterpik Cordless Professional body
- Classic Jet Tip X 2
- Plaque Seeker Tip
- Orthodontic Tip
- Charging Adapter
- Nano-Sonic Toothbrush
- Instruction manual
As is common on all Waterpik water flossers, the instruction manual is very light on information.
Examining the Waterpik Cordless Professional (WP-440)
Let’s take a closer look at the various features you will find on the Cordless Professional, starting with the front of the unit:
Towards the top of the unit you will find two switches:
The switches perform the following functions:
1. Power switch – Use the top button to turn your Cordless Professional on or off.
2. Water Pressure Selector – Use this switch to choose between the two water pressure modes. The bottom setting is low (45 PSI) and the upper setting is high (75 PSI).
If you have ever used a countertop water flosser, like the Aquarius Professional, then the low pressure mode is roughly equal to the “4” setting and the High pressure mode is roughly equal to the “7” setting.
While the power switch slides up and down with a satisfying click, the pressure button is loose and unresponsive. In fact, with the high pressure selected, the button looks like it sits in the middle:
It doesn’t go any further up than that. This exact same problem was found on the Cordless Plus, the model that the Cordless Professional replaces. More proof that this model is identical to it’s predecessor with no improvements made.
Now unless you share your Waterpik, it is likely you will pick one of the water pressure settings and stick with it. As a result we do not believe that the clunkiness of the button will be an issue for most users.
Located at the base of the Cordless Professional is the charging socket:
This is the part of the Cordless Professional that you plug the charger into.
If you look closely at the charging inlet you will notice a small blob of what appears to be silicone grease on each of the pins. When you plug the charger in for the first time the Silicone will smear around the charging socket.
The grease is just there to prevent the contacts from corroding while in transit or storage from the manufacturer to the stores.
Now it is worth mentioning that the gold pins do corrode quite easily, which we suspect is why we have received many reports of customers claiming that their Waterpik Cordless Professional won’t charge. We had a similar issue after 7 months of use and found scraping away at the contacts completely solved the problem.
Making your way around to the rear of the unit you will come across the reservoir (water tank):
The reservoir holds just over 7 oz of water, just enough for 45 seconds of flossing before it runs dry. While counter top models, like the Waterpik Classic Professional, can hold up to 5 times this amount of water, the trade off is that they are not portable.
Those of you who use the Waterpik Cordless Professional to administer medication or oral rinses will appreciate the measurement markings on the side of the reservoir. Instead of mixing your medication separately, then pouring it into the reservoir, you can mix it in your reservoir directly. One less thing to clean up.
To fill the reservoir, you simply open the hinged cover:
With the cover open you will be able a round hole that you can pour water into. Simply place the whole handle of the cordless plus under running water until the reservoir is full.
The cover has a rubber ring to help seal the water inside. Despite looking quite flimsy, it worked really well and held up just fine through our moths of testing.
The reservoir itself can be completely removed from the handle:
While you can fill the reservoir while it is separate, you will need to put your thumb over the hole at the bottom of the reservoir (where water gets pumped out from) to prevent it from leaking out.
Removing the container also makes cleaning a much simpler task. The container is top rack dishwasher safe so that you can simply throw it through a dishwasher cycle.
While hard water can leave deposits on the container over time, they are pretty simple to remove with a warm water and vinegar solution.
Just above the reservoir, on the body of the Cordless Professional, you will see a large rubber grip:
While the whole Waterpik Cordless Plus is quite bulky, the section where your hand rests is surprisingly comfortable and easy to hold. The large rubber grip coupled with the hook like curve of the neck
The raised sections of the rubber allow you to securely grip the Cordless Professional even if your hands are wet or soapy.
Waterpik Professional Flosser Tips
At the very top of the Cordless Professional you will find the flosser tip holder and beside it, a small gray button.
Installing a flosser tip is as simple as sliding the base into the holder. All you need to do is push down until you hear the flosser tip “click” into place.
To remove the flosser tip press down on the grey button with your thumb while pulling up on the flosser tip. The tip will slide right out of the holder.
With your chosen tip in the holder you will be able to rotate it into different positions:
While Waterpik claims that the tips can rotate in 360 degrees on the box, they are only half telling the truth. While you can rotate the tip in a full circle, it can only lock into one of 8 different positions in that range of movement.
While it may seem simple, the tip rotator is actually a very handy feature and means that you do not need to reposition your grip if you want to angle the flosser tip in a different direction.
Waterpik has included 4 flosser tips in the box:
From left to right:
1. Plaque Seeker Tip -Three thin tufts of bristles boarder the hole that water shoots out. This flosser tip has been designed for dental restorations (like crowns, bridges and implants). The bristles and water stream work together to remove the plaque that often clings to these restorations.
2. Orthodontic Tip – Water shoots through a tapered cluster of bristles. This flosser tip has been designed to be used with braces and other orthodontic appliances.
3. Classic Jet Tip – the most commonly used Waterpik flosser head. A stream of water flows through the tip and blasts away plaque from between the teeth and along the gum line. Waterpik has included two Jet Tips in the box of the Cordless Plus.
One of the Major appeal of Waterpik water flossers is the great range of flosser tips available to be used with them. Each flosser tip is designed to solve a specific problem area in the mouth. For more information be sure to read our review on all the different Waterpik flosser tips.
Charging The Waterpik Cordless Professional
The first thing you will have to do prior to flossing with your brand new Waterpik Cordless Professional is charge the battery.
Charging is as simple as plugging the adapter into your electrical outlet and inserting the plug into the socket of the Waterpik unit:
When you plug in the cord there is no clear signal that the battery is charging. No sound or flashing light to alert you that charging has started or finished, there isn’t even an alert to let you know that the battery is running low.
The instruction manual is just as vague as to how long to charge your Cordless Professional for. It get’s better. The only clear instruction was that it takes 24 hours to fully charge the battery from dead and that you should not let the battery run empty as it may shorten the lifespan of the battery.
When we contacted customer support to question why many users were experiencing battery problems we received the following response:
It is likely that they [the users] are overcharging the battery.
Although the instructions are vague as to how long or often to charge the unit, it is your fault for over charging the battery.
So with nothing else to go off we charged the NiMH battery for 24 hours prior to using the unit. We found we were able to get roughly 14 uses before the battery would completely die on us.
Just like the Cordless Plus, the Cordless Professional calls itself a portable Waterpik. But that isn’t exactly true. While you can take the Cordless Professional anywhere on earth, it will only charge on 110V. Charging it anything higher will fry the battery. If you want a truly portable water flosser that you can take world wide then a better solution is the Waterpik Cordless Freedom, A waterpik that runs off AA batteries.
But for those of you Just travelling across America, the Cordless Professional is a good portable Waterpik. It’s even plane friendly, we took it with us on interstate flights and were not stopped by the TSA once.
Testing the Waterpik Cordless professional
With our Cordless Professional fully charged it’s time to take it for a test drive.
Those of you who are coming from a counter-top Waterpik will immediately be surprised by just how bulky the Cordless Professional actually is. While countertop models keep all their weight in the base station while you hold a lightweight handle, the Cordless Professional is bottom heavy and somewhat difficult to control.
Unfortunately this is a trade off that has to be made for portability and is common to all portable water flossers. While using the bulky size does get easier with practice, we felt it was an important issue that needs to be addressed.
When it comes to holding the Cordless Professional the one saving grace is the neck. The banana like curve and sticky rubber grip allows you easily wrap your fingers around the unit.
Filling up the reservoir was a simple process. Expect a good amount of water to trickle down the handle if you are trying to fill the reservoir in a smaller sink.
Sliding the power switch into the on position causes the pump to roar into life. And I do mean roar, the sound is loud enough to wake up anyone who is sleeping nearby.
Countertop models keep the noisy pump away from you while you hold the quiet handle in your mouth. You do not have this luxury with cordless models and the clunking pump motor will be jarring to those of you who are sensitive to noise.
As far as the clean goes, we were more than happy with the results. The only people who will be dissatisfied are those of you who use the countertop models on the highest or lowest pressure settings. The Cordless Professional just can’t reach these extremes.
There is a learning curve to overcome with the Cordless models and we found a good amount of water would spray out of our mouths as we learned how to correctly use this cordless Waterpik.
The reservoir just didn’t seem to hold enough water when we first used the unit and would run out before we had finished flossing out entire mouths. But as we got quicker we were able to finish our whole mouths with one tank. But those of you who need to take your time or linger on troublesome spots will likely find yourselves refilling the tank multiple times ina single use.
While the Cordless Professional is very portable, I was disappointed to note that a travel case was not included in the box. While stuffing the unit into the bottom of our luggage was hardly an issue, it would have been nice to keep the flosser tips and Waterpik together in a single kit.
Despite the minor hiccup of having to scrape down the charging terminals, as we discussed earlier in the review, using the Cordless Professional was a simple experience.
Final Thoughts
While the Cordless Professional is the most current of rechargeable Waterpiks; there have been no improvements made over the model it replaces, the Cordless Plus.
While this isn’t a bad thing, since many people loved the original Cordless Plus, we were less than impressed to see that Waterpik is charging considerably more for what is the essentially same device.
Then there is the price. For just a few dollars more you will be able to pick up a much more feature packed countertop model. A countertop unit will be much more suitable for those of you who just wish to floss at home.
While the Cordless Professional is basically your only choice when it comes to a rechargeable Waterpik unit, it just feels like the price rise without any improvements being made is a greedy cash grab by Waterpik.