Dyson's ambitious toothbrush gamble

After six years and 38 patents, Dyson launched the $499 CameraJet in September with a built-in macro camera and AI system trained on 470,000 dental images to target water floss into tooth gaps.

The product vanished overnight

The CameraJet launched in US stores on September 8. By September 11, French stores had stopped selling it, and by September 15, US, UK, and Singapore retailers had pulled it from shelves.

Failures started within hours

Reports of water in the battery compartment and complete failures within 30 seconds of use emerged just one day after launch. Consumer Reports' review unit stopped working less than 24 hours after unboxing.

“Bought two of these and both of them have stopped working. Since I bought it in the UK and wasn't planning to return it and have thrown the packaging away, I can't even return them.”

Dyson denies there's a recall

Dyson's head of Beauty Communications claims the CameraJet isn't recalled but faces "strong demand" and "supply shortages." The company refuses to identify the faulty component, explain the problem, or disclose how many units were affected.

“We have identified a single component issue affecting a small number of early batches.”

Experts suspect waterproofing failure

iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens and UK electronics consultant Adam Toner both believe water is leaking into the device's internals, likely through a faulty gasket or adhesive failure in the battery compartment.

“This sounds like a waterproofing issue. Making products at scale with the tolerances required to waterproof are hard.”

A six-year design oversight

Dyson spent six years developing a toothbrush designed to be dunked in water daily and carry liquid internally, yet apparently failed to make it waterproof. The irony underscores the risks of over-engineering simple products.

A wake-up call for Dyson

Experts say Dyson should use this crisis to invest in repairability and transparency. The company lags far behind competitors in providing repair parts and information, making it harder for customers to fix defective units.

“Dyson is way behind the industry on making repair parts and information available for their products. This should be a wake-up call for them to step up.”