Dyson CameraJet: $499 Toothbrush Pulled Over Water Damage

The Dyson CameraJet waterproofing problem was supposed to be a triumphant product launch. Instead, it's a quiet retreat. Store shelves across three continents now sit empty. The $499 toothbrush, unveiled with considerable fanfare earlier this month, has vanished from retailers in the US, UK, and Singapore following a wave of user complaints about water damage, battery failures, and units dying within seconds of use. And retailers don't have it. We've seen this before.

Six Years and 38 Patents Later

The CameraJet was meant to be the next evolutionary step in oral care. Dyson packed it with a macro-lens camera and a "Gap Optical Targeting system" trained on 470,000 dental images, capable of identifying where to squirt fluid within 100 milliseconds. The device carries 12.5 milliliters of mouth rinse in an on-board reservoir and uses a tiny camera to aim streams of liquid into the gaps between teeth.

It took Dyson six years and 38 patents to build. James Dyson personally launched the product at a Paris event mere weeks ago. The CameraJet hit US stores on September 8. By September 15, it was gone from shelves in the US, UK, and Singapore, where Dyson's headquarters now reside.

The Timeline of a Collapse

The speed of the CameraJet's disappearance tells its own story. Just one day after launch, reports began outlining the first user complaints. Water in the battery compartment. Failures within 30 seconds of use. Consumer Reports' own review unit stopped working less than 24 hours after unboxing.

On September 11, French outlet Numerama reported that the French Dyson site and stores had stopped selling the toothbrush. Then it spread. By September 15, stores in the US, UK, and Singapore had followed suit, and as far as can be ascertained, you can't buy the CameraJet anywhere, not from those retailers, not from the French site, not from the stores that once stocked it. Sold out everywhere. And we've got no indication that's changing.

• Launched in US stores September 8
• First complaints emerged September 9
• French stores stopped selling September 11
• US, UK, and Singapore stores followed by September 15
• Consumer Reports review unit failed in under 24 hours

Dyson Says It Wasn't Recalled

Liv Thomas, the company's head of Beauty Communications, insists the CameraJet hasn't been recalled. Instead, she says the gadget is "experiencing strong demand globally" and facing "shortages of supply as we are in the process of scaling up production." Units will reappear supposedly in "the coming weeks.

"We have identified a single component issue affecting a small number of early batches. We have isolated those batches and are supporting affected customers."

Thomas confirmed that Dyson would not answer questions on where, if anywhere, the CameraJet was still on sale worldwide. Nor would the company confirm when it stopped shipments of the product. Dyson also refuses to detail what the faulty "single component" is, what problem it's causing, or how many units have been affected globally.

And Dyson refused to comment on why it had not issued a formal recall of these faulty early batches of the $500 device.

Water Inside the Battery Compartment

Kyle Wiens, CEO of the repair company iFixit, feels the problem may well be leaking. "This sounds like a waterproofing issue," he says. "Making products at scale with the tolerances required to waterproof are hard."

Wiens suspects a tolerance problem. Some parts aren't mating perfectly. Or it's a failure in the adhesive curing process, either during manufacturing or in shipping, and he notes that this kind of adhesive-curing failure can happen in such a way that a product passes factory testing fine, but then heat or humidity during shipping causes a problem. So it's one or the other. And they're both possible.

Adam Toner, founder and technical director of Ripcord Designs, a UK-based electronic design consultancy, also thinks water is the CameraJet's problem. "On a product like this, there just should never be any water ingress into the internals," he says. I have not seen one up close, but I have watched several videos and heard people explain how to change the battery. Once you pull the battery off, which is where people say they're seeing water, it looks like there is probably access from that battery compartment into all of the internals of the device."

Water got in. That's what Toner says. It's the one explanation for a CameraJet that won't charge, won't stop overheating, or won't even start, and he suspects the cause could be as benign as a faulty gasket or O-ring.

The Obvious Question

If water getting in does turn out to be an issue for the CameraJet, as these experts suggest, this begs the obvious question: How has Dyson managed to spend six years developing a teched-up toothbrush, designed to be dunked in water every use, and that carries liquid around in it, yet fail to make it waterproof?

Reddit Turns on Dyson

Dyson Reddit forums have lit up, with names such as "ScameraJet" being bandied around. One disgruntled buyer commented: "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. Disappointed that they scammed so good. Unbelievable that it lasted just two weeks."

The Dyson CameraJet waterproofing problem has become a case study in what happens when over-engineering meets manufacturing reality. The company that successfully reimagined stick vacuums and premium hair dryers, though not so much air-purifying headphones, now faces questions about quality control on a product that was supposed to represent the next leap forward for teeth.

A Wake-Up Call on Repairability

Wiens believes the CameraJet chaos could force a well-overdue rethink for Dyson. Clearly they didn't plan for this. And they should take this opportunity to invest in repairability, because making products easier to fix also makes them easier to rework when manufacturing defects occur, which is something the company has failed to prioritize for years. Dyson is way behind the industry. It's behind on making repair parts and information available for their products. So this should be a wake-up call for them to step up.

There is a certain irony here. The Chinese invented the first bristle toothbrush during the Ming dynasty. That concept muddled along quite nicely until 1937, when Tomlinson Moseley filed a patent for the earliest electric toothbrush. After more than 400 years, the Motodent marked the beginning of an evolutionary shift from manual brushing to powered oral care.

Simple Is Often Best

There's always a danger in over-complicating products. Simple is so often best. The apocryphal story of NASA spending millions crafting a space pen while Soviet cosmonauts used a pencil is often cited as a prime example, even if it's actually not true.

It's not shocking. Dyson tried to reinvent the electric toothbrush and landed in hot water. The company built its reputation on reinvention, yet now it can't explain why its $499 toothbrush can't survive contact with water, which is a pretty basic requirement for something you put in your mouth every day. The CameraJet may return in "the coming weeks." But the Dyson CameraJet waterproofing problem has already left its mark on the company's reputation for engineering excellence.