Portsmouth News features editor Graeme Patfield is taking on the electric toothbrush industry - and says he won't be given the brush off.

Graeme writes a regular blog for the paper's website www.portsmouth.co.uk, and has taken up the cudgels on behalf of frustrated electric toothbrush users who are fed up with their gadgets running out of juice after just minutes of use.

Toothbrush firm Oral-B has responded, saying that different toothbush ranges have different battery lives, and offering to advise if his toothbrush is operating to standard.

But Graeme is not satisfied with its answer and has pledged to carry on the fight.

In his blog, he raged: "People who make handheld games consoles, phones and MP3 players can produce devices that process complicated computer graphics, play music, make and receive calls and generally act as mission control and can put rechargeable batteries that go on for hours and hours inside them.

"Why, then, can the people who make electric toothbrushes - which simply turn one small head backwards and forwards - only manage to put batteries in that last for a maximum of three brushes (ie 10 minutes) before whirring to a halt?

"I'm sure this frustrating fact means that a lot of people give up on electric toothbrushes altogether, and thus the nation's dental health must be suffering."

He said: "On the one hand it's quite an amusing subject, but actually I believe customers are really being ripped off by the woeful batteries in these products.

"You wouldn't be happy with a camera or MP3 player than gave up after two or three uses, so why should we put up with it in an toothbrush?"

Graeme's gadgets blog, called Gizmos, is one of the most popular at www.portsmouth.co.uk and has drawn praise from Five Gadget Show presenters Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry and Jon Bentley.

When he's not writing about toothbrushes he blogs about games consoles, retro gaming and consumer electronics.