The 2 Best Toilet Brushes of 2025
Top pick
The OXO has the best bristles of any brush we tested, with an attractive base that conceals the brush while still letting the head dry out. And its brush head is replaceable, reducing waste.
The affordable OXO Good Grips Compact Toilet Brush and Canister is the best-performing set we tested. Its brush has excellent bristles that cleaned better than those on any other brush we tested, and the OXO’s holder totally hides the business end from view and is immensely satisfying to use. This set isn’t the cheapest, but it is a better deal than any of the more expensive models we saw (including others made by OXO).
The OXO’s brush-hiding caddy feels almost magical in practice, opening and closing seemingly without any effort. The magic is driven by a spring-loaded, weighted hinge in the base that flips the holder open when you pull up on the brush. It stays open, then closes when you insert the brush again. There are actually two pieces inside the caddy: a strainer-like upper area that cradles the brush bristles while letting residual water drip out, and a lower basin that catches whatever comes off the brush so the brush is never sitting in its own muck.
Unlike the solid reservoir caddies with cheaper brushes, this one lets the bristles completely dry between uses. The caddy’s 5-inch diameter also feels stable, like you won’t easily tip it over.
The OXO’s sleek base is its most defining feature, but its superior bristles are what won over our testers. They’re arranged on the brush head with two stiffness levels: The white bristles at the top of the head are stiffer, for under-rim cleaning, while the longer, blue bristles on the bottom provide more give as you scrub the bowl. A corrugated texture lets each bristle pick up substantial grime without flicking much water.
You can buy a replaceable head for the OXO. It can be purchased from Amazon, and you can occasionally find the heads in stock at Target or Bed Bath & Beyond. The plastic on the replacement head we bought fit perfectly, but the color wasn’t an exact match. Be sure not to throw away the black plastic coupling on your brush when you discard the head (a female end)—you’ll need it to attach a replacement head.
With an overall length of 16½ inches, the OXO Compact is an inch or two shorter than its OXO cousins and our runner-up recommendation. This shorter length is a plus, since cleaning with the longer models at times felt somewhat punishing. The OXO’s length also means it’s easier to store the set in an undersink cabinet.
Like many brushes, the OXO is available in multiple colors (white or gray). So there are some options to help blend it into your decor.
For several years and through several replacement bristle heads, an OXO toilet brush has been regularly used at the house of Wirecutter senior editor Harry Sawyers. “I just pulled it out from behind the toilet to give it a good look over (and washed my hands before returning to the keyboard),” he reports. “It’s in good shape. I haven’t treated it terribly but have hardly pampered it. I shake the brush out vigorously between uses, and while I see a few discolorations looking down deep in the crevices of the base, there’s no buildup in the part of the cradle where the brush sits. With a sanitizing wipe, a paper towel, a little alcohol, and an old chopstick, I can get it back to nearly new shape in a few minutes.”
