I’m about to have a new bathroom installed but I’m still hesitant about having a bidet toilet seat (or electronic shower toilet). I was told once it’s less hygienic. Of course all Internet sites boast their product and say how wonderful it is… Anyone having experience with it ? Would appreciate having your opinion.
It’s also quite expensive, I know. Here in Switzerland it’s about $1700 (and up to $5400 !).
I recently got a Toto Washlet E200 for my wife. It was a little tricky to install, but if you have a couple of wrenches and a screwdriver, it can be done in an hour or two. Or you can hire a plumber to do it.
My wife absolutely loves it. It has a separate remote control which lets you set all the different things, water pressure, drying heat, seat heat levels, etc. It also has a deodorizer that actually works amazingly well.
It isn’t cheap, but for what it does, she feels it is well worth the cost. I also had a couple of probems with installation: one valve unit was defective and they sent a replacement next-day air at no cost. Their tech support is top notch.
You can see it here, but there are other vendors too:
http://www.contempolife.com/Bath/Bidets/toto-e200-washlet-bidet-seat.html
This? Cracks me up. People think I’m strange when my husband buys me computer parts for gifts.
I’m trying to picture a romantic evening, celebrating your anniversary and lurking next to the table is a huge box, wrapped beautifully…baseball bat ensues.
On the other hand, I’m thinkin’ “damn, I wish my husband loved me enough to get me a Toto Washlet.”
Topic? I got nuthin’. I will say a turbo flush toilet is a god-send.
I think there may be another level of semiosis there…
IMHO they’re awesome and well worth the money. (We have one of the Toyo series as well). I can’t imagine how someone could claim they’re less hygenic - less hygenic than what?
I’ve used one, loved it, and would love to have one of my own. As I get older, my poop seems to be getting more sticky (TMI, I know but relevant) and the Washlet was more effective and left me feeling far cleaner than any quantity of paper.
Thanks for the encouragements.
The Toto Washlet is the product that they tried to put a billboard of bare bottoms in Times Square (over a church, no less) that caused all the brouhaha several months back.
Here are a few reports.
http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=118755
Here’s their ad, which is still up.
Presumably the smiley-face butts belong to the spokespeople that pop up in the same slots. I don’t think I could do that. If I let them use my butt in an ad, I’d want to go into the Federal Tushy Protection Program.
Seems like a huge waste of money to me. And maybe time too. How many minutes does this add to each trip? Seems like it would take longer to use the thing than to actually do your business. A heated seat and remote control…give me a break.
I agree. One normally wads up some dead tree and rummages around down there with a bare hand. Few things in day-to-day life are less sanitary.
I would totally go for a bidet seat, but it’d take me awhile to convince my roommates. They think I’m weird enough for keeping flushable baby wipes in there.
All I can picture is, “Honey…smell me.”
Wireless remote? Tee hee - revenge is mine! 
Not true. You poop. When done pooping, you press the button instead of grabbing a wad of toilet paper. The button starts a stream of warm water aimed at your bunghole. The remote on the higher-end models allows you to adjust the aim of the stream up or down to get exactly where you need. When you feel clean (and I guarantee you’ll actually be cleaner than any quantity of toilet paper) you hit the button for the dryer. Now a jet of warm air drys your bunghole. Takes less than a minute and your butt feels as clean as if you’ve just taken a shower.
The system I used has a “female” mode as well so the jet can wash the female bits as well. Given that most of the women I’ve known use as much toilet paper to blot a small bit of urine as I would use to clean up a spilled beaker of sulfuric acid, one of these in a house with several women would save several forests a year.
I’m going to resurrect this old thread. I just spent a week in a vacation house that had a Toto Washlet bidet toilet seat, and I loved it. I’m seriously thinking about buying a bidet seat for our home toilet. I looked up the model at the vacation house and it was very expensive, about $1000. I’m looking at alternatives on Amazon and Costco that seem to have the same features and are in the $330 to $600 price range.
As to features, with letter grades:
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Water rinse: A+ - This, of course, is the primary feature. The one I used had both “rear” and “front” spray patterns. Being male, I used the rear one to clean off the bunghole after defecating. I would say the spray is pleasant and effective. One could almost say enjoyable. The front spray is for washing off lady parts, apparently. Gave me a pleasant spray on the sack when I tried it, so I guess it works.
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Remote control: A - The model I used had a remote control, and you could vary the aim of the spray front and back a little bit, which was quite useful for a thorough cleaning without squirming back and forth on the seat. The remote also let you set the power of the spray, the temperature of the spray, and the warmth of the seat itself. I would definitely get a unit with a remote, as I can’t imagine how much more difficult it would be to have to use controls attached to the rear of the seat itself.
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Adjustable spray aim: A (see above)
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Adjustable spray power: B- - not completely necessary.
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Spray pulsing: D - I tried it for testing purposes, but the pulsing was kind of annoying and didn’t seem to add any cleaning value. Gimmick. Or perhaps erotic option??
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Water temp: B+ - I liked the water temp on the low to middle setting, as the high setting was too hot. I don’t really see a need to vary the temp, but it is nice to have warm water sprayed on your bunghole, not cold water like you’d get from the water lines in January. From my reading, some units have a heated water reservoir and some have a small on-demand heater. I would think the on-demand would waste less electricity.
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Heated seat: C - The seat on the one I used appeared to be always heated, as it was warm when you sat down on it. This seems to be a tremendous waste of electricity, seeing as how you only use a toilet sporadically throughout a 24-hour day. I don’t need a heated seat, seeing as I’ve never had one on any other toilet, but can see how it might be appealing to some. The model I used allowed you to vary the seat temp, and I didn’t like the highest setting.
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Blow dry: A - The unit had a blower that would blow dry your ass after you were done using the spray. I have to admit, this was pretty nice and would do most of the drying. I would only have to use one small wipe of toilet paper to finish up drying, and the paper was clean. Normally, I need to use a whole bunch of TP to thoroughly clean my rear after pooping. Again, I liked the low to mid temperature setting for the dryer. The high setting was so hot it would burn your delicate parts.
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Odor reducer: B- - The unit seemed to have a running water and fan system which sucked air out of the toilet and ran it through a filter. It did work, significantly reducing the smell in the bathroom. I’m only giving it a B-, not because it didn’t work, but because I don’t like the idea of having to clean or replace the filter, nor waste water and electricity using the feature.
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Toilet seat reduced space: The Toto unit we used took up a significant amount of space at the rear of the toilet seat. Although it was fairly comfortable sitting on the seat, it pushed me farther frontward than I normally am, which I didn’t like. Being male, my willy was far too close to the front of the toilet bowl, and it either hit the bowl or I had to hold it down with my hand. I didn’t like that at all. And this was on an elongated toilet, like I have at home. I really don’t see how the bidet seat would work on a regular, round bowl toilet. I am trying to figure out if other brands leave more of the original seat room.
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Less toilet paper: A+ - you definitely use a lot less toilet paper. Now, I doubt it really translates into saving money, because you obviously use a bit more water and electricity with the bidet. Probably a wash (pun intended) in the end as far as economics.
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Noise: B- - The thing made all sorts of noises, with the deodorizer, spray and fan. When my wife got up in the middle of the night to pee, the deodorizer came on with running water and the fan, which was kind of annoying. I would probably see if I could disable that feature. The noises of actually using the bidet feature are probably not an issue most of the time.
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Toilet cleaning: ?? - I have no idea if a bidet seat makes cleaning the toilet harder or not. The unit didn’t seem to get dirty during the week we were there, and all of the seats brag about how sanitary and easy to clean and maintain they are.
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Plumbing and electricity: The seats appear to plumb into the existing water supply line pretty easily. But they also need electricity, so I would have to install an outlet near the toilet. I have a GFCI outlet near the sink, and I think I could tap into that outlet without too much trouble. But this is definitely a consideration that changes the installation from easy to moderately to quite difficult, depending on your situation.
I’d like to hear any thoughts, experiences and recommendations from board users. I really liked using the bidet seat during my vacation, and want to make the right choice if I decide to go ahead and buy one.
Got a Washlet S300e several years ago. Mostly for my wife, as these things are ubiquitous in Japan and she has missed them ever since she came to the US 20+ years ago. Not cheap, but I figured if we’re gonna get one, let’s make it a good one.
The heated seat is pleasant, but I can’t get used to the rinse/dry features. Drying seems to take forever, unless I pre-dry with toilet paper - and if I do that, the water tends to wreck the paper and you end up with shreds all over your backside. But that’s just me - my wife loves it.
The seat is “smart,” so it learns when you tend not to use it and doesn’t waste energy heating it during those hours. I hooked up a Kill-A-Watt meter a couple of years ago, and found that the electricity cost was tiny, like a buck or two a month.
Toto says the deodorizer insert should only need to be replaced every ten years. The downside is that it’s about $30. There’s a plastic-mesh filter upstream of it to prevent the deodizer from getting clogged. We clean our filter once a year, and it catches an impressive amount of debris - I’m guessing mostly dust/fibers from toilet paper.
The masking of body noises with machine noises is popular in Japan, so it should come as no surprise that Toto does nothing to suppress the sounds their Washlets make. In fact, for some folks, that’s not enough noise. For them, there’s the Japanese Sound Princess.
Ours does some kind of electrolysis with the water in its tank, supposedly creating a weak bleach solution simply from the dissolved minerals in the supply water. If the seat is down and it sees you approach, it pre-sprays the bowl with this stuff to help keep it clean.
I dunno, but somehow it seems a little creepy to be living with a sentient toilet seat. 
Next candidate for “Internet of Things”: Your Toilet!
Tracks your discharges by type, content, quantity! (Optional Chemical Analyzer available at extra cost). Use your smart phone to track trends in your health! Find tell-tale signs of incipient illness Before they become symptomatic!
Did you ever watch Lexx? 
There’s been a few bidet threads, and the thing they have in common is the one poster who just can’t be convinced that they work.