To most Americans these are exotic devices found only overseas or, rarely, at some fancy hotel or some uptown friend’s house (cf. Crocodile Dundee discovering one in a NY hotel).
My wife and her sister are on a month-long journey to Brazil, and between my whining about how long it been and how I can’t wait for them to come back, she mentioned how she missed bidets, which are commonplace in Brazil.
She asked if it would be possible to install a hand-wand in our bathroom, and I said I’d take it under consideration.
I made a casual mention of this to my contractor friend, and he said “Here’s a link from Amazon. Order two of these and I’ll be by on Sunday to install them”
So here we are, and there is a nice spray wand in each bathroom. It seems weird to use them, and takes the whole “toilet plume” concept to a new level.
But when I showed my wife video of the devices (not in actual use) she was overjoyed.
I mentioned that the process seemed like it would be … tricky, to which she said “I have had lots of practice.”
Anyway, the question stands: do you have one of these in your home? Is it common in your country? If not, how did one happen to find its way to your abode?
What do you do in the middle of the winter when the water will come out at about 34F/2C?
USAn, 2 Toto Washlets. Heated seats and heated water. Especially since COVID they’ve become relatively common, to the point most high-end contractors will put electrical outlets behind the toilets just in case. We’ve had them in our last 2 houses, so almost 20 years.
That may very well be the natural progression as the winter months arrive. The thought of cleaning delicate bits with near-freezing water is … bracing.
We also have a Toto Washlet on our toilet and are totally spoiled by it. It’s jarring to be out and about and sit on a regular cold seat and use dry wipes.
I worked in the middle east years ago and became accustomed to the hose usage after squatting over a hole (which I still consider a more ergonomic arrangement), but the heated seat/heated water is luxurious.
The Washlet really shines in two other areas: it’s cover and suction fan virtually eliminates “toilet plume,” and it filters the “sucked” air - bathroom stank gone. We used to open the window, light matches, turn on the overhead fan, etc. Now, none of that.
Highly recommended for those reasons, in addition to the clean bung hole.
(Before we got the Washlet we used a Tushie bidet attachment, which was an excellent alternative to dry wiping, but cold water, non-self cleaning, and plume issues make it second fiddle to the Washlet.)
This was the case nearly everywhere we went in Turkey, where the toilets typically featured an integrated spray feature. And not only was the water cold, it was usually… let’s say invasively forceful.
We have one of the cheapie add-on bidets that get screwed in under the toilet seat and attach to the water line with a simple knob for controlling the spray. You can get them for $50-$75 easily enough. We’ve had it for several years and really like it; when we wind up staying at a hotel you feel like “So I’m just supposed to use paper like some sort of filthy animal?”
Despite being non-heated and living near Chicago, the temperature has never been an issue for us. It’s just normal tap water cool, not actually cold. Maybe if we let it run for a few minutes but we’re not that dirty.
They’re very common these days. Once you have one, you’ll never go back. We’ve had a few bidet threads over the years.
It was pricy because I had to get an outlet installed so I could get warm water. I got a Brondell in 2020 which lasted about three months beyond its two year warranty and then got a Toto Washlet.
I don’t have one and there isn’t room for one in my tiny bathroom, so I often jump straight in the shower for a bit of a freshen-up. If I was designing a bathroom from scratch with no limitations on space etc, I would include a bidet.
They are pretty much standard here in Japan and have been for 30 years or so. Even most of the public restrooms have them.
The only time I haven’t had one at home was the first year after we went to Taiwan and the apartment didn’t have it. We bought a house and had two installed in it. When we returned to Japan, the apartment didn’t have one, but we installed a replacement seat with one built in.
I live in Hokkaido, with subfreezing weather, and they come with temperature controls, along with heated seats.
I don’t think I’d really like that - the toilet is in a pretty cramped corner of my bathroom - it’s honestly easier to just get in the shower than it would be to try to use a toilet-bidet hybrid in my bathroom
Since you asked, yes, similarly to @Tride, we have two toilets, both affixed with Toto Washlets, although we have not had them as long, we put them in when we remodeled the two bathrooms, which was 14 and 13 years ago. My husband is Japanese, and my first exposure to these was the first time I visited Japan with him and we stayed with his older sister (more than 20 years ago now, I think). The water pressure was much higher there, and I was disappointed in our American version when it was installed, for it’s relatively namby-pamby stream. But it’s still way better than without, and we are completely spoiled.
We had houseguests once, my sister and two woman friends, who all live out in the country, and explaining the toilets was an interesting exercise, which might have strayed into TMI territory.
When we remodeled the master bathroom, we replaced that toilet with a high-end Toto with the integrated washlet unit. Weird at first, It did not take long for us to recognize it as the gold-standard for the bathroom experience. Warm seat, warm water, warm air plus an air filter, all managed from a remote control with memory settings for each of our preferences. Even has a little light in the bowl that comes on for those late-night “guess where the water is” experiences that can be sometimes tough for a groggy man.
Unfortunately, more often than not I use a different bathroom room for my morning prep. The toilet gap was real. Also unfortunately, there’s no electrical outlet anywhere near where it would need to be to set that bathroom up equivalently
. So I ended up getting one of those Tushy units; they don’t need power and it’s just a simple valve to turn the water on and off.
to be honest, it’s about 95% of the benefit at about 5% of the cost. I would’ve thought the unheated water would have really been a problem, but it just isn’t. And as it happens, the sprayer puts out a lot more water. I happen to like that. It’s not necessarily more force, just more volume - gets the job done faster.
It is easy and effective, and I too would like to reiterate your point about the water temperature: Though it’s not heated as such, the water temperature is never cold, as in “oh my god!”, even in the winter. I would now feel like a savage if I couldn’t use one. Added bonus: I use one square of TP per day.
