We have a Toto washlet toilet seat. It’s awesome. It cost about $400, which is not cheap, but I consider it well worth it. We’re looking at getting another one for a different toilet, but we might want to replace the toilet as well, so we looked at getting one of the full toilets. They are crazy expensive! Like $2000.
And as far as I can tell, it’s exactly the same functionality as the separate washlet seat that can go on any toilet. Am I missing something? What do you get for the $1600 toilet that you can’t get with a toilet that costs $1000 less?
I’m assuming its more of a supply/demand/manufacturing scale issue. It’s expensive to warehouse something bulky like a toilet, and for the mass producers the demand isn’t there to support a separate manufacturing line of a integrated bidet/toilet.
Most of the people interested in a bidet just buy a separate washlet that can be mass produced much easier, and doesn’t require you to have to tear out and remove the current installed toilet.
The remaining people that absolutely have to have a combined unit get catered to by smaller boutique or luxury manufacturers / importers, and are willing to pay the much higher cost.
I would think the integrated version probably has higher quality parts and possibly higher quality control. If your bidet seat has a problem, it isn’t as big a deal to replace. I would assume the integrated unit has to built to last longer.
The bidet part is still a separate unit that’s part of the seat. As far as I can tell, it’s the same thing that you can buy for $400, but you install it on a much more expensive toilet.
For example, here’s a $2000 toilet. It looks… like a normal toilet with a bidet seat on it. The instructions clearly show that you install the bidet seat basically the same way I installed the standalone one.
If you look at just the seats themselves, they range in price from $100 non-electric (no idea how that works) to almost $2000. The fancy ones have heated seats, retractable wands, blow warm air to dry you off, integrated deodorizer, touchscreen controls, night light, integrated connection to social media for livestreaming… ok, not the last one.
Probably the answer is that it’s unlikely that somebody in the market for an integrated one would not want a full-featured high end one, so they don’t sell it.
The bidet part alone is $1600, so the high price isn’t because it’s combined with the toilet.
I don’t see exactly why this Washlet is $1000 more than mine (which is probably the same model you have). The only obvious things it has that mine doesn’t is “eWater+”, a remote control and 2-person memory. Who knows, eWater must be amazing.
Mystery solved! Ok, they probably just don’t sell a toilet pre-packaged with the lower-end bidets. Yeah, eWater+ sounds like nonsense to me. Mine has a remote control and 2-person memory and cost $1200 less than that!
I don’t know. But some Japanese toilets have sound masking, temperature and flow control, music, heat, vibration and will service you while preparing a fine macchiato.
A chart on that page lists all the different Washlet models and compares their features. We have the S300e, which cost about $900 when we got it several years back. It appears to have almost all of the features the S550 has, except for the auto open/close lid, nightlight, on-demand wand cleaning and “updated spray technology.”
The remote is nice because you don’t need to twist/turn to access a control panel tucked down by your right hip. If the 550’s remote is illuminated, that’ll make it nicer for nighttime use.
The built-in air deodorizing system is really nice. It pulls air from the bowl and passes it through a charcoal filter to absorb odors before blowing it out into the room. This is infinitely more effective than the bathroom ceiling fan, and it’s also quieter.
There may be something to the ewater. The toilet we installed it on seems to stay pretty clean, whereas the other two toilets need more frequent scrubbing.
I can live without the automatic lid lift/close action. I’ve had that on toilets in hotel rooms in Japan, and when I’m trying to be stealthy during the night, that feature just makes unwanted noise.
TL,DR: you do get something for your money, but the S550 is clearly the top-of-the-line luxury model; whether those extra features are worth it is up to the buyer.