I know that these are popular in foreign countries, but not in the U.S. The way I understand it, when you finish pooping, some clean water sprays and cleans your butt. I'm guessing there is a lever or button to make it spray. I have to ask, out of curiousity. Do people still use toilet paper? If not, I'd think this Bidet would pay for itself on T.P. savings, and for those who have septic systems, would save on tank pumping costs.
I'm considering trying to find one of these, assuming it fits in the same space as a standard toilet, especially if it saves on T.P. Not that T.P. is a huge expense, but pumping my septic is costly, and more than once the sewer pipe has frozen on winter due to a wad of T.P. sitting in the pipe. The pipes were installed properly, but the tank is over 100Ft. from the house so there is a lot of distance for solids to travel. I've even gone so far as to toss the used T.P. in a waste basket (with lid) during the winter to prevent annoying and costly pipe clogs.
Water centric appliances like bidets will become less popular as water becomes scarcer. Digester toilets are already available and likely to become legal where they are now illegal and even more popular as water becomes less plentiful.
You can buy toilet seats with build in bidets, you don't need a new toilet. Costco often has them, in store, (from Korea) for around $150-200. Online see
There is a remote control to select the cycle based on the gender of the user, and the water pressure you want. Just be careful. I once pressed the wrong button (female front) and got my balls washed.
Where traditional bidets are used, they are in addition to a standard toilet. There are fancy Japanese toilets costing up to $10K, that combine a bidet function into the toilet, including electronic controls, etc. AFAIK, you still use TP with those too.
If you eat a lot of commercial hydrogenated cheese, you'll likely have stickey-gooey poop. A bidet won't wash that away so you'll still need toilet paper and maybe some Scotch Brite.
When I was in Turkey a couple months ago I was pleasantly pleased with the toilets there. There is an additional spout near the top of the bowl with a separate water valve that you control. It sprays water toward you and you can adjust the aim by moving your butt around a bit. The toilet wasn't anything fancy and all it had was an extra hole and extra valve and hose.
If you are young and don't have any hemorrhoids or other anatomic issues in that location, and your stool is always fairly dry and firm, you might be "clean" after a bidet spray. However, you're probably at least borderline constipated. For those of us who have lived longer and don't have pristine anatomy down there, or have softer stool due to any one of many possible causes, the bidet is definitely insufficient to prevent skid marks. Only the use of toilet paper can do the job that needs to be done.
Possibly because the use of corncobs is in the not so distant past. For me, I prefer other methodology which is why I installed a bidet a couple of weeks ago.
Not a full blown, porcelain fixture (no room and wouldn't want one), not a seat with one built in (ridiculously pricey) but a separate unit that fits UNDER the toilet seat. They are in the $20 to $100 range, most $30-$60, mine was $30, all have plastic cases, mine has brass innards. Check Amazon.
Easy install...take off toilet seat, set bidet gizmo on throne, replace seat, hook gizmo to tank inlet using the included "T" and you are in business. They have a valve, flow is adjustable. The flow emanates from a small tube at the rear center which partially retracts when there is no flow. Some units have a slide to slightly change the angle of the tube. Some have a mixing valve which means you also have to hook to hot water too or buy a unit with a heater which means an electrical outlet. Cold water is fine for me.
Now as to their effectiveness: I am told I have hemorrhoids but I have never looked. Since installing the thing I have passed things close to the size of a pony penis and other that looks like cow plop. And all in between. The bidet has worked well. Yes, you still have to use toilet paper if only to dry your butt but mostly to aid in the removal of residual material before squirting yourself again. Moving your butt to direct the stream most effectively helps.
Do I like it? Resounding YES! I am 82, back has seen better days, all joints are stiff, overweight too...all make reaching one's nether regions difficult and this has been a big help. I'm saving a bundle on TP too, will save more because my (younger and still agile) wife wants one too.
I always thought a bidet was for *women's* use. Not intended to remove any "clinging mass".
The hot air dryers are more sanitary -- as are the "hospital style" faucets (assuming they don't have Ir controlled faucets).
[Note that doctors don't typically touch the sink hardware after scrubbing]
Some of the hot air driers use a focused sheet of air to sort of "squeegee" the water off your hands, instead of evaporating it.
But, all of these fall down because you still have to (typically push) open the door (that everyone else has handled before you!) to exit the bathroom! (wiser move is to use a paper towel to dry hands; then use that towel to open the door, discarding it AFTER opening the door)
I suppose but I haven't been sick with an infection for years. Any medical problems I've had have been mechanical, or my overfunctioning parathyroid, which I don't think is caused by germs.
When I was in college, I had fantasies about med school and I joined the pre-med club. I think the only two activities it had was matching up pairs of members and telling them when they could go to an autopsy or surgery. I did both.
For surgery, I met some girl there at 7 or 8 in the morning and someone who worked there us told us where to go. The first room was brain surgery on a child, so the table was so crowded we couldn't get close enough to see anything, The second room had the consul general of Sweden, who was having abdominal surgery. Now this was a famous university with a famous teaching hospital. I don't think we had gowns on, and I know we didn't have gloves or masks
When we walked into the room, after a couple minutes the doctors and nurse split so we could get close. His side was maybe 8 inches or less from me and I was leaning over, closer and closer until my face was less than 2 feet, probably about 18 inches, from his wide open gut. No one told me to hold my breath, but it seemed like the polite thing to do. Finally, I feared that my shoe would slip on the smooth floor and I would fall face first into his abdomen, so I straightened up. No lie. That's exactly what happened. No one had warned me about anything or told me to straighten up or stop.
Oh, yeah, we hadn't washed our hands either, except while waiting I may have gone to the toilet and washed my hands then, but they didn't ask.
However, I was careful not to stick my hand inside him. Etiquette, you know.
I guess since it was a top-notch school, the doctors figured we'd be smart enough to keep our hands out of him.
I don't remember how close she got. Maybe like me but she didn't bend over much. And each organ was a different color, just like in a drawing of the abdomen. This was before anyone cared about minimally invasive and the open area was as big as a dinner plate, or maybe a square in which a dinner-plate-sized circle could be inscribed.
And this wasn't the 19th century. It was about 1965.
I've heard this. If I make it to old age, I may feel more vulnerable and try harder to stay well.
I don't sweat the little things when visiting friends' homes, etc.
OTOH, when I'm in a public bathroom in a store frequented by all sorts of folks -- some of whom may be ill, just handled their privates, just changed their child's diaper (on the changing tables that are present in rest rooms), etc. -- I try to be a bit more careful about where I put my hands that *they* might also have done in the course of using the "facilities".
Likewise, watch to see where they *seat* their kids (leaking diapers?) in the shopping cart and consider what *you* may put in those same places *in* the cart! :>
[Or, the waiting room at doctor's office, etc.]
OToOH, I don't think I've ever availed myself of the "wipes" that most stores now seem to have by the front entrance -- despite seeing folks use them to elaborately wipe down their shopping carts! There's some inherent "risk" with being "out in public". If you're a germophobe, then that's not the place for you!
OTOoOH (three-handed Martian?), I've spent hundreds of hours doing volunteer work at places where folks have come away with MRSA skin infections from the sorts of items we routinely handled.
A recent article in a medical journal debunked the claim that hot air dryer s are a more sanitary way to dry hands. They found that there are usually residual pathogenic bacteria on or near the washed areas that get blown int o the air and dispersed widely within the bathroom. They concluded that ho t air hand dryers are hazardous to health compared with using disposable pa per towels that don't require the user to touch a surface in order to acces s the towels.
As far as public bathroom door handles are concerned, I always take a dry, clean paper towel to the door with me and use it to open the handle. Usual ly there's a waste basket nearby. If not, I just hold it for the few minut es it takes to find one. If the bathroom only uses hot air hand dryers, I use them with regret and then get some clean toilet tissue in my hand to op en the handle of the bathroom door.
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