Japanese toilets

[Jim K..]

Tubbypuss will have plans & relevant knowledge I feel sure...

[Huge]

Anyone here ever installed a Japanese toilet (not the squatting kind, a combined bidet type), e.g., a Toto "Washlet"?

Any thoughts? (and yes, they are bloody expensive in the UK). "Washloo" are a great deal cheaper, but are they any good?

[Roger Hayter]

Have got the German equivalent - Sensowash. Works ok. Probably illegal to install except fed from its own header tank which would need to be at least 10m high. Works alright, fairly durable, perhaps a bit bigger than the Japanese version (very short front to back) but still a lillte short for the more ample English person. Quite expensive.

[tabbypurr]

Teardowns show a real lack of safety with the japanese ones, no separation of electrical and perishable pipes.

NT

[charles]

I understand that at least one Japanese restaurant in London has them. I wonder, if theya re that bad, how the got past Building Control?

[mailbin]

No, but I have a story about them. On 9/11/2001 (!) I was in a Tokyo hotel and encountered one for the first time. It looked like a standard loo but with a control box with about half a dozen buttons, plus some device under the back rim. I didn't understand the labels so pushing buttons while sat on the loo didn't seem wise - so I stood astride the seat and pushed buttons at random. I can't recall the exact sequence of events but there were several motor noises and a device appeared from the back of the rim and started waggling forwards and backwards. Unwisely I pushed another button and a very powerful jet of water shot out of the waggling thing, straight between my legs, through the bathroom door and landed on the bed! Unfortunately I couldn't immediately stop it; I shut the bathroom door but not before gaining a very wet stripe on the bed.

Getting back to London on the day after 9/11 was slightly "interesting".

[Roger Hayter]

They don't get past the WRAS part of building control, unless as I said they have their own header tank. But of course this depends on the plumber (usually) rather than the BCO. Internal electrical safety of a legally sold appliance (which begs its own question if the CE mark is dishonest) is not AFAICS part of building control.

[Roger Hayter]

AMI the Sensowash one won't do that without an appropriate weight on the seat.

[The Paisley Jammer ...]

just wipe your arse with aqueous cream ?1 a jar at the pound shop.......clean as a whistle ....

[Tim+]

No experience of any fancy ones but I've been using a very basic and cheap cold water spray only toilet seat bidet. It's operated by a lever fixed to one side of the pan and the water pressure propels a nozzle downwards to spray from the right angle.

Had it about 10 years now and as a hairy arsed male, it does a pretty good job of blasting the clingons off.

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

Actually if they are that bad how come anyone in Japan uses them. maybe they just dump the crap ones over here. Brian

[Roger Hayter]

I think it just goes to show we have several layers of protection against shock. Half the world uses showers with bare 220V elements in the water flow, and it seems quite hard to get a shock from such an apparatus even with poor design.

[Huge]

OK, thanks, I'll add that to the list.

About which I care less than nothing.

Fat chance in this house, which is single storey. "Washloo" say they need to be fed from a mains pressure supply.

I've had no problems with Washlets, and I'm generously proportioned. :o)

They all are. Washlets seem to be about £1400 in the UK, Washloos are about £500.

[Huge]

*grin* I've heard similar before.

[Roger Hayter]

Just to clarify, they *work* fine from something like 0.8 bar (from memory) to 10bar, but the water regs say thay need an air gap, a non-return valve is not sufficient.

These regulations apply to all of the makes, even if they don't mention it. Any electromechanical device for providing an air gap has to be approved by your local water board, and only a few institutional (i.e. five figure price) type units have approval. I'm using a device supplied by the makers of Sensowash, but I don't think they are likely to apply for approvali in the UK. And it's getting a bit late to rely on harmonisation!