I've just returned from Japan and have been inspired by their amazing toilets that wash your nether regions!
I've searched on here and not found much recent but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or recent experience of fitting one here?
Toto Washlet seem to be the major name there. I looked in local shops there and prices seemed to start at about £250 but here it looks like the minimum will be £1,000 up to £10,000!!!!
just keep a tub or tube of Aqueous Cream handy and save all that money.........
It's the transport cost that kills importing sanitaryware into Europe from the Far East, or at least it used to. Sanitaryware is cheaply made in Eastern Europe, and transport costs are much less. And the Japanese have an obsession about personal hygiene. So toilets with bottom-washing sprays sell well over there.(When ceramic scissors first came on the market, they sold like hot cakes in Japan to ladies who trimmed their pubic hair. Apparently it's quite a common practice, and the ceramic scissors were much sharper and regarded as more hygienic than SS ones).
Tableware is different - you can get an awful lot of cups, saucers and plates into a container, but not nearly so many toilets or lavatories (hand basins to you!).
wonder how many people have been electrocuted by one of them? ......are men more at risk than wummin' ? ......
when I was handing out kooncil grants for the installation of the standard amenities in the late 70's and early 80's only one wummin ever installed a bidet .......we thought she was dead posh .....
There are German ones which are pretty solid, Duravit Sensowash is the one I fitted. They are well engineered and slightly bigger than the Japanese ones (which are made to fit generallys smaller persons). But not cheap.
A caveat with all spray bidets is that you can (for practical purposes) only comply with the WRAS regs by giving it its own separate header tank, at least 10m above the toilet in the case of the Sensowash.
PS The latest Sensowash claims to comply with the German water regs without an external air gap, hence not needing a header tank. But I can't find out how they claim to comply. And the UK regs imply that for automatic building control approval they have got to be an individually appproved type by the particular local water board (ok, that's not what their called). If an individual plumber/BCO refused to agree that it was compliant despite not being type-approved you could take them the ECJ demanding equal treatment to the Germans, but Brexit will close that avenue. Some might think it simpler to dispense with Building Regs approval, but don't tell anyone I did that.
I?m not entirely convinced the Japanese toilets are that hygienic- too many nooks and crannies in the design with all the bits that move around in the ones I?ve seen.
A normal bidet, while requiring more space, is easier to keep clean- as is the normal toilet.
I can't see the council letting me have a 3 storey water tower on the roof.
Although it would be about the only way I could get terrestrial television.
Owain
A pump is an alternative; still hardly a convenient solution.
Why cant they be used on mains pressure hot water systems?
Probably fitted with double non-return valves in the water supply.
They are interesting and have been around for a good many years, indeed back in the days of the Ideal Home Exhibitions, I can remember several companies trying to get them established here. Probably quite crude in those days they never seemed to catch on here.
Of course you can get bling for toilets, like cisterns that have lcd screens with swimming fish or illuminated and heated/padded seats, etc, but these are just gimmicks unless you are double jointed or spend ours on the loo. I'm sure a mobile phone saving system might be popular. Brian
I think we worry far too much about his though. You can get obsessed after all much of the fouling occurs when you are going about your normal life not on the toilet. After all all of us fart, and most of the time some leakage occurs as we do, Likewise the plumbing for urine tends to have some small bits left after you finish and this can seep out some time later. Short of some mechanical device fitted I do not see any way out of this. Thus perhaps the cleaning on a Japanese toilet is a little late by the time it occurs, maybe a pair of disposable paper pants each time you go might be better. Brian
if you Shite like a seagull you spend little time in there .......
rubber...Mmmmmmmmm
Depends if it has ordinary taps above the rim (like a basin) or a spray wotsit below the rim.
Owain
I daresay they're the way of the future, but having seen the inner workings of the Japanese ones I would not install them on safety grounds. There is no separation of perishable insecure plumbing & electrics at all.
NT
Murmansk laid this down on his screen :
Last time this subject came up, someone mentioned a cheap gadget on ebay, which could be added to a UK toilet. It used cold water.
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