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The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

nytimes.com

171–180 of 406 posts

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#171
post #170

One caveat: Toto toilets waste stupid amounts of power. With the heater off , I measure 40-50W at idle across multiple different models. With a heated seat that’s active or with the water heater on, it’s much higher. (A lot of Toto models have a small tank that is kept hot — only the higher end models have an on-demand flow tankless heater.)

Just tested this out and mine uses 6w at idle. This is with the seat heater and water heater turned on - but given that it's June there probably isn't much heating needed to bring them up to comfortable temps.

For reference here is the model I have. I don’t remember the exact price, but I think it was a fairly mid-range model that cost less than ¥200,000 ($2,000) at the time.

https://search.toto.jp/tr/D08911R_201603.pdf

Edit: just had a look at current prices, and it looks like the MSRP for the same model is about 3x more expensive in the US than Japan. For example, the Neorest RS1 has a list price of ¥317,000 ($2,200) in Japan vs $6,315 in the US. So possibly a midrange model in Japan could be considered high end in the US.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#173

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

Those hand sprayers are an Muslim thing aren't they? That's what I was told by locals in SE Asia. Searching, it comes up

No, they're everywhere in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines, none of which are majority muslims.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> it’s incomprehensible that in other countries people just wipe and…hope for the best. Well ... I don't have a bidet but doesn't mean I don't wash my buttocks after doing business. Unfortunately it's a bit of a taboo subject so it's not discussed, not taught in school / hygiene classes, just let it be. Best example I heard from someone is this: imagine you dip your hands in Nutella. Then try to clean them just wipi…

> just water I keep in my mouth if in a public place / at work Sorry for intruding, but the water from some public place is the last thing I want in my or anyone else's mouth. May I suggest a water bottle or even a flask? Or if you already tried that, can you explain why it didn't work for you? Just an idle curiosity. Thanks in advance.

I interpreted this to mean he holds clean water (e.g. from a bottle) in his mouth when entering the toilet, for the purpose of wetting toilet paper. A clever solution, IMO.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#175

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

In Thailand anywhere luxury will typically use the Japanese style washlets. I wouldn't be surprised to see that trickle-down to eventually become standard.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#176

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

[flagged]

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#177
post #170

One caveat: Toto toilets waste stupid amounts of power. With the heater off , I measure 40-50W at idle across multiple different models. With a heated seat that’s active or with the water heater on, it’s much higher. (A lot of Toto models have a small tank that is kept hot — only the higher end models have an on-demand flow tankless heater.)

Just tested this out and mine uses 6w at idle. This is with the seat heater and water heater turned on - but given that it's June there probably isn't much heating needed to bring them up to comfortable temps. For reference here is the model I have. I don’t remember the exact price, but I think it was a fairly mid-range model that cost less than ¥200,000 ($2,000) at the time. https://search.toto.jp/tr/D08911R_201603.…

From the shape of the unit, I'm pretty sure it's one with a tank.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#178

I've used less advanced versions for a few years. The quality varies; the most recent one we put in is pretty horrible to use (but better than nothing). I've always wanted to try a real Toto, especially with the drying feature. A word of warning for female users: > Habitual use of bidet toilets aggravates vaginal microflora, either by depriving normal microflora or facilitating opportunistic infection of fecal bacter…

The drying is awful in my Toto, it's not enough air pressure. It'd take 20+ min to dry completely. It's nothing like those hand dryers in public bathrooms.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#179

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

At home, combine this with the western paper and now you have a dry body as you walk out. So, you can clean with the spray, and you get wet, and dry with the paper for an end-to-end solution.

Re: The Rise of the Japanese Toilet

#180
post #90

In almost all of SE Asia, especially Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, all of the toilets come with a hand-held sprayer. They also had this in the Doha airport and I'm not sure how common this style is outside of SE Asia but I'm guessing it's common. Japanese style bidets are very common in Korean households as well and I'm sure its easily a billion dollar business. It is nice but the functionality is quite difficult for…

computer vision will solve this and direct the waterjet in yer bullseye. :D ai...ai everywhere.

You probably don't want a bullseye. Many of the ones in Japan will actually move the spray around a bit if you press the おしり button twice.
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