341–350 of 380 posts
"These exquisite toilets are everywhere in Japan" Really? I was there for 5 days last spring and never encountered one of these toilets. I did, however, encounter a hole in the ground, you gotta squat to do a number two public toilet stall.
Every one of these articles gets the pitch of these toilets completely wrong - for every person, and in every scenario, these are not universally better. Consider the following experiment: Smear some mud on your arm. Now, using a jet stream the power of a squirt gun and very low precision, wash it all off in 10 seconds. Not so easy. Then - imagine if you put mud on a place with hair! Not only will it not be clean wit…
I read a version of this argument in some US newspaper a while back. It completely misses the point. These ass-jet toilets are not intended to replace toilet paper. They are for getting your asshole (and ladyparts, but I can't testify on that topic) much cleaner in much less time than with conventional American toilets and dry paper alone. You use the ass-jet, then paper. That's how they work. (For a heinous bowel-mo…
Ass-jet, dry, ass-jet, dry?
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If you read the full article, only the cheapo, probably ineffective solutions cost $100, you're looking more at $500 and up for a good unit. And if you want a warmer, you'll need a GFCI outlet installed next to the toilet, which most US homes do not have. You'll want a warmer in many areas of the US during the winter. So you're looking at quite a bit of cash there. Edit: Please read what I wrote. I'm not saying most…
I have the cheaper, no-electricity model ($35 on Amazon) pictured in the article: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KKRCFA It gets the job done just fine — I’ve never felt the need for heated water or a blow drier. The head is spring-loaded and retracts when water pressure isn’t being applied. Happy to answer questions if, er, anyone’s curious. Interestingly enough, they offered to ship me a second one if I wrote a review…
We have nothing else to talk on HN other than toilets?
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This is how they do it in Thailand, at least. Basically, imagine the sprayer in your kitchen sink attached to your toilet. In areas without (edit: running) water, they'll have a bucket of clean water nearby with some sort of cup to use. I've heard this is pretty common in SE Asia.
Can someone point me to a product (preferably on Amazon) that's exactly like the sprayers in Thailand? One that can be screwed into a toilet's water supply, not a kitchen sink's.
In my estimation water pressure seems to be higher in the US (maybe just because I'm in a big apartment and pressure is higher to compensate for altitude). What this means is that it will take some time to adjust to the.. um.. high pressure cleaning. Also beware that pressure cleaning yourself in the middle of january with near freezing water is an experience that will.. wake you up in the morning. It'll be awkward for the first week, but after then you'll be a pro.
EDIT: I think it's worth mentioning that the bidets in thailand tend to be kitchen sprayers. For a more ideal situation you want something with a more focused and narrow beam width, so to speak. The bidet I have is like that, but I haven't been able to find it on amazon after a quick search..
Try using a toilet in Germany. Without being too crass, you deposit your excrement onto a dry shelf, whereupon it may be inspected, or not, and then a rush of water slides it off the shelf to its destination.
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Can someone point me to a product (preferably on Amazon) that's exactly like the sprayers in Thailand? One that can be screwed into a toilet's water supply, not a kitchen sink's.
As long as it says "bidet" and mentions the toilet and sells in the US, it'll have the connections for the toilet's water supply. Basically, these kind of bidets "man-in-the-middle" the water output from the wall to the toilet reservoir. In my estimation water pressure seems to be higher in the US (maybe just because I'm in a big apartment and pressure is higher to compensate for altitude). What this means is that it…
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The difference being I anticipate the future interactions of my arm and my butt with the surrounding environment to be quite different.
I realize there are serious health implications, but I can't read this thread without getting the giggle fits. This would be such an awesome first-world problems meme :)
I got a good chuckle from this discussion because I travel to Japan frequently. But no matter how many times I've encountered Japanese toilets, they still cause much amusement, confusion, and even some anxiety. (I say anxiety because sometimes it's hard to tell if pressing a button would cause the toilet to sing you a song or do something unexpected.)
After reading this article and seeing the very lively and rather in-depth discussion here on HN, I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not the only one befuddled and fascinated by this bit of Japanese technology.
On the other hand, I've also spent time in parts of the world where there's no running water at all for flushing toilets. Hence the fringe nature of bidets in our society and toilet seats costing more than $1k = first world problems IMO. Not that it wouldn't make a great gift for the holidays.
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I have the cheaper, no-electricity model ($35 on Amazon) pictured in the article: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KKRCFA It gets the job done just fine — I’ve never felt the need for heated water or a blow drier. The head is spring-loaded and retracts when water pressure isn’t being applied. Happy to answer questions if, er, anyone’s curious. Interestingly enough, they offered to ship me a second one if I wrote a review…
Is it possible to use this without damaging the toilet or any extra issues? I'm thinking about apartment situations in particular.
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Perhaps you are one of the stand-to-wipe types, but if you remain seated throughout the drying operation you will not have to deal with any rivulets. Also some toilets have an air-dryer.
Air dryers are incredibly bad. Hand dryers are practically a waste of time since they barely do anything IMHO.