Are shower toilets worth it?

[puntloos]

So, in theory, a toilet with integrated bidet (spray wand) sounds like a nice idea. Cleaning with water feels more hygienic, saves paper.

But what about practice, can someone with experience tell me:

• Are you supposed to use them for the full clean, or are you supposed to wipe normally and then use these to only 'rinse'?
• Are they (depends perhaps on brand) actually effective at a full clean, or do you need to run them for really really long and you're still not always 100%
• Once you are sufficiently .. watered down there, what about drying? Assuming the toilet has a dryer at all of course, how long do you have to wait? 30-60 seconds seems acceptable, but I suspect it's more like 5 minutes? Toilet paper after all?
• Hygiene - I still feel slightly iffy about 'poopy water' flying around and likely into various creases - these fancy toilets have a lot of moving parts and e.g. holes for the air dryer, the place where the wand comes out etc etc. Can these ever be clean, or cleaned?

And the final component of 'worth' of course is price/brand. Toto is the gold standard, but what about e.g. the Aqua Lava from comfortcleanse, which has most features incl air dryer yet is 'only' 1200 vs much more for the mainstream brands.

 

[gmartine]

Sound's like you need to find some feedback or reviews from say Trust Pilot, Mum's net or The Toilet Review.

 

[Ric2013]

Bidets are good. Lack of space and habit means I don't have one at home. Did try using what you suggested when in Sweden once, but the cold water was a bit too much of a shock for my constitution.

What I would say is that once you've implemented the backflow prevention measures needed for what is essentially an 'ascending spray bidet', it starts to be involved and expensive. That said, it does look like the Aqua Lava has some measure of backflow prevention built in, but possibly only to EU standards not to the more finnicky UK ones. I am not seeing WRAS approval on the product literature for example. This would be my first question, whether it has that approval (physically checking the WRAS website; I just tried, but I couldn't see anything listed under aqua lava or aqua sigma). So a legally-compliant installation may still involve a break tank (i.e. a modified cistern) and a pump to be fitted for the sole purpose of supplying the new toilet with water.

 

[gmartine]

...but Ric, was the de-clagging jet effective?

 

[Ric2013]

...but Ric, was the de-clagging jet effective?

I don't understand what this means. Is it a pun of some kind?

 

[gmartine]

I suppose the term clag is a regional speciality, never mind. Can some Northerners help out a brother here?

 

[puntloos]

I suppose the term clag is a regional speciality, never mind. Can some Northerners help out a brother here?

"Depoopifying"?

 

[Ric2013]

"Depoopifying"?

Oh, cleaning my backside. lol.

All it achieved was making me make a girly squeal. I didn't leave the water on long enough to experiment the cleaning effect. I suppose if it were able to heat the water first, but this Scandinavian spray was cold water, even in August.

 

[puntloos]

I spoke to a salesman, and he certainly confirmed that the toilets are intended to replace the paper, so they should do everything. The only caveat is that drying takes a long time (6 minutes) so many people opt for a quick dry and then use paper.

 

[gmartine]

I can see why, you wouldn't want a dryer like a jet engine blasting your bits for a few seconds as it could cause an injury.

 

[SimonG]

I suppose the term clag is a regional speciality, never mind. Can some Northerners help out a brother here?

Or winnats, the bits that won't go away.

Or dangle berries.

Never heard of clag though.

 

[gmartine]

Viz was originally a Geordie mag wasn't it?

 

[puntloos]

I'm sure it's worse with a vacuum hose.

 

[oz-plumber]

Toto maybe the gold brand, but I would look for something that hides the flexi connector and the power cable from view.

The toilet seat may be great and function well, but a flexi connector and a power cable exposed from the left hand side of the seat is plain ugly.

I've done a heap of these and can never fathom why they are specified, particularly with the exposed flexi and power cable.

There are other brands available that do conceal the water and power connection.
May cost a little more, but well worth the visual effect

 

[Ben-gee]

Look at geberit aquaclean, they warm the water up too. No electric or water feeds on display.
I have fitted a few and they seem pretty good (plumber’s privilege to try out before handing over to customer!)
They need regular cleaning, like any loo, and the wand can be removed for this if required,

 

[puntloos]

Actually if anything other brands are cheaper than toto, my current shortlist is from Aqua Sigma

Look at geberit aquaclean, they warm the water up too. No electric or water feeds on display.
I have fitted a few and they seem pretty good (plumber’s privilege to try out before handing over to customer!)
They need regular cleaning, like any loo, and the wand can be removed for this if required,

Those are pretty spendy though, for now the Aqua Lava seems to be the best deal ..

 

[Ric2013]

Actually if anything other brands are cheaper than toto, my current shortlist is from Aqua Sigma

Those are pretty spendy though, for now the Aqua Lava seems to be the best deal ..

You mean cheapest deal. Though if you find the product meets your requirements and costs less, then I can see you would feel it is the best deal.

 

[puntloos]

You mean cheapest deal. Though if you find the product meets your requirements and costs less, then I can see you would feel it is the best deal.

Well, sure, but there's "price per feature" (and this one has both heated water, and an air blower, and of course the usual wand spray thing - a combination usually found only in the 2500+ price range for competition), but also overall build quality. The first is fairly easy, and of course you can debate if you want or don't want certain options, but the build quality is a tough one, you are probably better off with a fancy brand so that's the harder decision.

 

[Richard87]

Toto maybe the gold brand, but I would look for something that hides the flexi connector and the power cable from view.

The toilet seat may be great and function well, but a flexi connector and a power cable exposed from the left hand side of the seat is plain ugly.

I've done a heap of these and can never fathom why they are specified, particularly with the exposed flexi and power cable.

There are other brands available that do conceal the water and power connection.
May cost a little more, but well worth the visual effect

Are you able to install in London?