Posted on: January 14, 2008
Thrones of Luxury
A new breed of high-end toilets may leave you scratching your head – or wondering how you ever lived without them
By Michelle Taute
CTW Features
Feature Free-For-All: Bidets offer everything from warmed seats, water sprays and built-in deodorizers. Image courtesy Brondell
A whirlpool tub may soothe sore muscles and ease stress, but you have to find time for that 20-minute soak first. Upgrading your toilet seat, however, pampers you almost every time you head for the bathroom, especially when you choose a high-tech seat that turns your existing toilet into a bidet.
How It Works
These add-ons make toilet paper virtually obsolete with warm-water sprays and warm-air drying to clean private parts. “Once you try it, you won’t want to be without it,” says Kathryn Streeby, director of marketing, sanitary products at Kohler, Kohler, Wisconsin. “It’s like having multiple showers everyday right where you want it.”
Most bidet seats are designed to fit on your existing toilet and easily hook into your current plumbing system, but they do require a nearby electrical outlet. Depending on the model you choose, these seats include a range of luxury features:
• Warm seats to take the sting out of late-night or early morning bathroom visits.
• Warm water sprays with adjustable temperature and pressure.
• Warm air drying with adjustable temperature and pressure.
• Built-in deodorizers to keep air fresh.
• Gentle closing seat to prevent slamming.
• Remote controls to run all the functions.
Clean and Fresh
While Americans have never truly embraced bidets, Scott Pinizzotto, CEO of Brondell, San Francisco, believes these seats are catching on quickly. “It really does become a way of life,” says Pinizzotto, whose company makes a bidet seat called the Swash. He predicts these products will revolutionize bathroom habits the same way Sonicare redefined brushing your teeth. Perhaps Streeby sums up the benefits of a bidet seat best, “It’s definitely the ultimate in hygiene.”
Three to Consider
TOTO’s Washlet,
$727 and up
Brondell’s Swash,
$459 and up
Kohler’s C3,
$750 and up