The good news is you can buffer yourself from future supply chain breakdowns by adding a little modern technology to your toilet. A bidet seat can reduce your reliance on paper products and improve your hygiene routine at the same time. A bidet toilet seat is a drop-in replacement for your existing toilet seat that ties into the water supply for your toilet. The basic concept uses a directed stream of water to clean the desired area of your body without the use of bathroom tissue. In my personal experience using these devices for the past five years, I do not require more than a few sheets total when drying off or even the use of bathroom tissue at all. Once I started using one, I found toilets not equipped with these devices to be comparatively primitive – it’s hard to go back to the old way of doing things once you start. Most – if not all of these bidet seats – come with a water supply splitter that provides water to the cleaning nozzle. They require only a small wrench to do the installation and connection to existing plumbing. A typical installation should only take about 15 minutes, including removing the original toilet seat, cleaning the toilet surface, installing the water splitter, mounting bracket, and the seat itself. So what makes it worth the money? Overall, it comes down to lots of little design features and, well, the finesse in which it does things. There’s a new remote that the S500 line has which is smaller, less clunky, and more responsive than previous units, such as the one that came with the S300 series that preceded it and was the previous category leader. There’s the auto-lifting seat in the S550 that senses your motion when you enter the bathroom – this is one of the big features that a lot of people overlook when buying a bidet seat, as well as the finesse the spray head has in terms of levels of pressure (as well as the choice of soft spray versus cleanse). And of course, the variability of oscillation and pulsating of the water, and also the level of control of the positioning of the stream. All of these things sound a bit funny and perhaps over-the-top in terms of the basic functionality until you experience using one of these seats – this includes stuff like the pre-misting of water which wets the bowl before use, the dryer function, the heated seats, the warm water spray, the deodorizer, and the self-cleaning functions. Can you get by with less in a bidet seat? Sure. But do you want to go back to using a basic model after using an S550e? That’s a much harder question to answer, considering how much time we spend on the toilet.
Pros: There is literally nothing the S550e does not do as a bidet, it is the category-defining productCons: By far the most expensive of options when compared with its competition, only works through a distributor model, will only honor warranty repairs from products sold by its authorized distributors.
Toto offers its bidet seats in two colors: A standard Cotton White and a Sedona Beige – the second of which is less common and is typically more expensive. Seats come in both standard and elongated versions.
Pros: Toto is the most established company in the space with the best reputation.Cons: By far the most expensive of options when compared with its competition, only works through a distributor model, will only honor warranty repairs from products sold by its authorized distributors.Alternative to consider: The C2 Washlet is the least expensive Toto, but it comes without a remote.
I had a chance to test out an Ace, and I was surprised at the build quality and overall work that went into its industrial design. I liked the strength and sturdiness of the mounting hardware and the haptic feedback remote control with color LEDs. It may not be a TOTO, with its long-time warranty to justify the cost, but it sure shares a lot of the features of that high-end product. It has a self-cleaning nozzle, five levels of water temperature control, five levels of pressure control on the nozzle, five levels of water heating control, and five air-drying temperature levels. It’s also got a heated seat. It doesn’t have as much positioning finesse and oscillation control as some of its more expensive competitors, but it more than does the job at this price point.
Pros: A lot of features for the money, with a great remote controlCons: Sold directly through its website only, the company is also extremely new to the electric bidet space
Pros: Technologically progressive, well-established company like Toto.Cons: Also going up in price because its products are in high demand.
Pros: Many features, highly price competitive with both Toto and BrondellCons: Some users have reported that the build quality on several of its models was not as high as the top 2 competitors.
Pros: Lots of features for the price, one of the lowest-priced electric seats that comes with a remote.Cons: Relatively new company when compared with the competition. Some users report lower water pressure than its competitors, and cracking plastic after extended use.Alternative to consider: The Alpha JX bidet toilet seat falls in the sub-$400 price point.
The undisputed leader in this space has been Japanese bathroom giant Toto, with its Washlet series of products. Traditionally, the company’s bidet toilet seat products have had a base price of over $1,000 retail. However, due to heavy competition from other vendors, such as Brondell and other companies in the bathroom and plumbing supply industry, the prices on these devices have fallen considerably, down to about $300 for Toto’s most basic model (and at the $250 price point and under for competing models). Some very inexpensive models, which do not require an electrical outlet and only use water pressure and mechanical valves to adjust the water stream, have sold for less than $100 – but caveat emptor when it comes to build quality. As you can see in the feature chart provided by Toto below, there are many different features that are listed, and pricing can vary widely depending on which features you need.
