Your toilet could be the best seat in the house

It makes life more comfortable and is one of the wonders of the modern era: the toilet. While it may not be glamorous, it is an essential part of living. If you’ve been unhappy with your old commode, it might be worth replacing. New toilets offer more style and more options for homeowners. It’s a brave new world in commodes, and there are some wonderful new updates that you may have you giving a parting glance to your old-style toilet.

Plumbing innovations

Of course, one of the most important innovations in toilets is the water-savings ability they have over older toilets. But, there’s a lot more to today’s commodes. Ask anyone who’s ever traveled to Japan and stayed in a hotel, and one of the first things they’ll say is how amazing the toilets are. Japanese toilets combine the basic functions of both the toilet and the European style bidet but all in a single unit. Plus, it’s easy to fall in love with them and all the options they offer, like seat warming, various styles of posterior and feminine washing, warm water and warm air drying. Some even offer music for your bathroom interlude.

As wet wipes are showing up more frequently in the bathroom for personal cleaning, it’s important to consider that while your toilet might be water-saving, you might be causing other environment problems. One of the most serious issues is how bathroom wipes are wreaking havoc on septic and municipal sewer systems. That makes having a toilet that can do away with those wipes to give you a cleaner bathroom experience something worth considering.

Toilet technology

For a cleaner go, non-electric bidets are available and can make a single toilet-bidet unit out of your commode. There are single attachments that fit onto your toilet seat, or you can replace the toilet seat altogether (www.bidet.org). Bear in mind that these simpler attachments can help you wash, but they won’t offer warm water and will rely on toilet paper drying; something to consider in cold climates.

If you’re ready for a complete Japanese-style toilet experience, then a combination toilet-bidet that offers seat and water warming, a dryer and various types of washing turns a basic bodily function into a full-on bathroom experience. The Toto Washlet series (www.totousa.com/products/washlets) has every feature you can imagine and probably some that you can’t. Kohler’s Intelligent Toilet series (www.us.kohler.com) also offers a multitude of options, personalized functions and even a bowl night light.

Considerations

If you’re considering replacing your old toilet or simply converting your toilet to a toilet-bidet, be sure and check the size and shape of your toilet so that you get the correct seat size. If you’re replacing your toilet with a toilet-bidet combination, you’ll need to ensure your bathroom area will accommodate the size of the toilet, and you may also need a ground fault plug installed to connect the toilet if it has seat warming, water warming or other electronic features.

Whether you go for a simple go-and-wash toilet seat or an electronic heated, washing and drying toilet, your bathroom experience will be more hygienic and your toilet might just be the best seat in the house.

(For more information, contact Kathryn Weber through her website, www.redlotusletter.com.)

(c) 2018 KATHRYN WEBER. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.