Best High-Tech Toilet? 354
shellac writes "For a number of years now, Japan has had incredibly high-tech toilets, complete with a funky electronic control panel that controls a water jet for cleaning the posterior, a hot air blow dryer, a fake flushing sound to cover up those noisy "Dumb & Dumber" style sessions, a seat warmer, and other nice features, not to mention the occasional amusing gaijin encounter. Prototype models can also chemically analyze urine using lasers. The manufacturer, Toto, has made these available in the US and in other countries, but they have failed to largely fulfill their promised potential, despite their popularity in Japan. There is some evidence Kohler toilets is keeping these out of American markets. The toilets also appear to be a victim of poor marketing on Toto's part, which in all fairness may be due to Western advertising taboos that do not exist in Japan. I know I would love to have one of these, and I suspect many others would as well. What does that /. community think of these toilets? Can anyone post a personal review?"
Wow. (Score:4, Funny)
--saint
From a lot of experience, let me tell you (Score:2, Informative)
I live in Japan, but I don't own one because I just can't quite justify the cost. Luckily I spent that week in my girlfriends house.
That's all we need ... (Score:5, Funny)
The missing tag.. (Score:5, Funny)
Three Sea Shells (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Three Sea Shells (Score:2)
If only I had mod points.
Re:Three Sea Shells (Score:2)
I have forgotton this reference. What does it mean?
Re:Three Sea Shells (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Three Sea Shells (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Three Sea Shells (Score:3, Funny)
Lasers? (Score:2, Funny)
"An adult male's recommended dietary allowances for vitamin C is 60 mg per day."
If my urine is yellow I don't need a computer with lasers to tell me I've had my daily intake of vitamin C.
Re:Lasers? (Score:2)
I bet my wife would never let me get one of these, I already spend too much time on the john, this would make it all the more comfortable, I might never leave the room.
Re:Lasers? (Score:5, Funny)
"Honey, the toilet log says there has been an unusual ammount of semen in the bowl lately..."
Re:Lasers? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Lasers? (Score:3, Informative)
I haven't taken biology in a couple of years. If you want a more detailed answer, look it up :)
Post a Personal Review? (Score:3, Funny)
Clean my posterior? (Score:3, Interesting)
I suppose this is what a bidet is essentially for, but at least you use it with the intention of actually doing to real cleaning of the undercarriage.
Re:Clean my posterior? (Score:4, Funny)
What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2, Informative)
porno web sites, peep shows, street walkers,
massage parlors, pedophilia (priests and
other assorted perverts), beastiality, porno mags (hustler, jugs, etc), porno comic books (heavy metal etc) among other sexual deviancies. These people go to Las Vegas/Tijuana/New Orleans/Caribbean/Asia/Europe for sex trips and they expect their culture/language/jingoism to be
accepted by everyone else? Why?
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2)
Hey now, let's not be crossing the line by making fun of porn comic books!
;)
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:3, Insightful)
Like [cherrycomics.com] America [toonopedia.com] is [heavymetal.com] not? [spectator.net].
--
Evna
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2)
And we mustn't forget what people did before the invention of the toilet and disposable toilet paper. Seven years ago I began to use a low tech and efficient means to clean my ass, much as my forefathers did. The invention? A domesticated dog. Hey, they don't call them man's best friend for nothing.
For any of you anthropology grad students out there (as unlikely as that may be), this might be a nice thesis topic. Maybe you can investigate this overlooked symbiosis between the two species in early societies; maybe even discuss how this domesticated both of them.
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2)
You're saying that dogs became human's best friend by us using them to clean our asses? I don't know about you, but I'd guess that it was more a result of them cleaning the other side that made them so attractive. It would be healtheir for the dog, and more pleasurable for the human at any rate. Maybe that's how they kept sailors sane, and pets/livestock alive on those long transatlantic voyages.
Kids, please do not even think about testing my hypothesis for a science fair project! And if you do, don't mention my name. Thank you.
Maskirovka
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2)
Re:What is the use of a high tech toilet? (Score:2)
Monte Carlo Casino Toilet (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Monte Carlo Casino Toilet (Score:4, Funny)
I had to restrain a lady who tried to bolt straight inside after I had finished. Maybe I shouldn't have...
More efficiency please! (Score:5, Funny)
- Odor detection and removal.
- Gender detection and ajustment (regarding this whole toilet seat issue...)
- Self-cleaning
- Methane detection and recycling
- Portability
- Stability
- Scalability
- Modularity
... Oh man, never work on software design when you need to take a dump...
Re:More efficiency please! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:More efficiency please! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:More efficiency please! (Score:3, Funny)
You or the toilet?
;)
Re:More efficiency please! (Score:2)
/slaps_forehead: That's why they're so productive at One Microsoft Way - no toiltes in the whole campus. Now I get it!
:^D
Soko
Re:More efficiency please! (Score:3, Funny)
- Gender detection and ajustment
That's probably the first time I've heard the word "adjust" applied to a binary attribute . . .
California hippie bastards (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot is really going down the ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Slashdot is really going down the ... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Slashdot is really going down the ... (Score:3, Funny)
I'll buy one if.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'll buy one if.... (Score:3, Funny)
Pr0n on the toilet (Score:2, Funny)
Frankfurt Airport... (Score:2)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
"shit® happens"?
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, if MS does enter the market, then I can see how a toilet crash would go. Instead of the BSOD, you'd get the BWOD (Blue Water of Death), in which the blue water in the bowl would rise and rise until it overflows all over the floor.
Re:So... (Score:2)
Re:So... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:2, Funny)
I'd say Intel should market it "Shit Inside"® except it might be a better description of their computers. Then you'd get into royal shit if you tried to do yoga on it.
Re:So... (Score:2)
Needed: affordable self-cleaning public toilets (Score:5, Interesting)
I've seen the innards of the things when they're opened up for maintenance. They're built out of components from the Telemechanique industrial automation catalog. There are motors, valves, pumps, tanks, lights, and a computer with a rack of interface cards in a stainless steel box. That works, but it's an expensive way to go. You don't make a mass-produced product that way. You could build a washing machine, say, from industrial automation components, and it would work fine, but cost upwards of $10,000.
Some units from Japan designed for mass-production would help.
Re:Needed: affordable self-cleaning public toilets (Score:2)
Re:Needed: affordable self-cleaning public toilets (Score:2)
Re:Needed: affordable self-cleaning public toilets (Score:2)
Truly high-tech toilet (Score:3, Informative)
Home Improvement (Score:2, Funny)
All I can say... (Score:5, Funny)
Analyze Urine? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be interested in hearing more about this. Will it store the information locally or be hooked up to a network? How will it know who's using the toilet? Who's to say they won't test for drugs or something in the future? This could get pretty invasive.
Re:Analyze Urine? (Score:4, Funny)
What else can be detected by urine samples? And when will the toilet be on the home or world network? Open up your browser to read From: potty emails.
Re:Analyze Urine? (Score:2)
Re:Analyze Urine? (Score:2)
http://www.toilettech.com/ (Score:2)
Yes, I had one when I lived in Japan (Score:2, Informative)
They are especially nice when you have the runs. You know, when you have to go to the heads all day, and by the end toilet paper might as well be sandpaper, for the effect it has on your sensitive tissues.
Japanese toilets also have (this is ALL toilets, not just the high-tech ones) two flush types: turn the handle one way for a small flush (#1), turn it the other way for a big flush (#2). Simple, environmentally friendly, and good for water bills. Why on earth don't we have them everywhere -- not to mention in the US, where I understand that flush volumes are limited by law. After all, if the average of all flushes is lower, that should be good enough, right?
Graham
here in Osaka (Score:5, Informative)
I would have to say that I would be particularly upset without my electric toilet seat.
No, I am not kidding.
Here is why:
The typical house in Japan is designed for summer and as such as neither 1) central heating nor 2) insulation in the walls. Hence, as you can imagine, that toilet is literally hovering at a temperature just above freezing (0 for most of the world 32 for you in the USA) so sitting on one that is not electrically heated is shocking, to say the least.
Now, on to my review:
First off, aside from its warmth features, the electric toilet seat has two particularly nice options which I would recommend to anyone with a hairy ass.
- One: On most of these toilets there is a nozzle that will spray warm water (although you can control the temperature) where the sun don't shine (and pasty things occasionally get mixed with hairs). The location of the nozzle is controlled via a knob (along with all of the other controls) on the right side of the toilet seat.
Oh, so yes, most (read 99.9999%) of these seats are for the right handed. As far as I know you would have to order a lefty as they are not available in stock here.
--Two: There is a blow dryer that kicks in automatically after that nozzle is done spraying. You can usually control the length of time for the drying bit.
There are of course higher end models that have fragrances, soaps, feminine hygene related options (frontal nozzles and such) which all cost more.
A recent visit to Kojima ( a national electrics chain) resulted in a basic price range of $250 to $900 US (of course I exchanged that from yen ).
There are some problems I could see with selling these in America, not the lest of which is that you would need to get a power outlet installed next to your toilet. This is not something I recall ever having seen in my 22 years in the US so, if you ask me this is the core problem beyond any other related to marketing.
This is rather like the problem that US makers of air conditioners had selling their products in Asia - which is quite funny actually.
Perhaps some of you are aware of this, but I will bring it up just as a final aside and a testament to the inability of companies to make internationally feasible products:
In Japan, at least, air conditioners are bolted to the wall, high, up close to the ceiling. As such no one can operate them without a remote control. As you can imagine the US based makers did not research the use of the product ("of course, they use the same machines the same way we do") so all of the controls were on the AC itself.
It still cracks me up to think about it: forcing people to climb on chairs to adjust the temperature - that might just bite in to your market share a bit don't you think? Duh.
Forgetting to resolve problems of fundamental things like usage in the actual users environment will never get you anything other than a thinner wallet.
If I were a worker at Toto I would re-evaluate the usage of the toilet seat in my target market first.
But, oh well, I am not a marketer.
back to work--
Jeff (by the way, Grummet used to mean, where I grew up, 5 pounds of shit in a 1 pound bag. odd that it applies here some how)
P.S. You may be wondering about those air conditioners, which happen to be off the topic a little, but here is one last anecdote, they are also used as heaters in winter but only do a wonderful job of heating the upper half (up to just below the ceiling ) part of the room so it is usually freezing in the part of the room where everyone spends most of their time: the floor.
Pretty smart, huh?
Re:here in Osaka (Score:3, Funny)
After I was done, I figured that one of the buttons kind of looked like it was some sort of self-cleaning mechanism. So I hit it while standing up facing the toilet.
A small white nozzle popped out and proceeded to spray me and the door of the bathroom with a rather strong blast of water. Since the 'stop' button was also in Japanese, by the time I finally figured out how to shut the damn thing off I was completely soaked.
Reminds me of an old joke... (Score:2, Funny)
A man was at a theater and before the show, he desperately had to go to the washroom. He went to the men's room but it was out of order. He really urgently needed to use it and some women employees nearby noticed his predicament and told him to use the ladies' room, but he must NOT not touch any buttons on the wall.
He really has to go so he enters the washroom and does his business. There are four buttons on the wall labelled "WW" , "HA" , "PP" and "ATR" .
Of course he gets curious and, really, would anyone know if he touched one? So he presses WW and a spray of warm water washed his buttocks. "WOW!" he thought. This was great! Obviously WW stood for 'warm water.' He quickly pressed "HA" and hot air was fanned from the plumbing to dry him off.
Clearly this ladies' washroom, unlike the dull men's room, was a place of luxury! He pressed "PP" and a powder puff was applied to his underside, making him feel very nice indeed.
Finally, expecting the greatest pleasure from the last button ... he pressed ATR.
The next thing the guy saw was a nurse looking up at him with a smirking kind of expression. He was in a hospital bed. He said, "What happenned? The last thing I remember was the ladies' washroom..." The nurse replied, "You pressed one too many buttons. ATR stands for 'automatic tampon removal'. Your penis is under your pillow."
Seat Warmer (Score:2, Interesting)
Cire
Japanese Low and High Tech Toilets Reviewed (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/toilets/
About the electric toilets, the basic feature that's quite common, even without the spray, etc, is a heated toilet seat. Which makes a lot of sense and makes for great comfort first thing on a winter morning. There are a lot of heated toilet seats without all the gadgetry here, and when I visit home and my buttocks shiver when I sit I appreciate these devices. Of course it's all superfluous, nothing totally necessary, just like toilet paper, right? You can always use one of your hands and then wash it afterwards. But as long as you're going to go for comfort, you might as well have heated toilet seats as well as toilet paper.
Re:Japanese Low and High Tech Toilets Reviewed (Score:2)
Human excrement has to be retrieved via a hole outside the house using what is literally a scoop and a pail, and buried in the garden.
Toilet paper may not be flushed. After you wipe yourself, you must throw it in the wastebasket and burn it with all the other burnable trash.
And the house uses only water from a well, so there is no way there would be enough water for toilet flushing. Hence my decision to put in the composting toilet.
"And for people on the go" (Score:2)
Urinal-ysis? (Score:4, Funny)
Just fucking great. Thanks, scientists! Now we can't even have some fucking privacy when we take a leak>:\
And by "we" I mean EVERYONE, not just drug users. How soon til the toilet detects you've got diabetes and tattles on you to the insurance companies?
Japan is turning into... (Score:3, Funny)
I guess it could be worse, it could be turning into a big platform game. Watch out for those spinning blades!
Toilet Review (Score:5, Informative)
The first impression you get of the shining white porcelain gadget is the motion sensor activated seat. (Obiviously designed with all those people who are too crippled to lift the seat cover on their own but still miraculously find their way into the bathroom) Swing open the door and you will be greeted by a soothing mechanical whirr as the seat cover goes up. After wiping down the seat with provided disinfectant from the design coordinated dispenser (also a product of toto) You are greeted by a fairly quick change in tempurature from icy cold (Insulation in Japan sucks and central heat does not seem to be of interest in bathrooms here [read: DAMN COLD]) to a pleasant or shall we say encouraging warm tempurature. Not a bad touch. Very good contour to cradle you poor senstive ass after being abused by an office chair everyday. I don't think I need to mention that actual process of 'making a deposit in the bank' as it would seem rather independant of the technology.
And now on to the real fun. I had always assumed that all sorts of water jets and blowers and stuff were for some kind of euro-hippy freak but one terribly hung-over morning at the office I decided to take the challege and 'test' the water jet. I was very impressed by the nice features incorporated into the jet alone. The water tempurature angle and water pressure are all independantly adjustable to suit all body sizes and 'consistancies' (for lack of a better word). I felt rather clean, refreshed and not unpleasant at all, after all it saved me the trouble of wiping!
Being a curious, I have experimented with the jet mechanism at a later date and discovered that at maximum pressure activting the jet while not being seated results in an entertaining water jet that easily crosses to the far side of the stall with little loss of angle or tradjectory. Then by adjusting the angle mechanism I realized that the jet could easily reach tie or even face levels of the average male and realized the potential for an excellent prank hack. (It would really be a shame if someone rigged a trigger to the stall door, wouldn't it...).
Following the encounter with the water jet anyone would realize the need for a drying mechanism as toilet paper does not respond well to moisture. As with the water jet the dryer/blower also has adjustments for angle tempurate and air pressure making for a quick and pleasant drying experience. After multiple test runs timing revealed that the dryer could generally complete its task in 25-35sec with no discomfort. (When placed under time constraints the dryer could produce sufficient lack of moisture in a record time of roughly 12.6 seconds but would not be classified as in the 'comfort zone'.)
Due to being of the male variety and forseeable sloppiness, I could not test but give due note to a full set of water jets and dryers located in the front of the toilet to satisfy the needs of our geek friends who do not a twig and berries nor wedding tackle. The frontal jets were also adjustable for tempurature, angle and pressure leading me to the assumption that they would provide appropriate customization to satify most body shapes and preferences. (Unfortunately no ladies were willing to comment on the functionality of the frontal jets)
From an overall view-point I was very pleased with the performance of this toto model (sorry no model number available at this time) however in the office environment one problem was noticable. Often a venture to the 'techo-head', as I affectionately refer to it, revealed that the settings were often adjusted to preferences other than my own and would require some fine tuning before use to provide the optimal bathroom experience. I realized that it lacked the ability to create presets for individual 'users'. This model lacks the ability to present controls and the small number of analog controls would allow one to assume that presets would not be feasible with out a major redesign of the interface and circuitry. In the event that presets did become a option it would be very convenient to register these settings in a directory server. All in all I would give it 4 out of 5 Johns because of the lack of a presets and still some room in the concept to mature but all together a very pleasant dump.
As I cannot afford to be slashdotted, pictures of the jet mechanisms and control panels as well as model numbers and information will be available by email. Send mail to SCE(at)SUBDIMENSION(dot)COM with 'techno-head' in the subject line and I will send you the photos etc.
Americans don't need high-tech toilets (Score:3, Informative)
What I do want is toilets that flush completely in only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. This was a major problem with the early water-saving toilets, since often you had to flush twice to flush the toilet bowl cleanly. I believe it was Kohler that first corrected this problem with very careful design of the way water circulates in the toiler bowl during the flush cycle. I know that some toilet makers resorted in using pressurized water tanks (I kid you not!), but I'm not sure if the potential for mechanical trouble is worth it.
1.6 gallons flush better (Score:2)
Re:Americans don't need high-tech toilets (Score:2)
Re: Kohler. I have to put in a plug for the low-flush Kohler toilets. I moved into a new house recently, and replaced 4 of the toilets. My old house had a cheap low-flush toilet that I DETESTED. It always plugged up, and never seemed to flush it all the way.
These new Kohlers do a pretty damn good job. I can't say the never plug up, but it's pretty rare and they almost never need a second flush.
I gotta say it: (Score:2)
Isn't that the point?
AF? (Score:2)
:)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't used anything else as a toilet in years.
- A.P.
All I want.... (Score:2)
The best toilet of all... (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, I'm serious, and yes, that link is real!
Super toilets (Score:2)
Please (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, mod me down for being cynical about our great society and thinking this kind of money could actually be put to use in places it's really needed. Sorry for not being a narcissist.
Having lived in Japan... (Score:2)
Basically, I think it comes down to the fact that the Japanese are fastidiously hygenic. I dont' mean to imply that Americans and Europeans are not, but the Japanese take it to a new, almost obsessive-compulsive level. I may be reading too much into this, but I think this hygine compulsion has a lot to do with why they spend so much time creating the perfect commode.
Then again, given a large segment of Japanese society enjoys gross japscat porn it could be just the opposite as the above.
Re:Having lived in Japan... (Score:2)
Go to the countryside sometime and you can see old ladies peeing standing up by the side of the road. You know, out the back, like a cow.
Composting Toilet. (Score:2)
They require no water, no chemicals, use hardly any electricity (just enough to power a fan), and produce a dry, odorless white powder that you can use in your garden.
Very keen.
As for the "amusing gaijin encounter"... (Score:2)
Dai is for "daiben" and Sho is for "shoben" (ie pee-pee and poo-poo.) Not too hard to figure out.
The other one (Score:2, Interesting)
M
UCB did it years ago (Score:2)
Hi-tech (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hi-tech (Score:2)
Now show me the makeup gun with laser sights!
Boy Howdy! ... (Score:2)
Did I oversleep and Slashdot has rebranded itself to "News for Home Builders. Stuff that Sells." or what?
Sheesh!
Japan is amazing... (Score:2, Interesting)
The one thing I thought was really interesting though was that they have these ultra-high tech toilets.. and then there are the ultra-low tech toilets. Basically nothing more than a porcelain hole. You literally have to squat down to use it because there is no seat. and you'd better not lose your balance.
Just when you thought Slashdot hit bottom... (Score:3, Insightful)
Incase you missed it, here's the whole Ask Slashdot article summed up in two lines:
"Dear Slashdot....I enjoy jets of water shot at my anus, and i'm willing to pay the big bucks for it!! Any suggestions?"
Think about the sum total of what you've just read, then maybe it will hit you. Slashdot certainly isnt what it used to be, is it....And you thought Yahoo Internet Life was bad? Welcome to the new Slashdot, folks -- What once was the proud sentinel of geekdom has been reduced to running stories on toilets. Sure smacks of "stuff that matters" to me, I tell ya. Anyway, before you go off and moderate me down for being off-topic or trollsome, ask yourself this: How many other articles were rejected (re: meaningful, important articles, peoples work, interesting points of view, etc.) so that this story could make it in? On Easter, of all days. Simply charming.
Surprisingly, i'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to make a point. Just a day or two ago, I had written to Ask Slashdot regarding the issue of Linux on the desktop, and whether it was truly fair to call it "dead", when infact viable, stable, professional-quality desktops are available for Linux. HP certainly doesnt think the Linux desktop is dead -- They bundle GNOME with HP-UX. IBM isn't crazy either; They bundle both KDE -and- GNOME in AIX... So whats all the hub-bub about Linux being dead on the desktop? But, nope, we cant discuss that.....Not here on Slashdot. There are more important things to address in a public forum such as this..
Like how to have jets of water shoot at our anuses.
Cheers,
Re:Just when you thought Slashdot hit bottom... (Score:2)
Although it is correct to say that Slashdot's not what it is used to be and there are better sources of geek news (not that I would tell, go find your own weblog), it is not particularlly relevent in this case. You see in the States it is April Fools and this is the PERFECT troll article for such an day. I applaud the poster for his attention to detail and abiltiy to BS with such seriousness as to seem like an ask Slashdot should be.
Anyhow if you don't like what Slashdot has become, you can always stop reading it. It's not like you have a personal vested interest in Slashdot.
Re:Just when you thought Slashdot hit bottom... (Score:2, Funny)
AIDS in Zimbawe (Score:2, Funny)
Come on guys, 1:14 too early! (Score:2)
Nice toilet (Score:2)
It might be a bad idea to put these in an office building: people wouldn't want to go back to their cubicles, preferring to chill in the stalls.
Re:The Simpsons (Score:2)
Re:When I lived in Tokyo... (Score:2)
The only use I can see for a remote control would be if it was RF so it worked through walls and closed doors. You could sure have some fun with unsuspecting friends then.
~Philly
Re:Love these things! (Score:2)
1. Check to see if anyone else is in the bathroom
2. Grab a fresh wad of toilet paper
3. Wet up the wad of toilet paper in the sink
4. Race back to said toilet, wipe yourself with said wad
5. Wipe again with new, dry wad of toilet paper.
Sounds like these new toilets will prevent myself from having to do that, so I can eat all the fast food I want. Yay!