Why America Is Losing the Toilet Race
npr.org
npr.org
[0] Japanese toilets were long the butt of stand-up comics' jokes. I remember one such comic ending with the punchline "I'm being raped by a toilet!"
I think you're pinning on incompetence a lot that has more to do with cultural mores. This doesn't seem remarkably better across the board to me. It seems neat to the technologist in me, but it also feels extraordinarily fussy, an accommodation for the weak or incapable.
I recognise we should probably move to bidets, but I wouldn't look forward to the sidelong "is he a bit weird?" glances from guests. Warmed seats is a bit like fuzzy earmuffs: probably an improvement but something I feel like I shouldn't need. In some sense, I think trying to improve a toilet at all feels weirdly epicurean.
I find this vaguely embarrassing to write, I'm not a particularly macho person and I don't like to acknowledge that sense of masculinity circumscribing my actions. But I think it would take a hell of a marketer to get me past that, especially at a steep price point, nevermind people who are openly manly.
If I ever own a place I'm definitely getting one though.
It has a heated water tank, heated seat (although I never use it), a blow dryer, and a night light.
I haven't needed to use a single square of toilet paper ever since I got my bidet. No regrets!
Really? After living for some years in Japan, I feel almost traumatized when I go to Europe in winter and I have to sit in a cold toilet.
Also since they might have a microcontroller or CPU running some software, I hope they aren't connected to the Internet since that might expose the user to DOS attacks.
[1] https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-11-01-19983051...
Having spent time in Japan, I found that a Toto washlet is inferior to the shower method. However, washlets are clearly better than only dry paper towel.
My process for American public restrooms involves wetting paper towels, preferably after defecating to maintain absorption of water in the clumped paper towels. It’s odd to me that bathroom stalls don’t offer the facility to wet paper towels. It must be obvious to all that dry paper towel (without soap nor water) cannot possibly clean fecal matter sufficiently, yet this seems to be the cultural norm.
Perhaps someone will invent a kind of washlet that works better than the current offering. I personally don’t need heating and gizmos, just a high quality and reliable cleaning on par with the shower method.
Yup.
Most of the time I have to wipe few time to be clean.
I am missing something?
Would large scale stool analysis benefits outweigh the costs of its implementation?
Maybe there can be another 'Ignaz Semmelweis' before another 'Broad Street cholera outbreak' type event.
Easy to install and no electricity needed. They are out of stock now, but if you can get one, they are amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHopAo_Ohy0
>I like an escalator, man, because an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs.
>There would never be an "Escalator Temporarily Out of Order" sign. Only "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry For The Convenience."
I've encountered such a sign!
Problem is that stopped escalators cause certain cognitive problems: some unconscious part of the brain anticipates that the escalator _will_ work and attempts to compensate appropriately as you put your foot onto the step. It is not uncommon for someone to stumble or even fall when they take their first step onto a stopped escalator.
A similar sensation can occur as you're scrolling while browsing, when the page hits an upper/lower limit and ceases to scroll. The brain anticipates that the text will continue to scroll but it doesn't, and that causes an "upset" sensation, a dissonance, if you will, that actually hurts somewhat! It feels as if your eyes are crossing!
Well perhaps if the innovative electronic toilet was so good it would have, as the author says "diffused" into other countries.
Composting toilets at urban scale - now that would be tech worthy of the 21st century.
(I completely see the steampunkish appeal btw)
However, I don't think that model fits the American mentality well. One more likely scenario would be the electric or gas powered combustion toilets: https://shop.ecojohn.com/products/tinyjohn-waterless-inciner... https://incinolet.com/
You see these in places where fresh water may be scarce or sewage treatment limited, e.g. a small live-aboard boat.
But it's really a question of what you want to optimize for.
As others have said though, a great easy addition to the current American toilet is adding a bidet.
I happen to live in the bush with a composter. As I'm also on rainwater, which was damn scarce earlier this summer, flushing toilets make me cringe.
$17,300 toilets are great, much better than $80 toilets.
Author should install a $17,300 toilet in his home using money he actually earned himself and THEN write about how he feels that was the right decision.
(agree that the user you're responding to is being disingenuous about the price of Japanese toilets btw. The other differences is that public restrooms in Japan are often shared among several nearby shops--like at a train station--meaning a Toto is always within reach even if there's not one in every shop.)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Dev... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequalit...