Toto is the largest producer of toilets in the world. I’ve never even heard of them in the UK but in their native Japan, Toto have over 70% of their flagship washlet toilets in installed in Japanese households. My stay in a Mauna Kea hotel room was the first time I had encountered one of these in person and I was impressed form the start. For those who have never seen one before, these toilets are deodorising, seat warming, bum washing, massaging and drying, self flushing and soft closing.
The model that I tried wasn’t even their most premium model. They have one that raises the toilet seat as you get near it and closes itself! In countries like Thailand I’ve had to use a water hand washer to clean my bum after a poo as is the standard for a lot of Asian countries but this washlet bidet thing does it all for you.
The control panel sits on the wall at easy reach to where you are seated. There are settings to massage, pulse or stream water up your bum and when you’re happy that your bum is clean you just hit the dry button. There’s a pink lady button too to wash from front to back to prevent thrush and water infection. I’m never happy with the end result of using these water washing things alone so I usually double up with toilet roll which the Toto washlet doesn’t seem to tolerate at times. I blocked our Toto washlet twice because the flush was not strong enough to push through a decent amount of faeces and toilet paper.
If these toilets and washlets were easily installed and easily available I would definitely want one at home but as it stands, English homes are not really plumbed for bidets and washlets so i won’t be using one again for some time. Toto do sell their units in europe but I’m guessing that they have targeted the high end market looking at their European website where they sell rimless toilets with great styling.
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