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For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it

For 22 years I used toilet paper until I traveled to South East Asia where every toilet has a seperate sprinkler. After a few toilet visits I decided to give it a GO. Man, toilet paper feels strange and plain stupid now. Water is way cheaper, doesn't hurt your "behind" and I feel cleaner afterwards. Paper seems an invention to sell something we really don't need (by Mad Men :-)).

Antifragile1 8y ago
You don't only feel cleaner. It IS cleaner. Developed parts in asia and the middle east have toilets with sprinklers. I don't understand why Europeans and Americans love their stinky butts so much. It's disgusting!
nerdwaller 8y ago
After traveling through a decent portion of China I tend to agree. The design of the “facilities” (e.g. “squatty potty”) in a lot of locations made a few in my group question toilet paper all together. Though being back in the states there are a lot of weird looks trying to find ways to mimic the stance... A few years after my time there I saw the “Squatty Potty”[0] on Shark Tank, but haven’t tried it. Anyone with thoughts? [0]: https://www.squattypotty.com/ https://www.squattypotty.com/
- dancek 8y ago
  I use things similar to that Squatty Potty and it feels better for me. I discovered this a couple of years ago. Coincidentally we have brand name ones at work, but any stable platform will do--my favorite might be this kids' stool from Ikea: https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/60248418/ https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/60248418/
  - donatj 8y ago
    Having not used such a contraption, it always seems to me that the same thing could be achieved by leaning forward without one?
    - dancek 8y ago
      It might be possible, but at least for me achieving the same position in a different rotation requires a lot of strength (due to gravity). And I can't poop while flexing half of my muscles.
    - omgbananas 8y ago
      I lean forward (elbows resting on thighs). I've always done it. I never even thought it was a thing not to lean forward until I saw/heard advertisements for the Squatty Potty. That, spreading cheeks when sitting down, and a decent diet means almost zero clean up.
- carlmr 8y ago
  I like Chinese toilets as well, but I think they're a hard sell here. They're more hygienic (no touching), better for health (in terms of poop position) and simpler to clean (just mop the whole floor and you're done).
  - ivanche 8y ago
    An honest question: how these handle when you have to drop a "scatter bomb"?
    - carlmr 8y ago
      Never had an issue, you just have to squat deep enough.
    - loxs 8y ago
      When you are in that position, it doesn't scatter, or at least my limited experience on the topic says so.
- 23478s882u 8y ago
  A squatting posture made a big difference for me. I get more thoroughly emptied out more easily. I literally need to go less often than I used to.
akkat 8y ago
Do you dry yourself before putting your pants on? If so how?
- jm547ster 8y ago
  The hand towel
  - hn_user2 8y ago
    Or TP to dry.
- nashashmi 8y ago
  This is the most important. Use toilet paper before and after water use to ensure cleanness.
- VVyattPrentice 8y ago
  I carry a portable electric hair dryer. It's rechargable and lasts about a day.
theprotocol 8y ago
I'd be afraid of the sprinkler collecting fecal and other matter, and am not too eager to nebulize that onto my behind.
- m_mueller 8y ago
  It's not really an issue. It sprays from an angle below that should minimize sprayback (no idea whether that is a word), plus you just clean it when doing the normal toilet cleaning. For sure is better than those overfull American toilets that welcome your butt with splash toilet water everytime you drop something.
- jakevn 8y ago
  The $300 add-on unit I have does self-cleaning after every use. When the sprayer retracts, it again sprays, but since there is now plastic directly above it, it cleans off the sprayer head on the rebound.
darklajid 8y ago
There are lots of places here in SG that have these toilets. They ... freak me out, tbh. Mostly because I have not the faintest idea how you'd use them and "So, how do you do your business" is not among the list of conversations I want to have. This whole floor (hosting six companies I think?) in a prominent office tower has one shared male restroom. Two booths. One is usable for me, the other one the scary thing. Most people, locals included, fight for the single seat..
- pzs 8y ago
  May be a naïve question: have you tried googling the topic?
  - darklajid 8y ago
    I honestly did. But the descriptions (just like the StackExchange link's replies) are utterly alien to me (squat..? How?) and I haven't found it in me to go on a video hunt (the StackExchange one links to something which supposedly is safe and helpful).
    - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
      > (squat..? How?) This is a thing for westerners; the squat position (with feet flat on the floor) is really hard to do for a lot of them, iirc mostly having to do with ankle flexibility (for me personally anyway). In countries with squat toilets the people are a lot more used to the position / motion. I guess most people could get by with doing a toe squat, but that's harder to keep balance.
      - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
        Yes, ankles, after 18 months learning Shotokan karate I can almost do a squat now, kids can do it with ease. I think with a toe squat you can't relax as much, which makes it difficult to open your sphincter.
      - moosekaka 8y ago
lsc 8y ago
So, my current employers have the, uh, washlets you describe, real high grade ones with a heater and a dryer. And I use them for the wash cycle, but I've found that I still prefer to dry off using toilet paper; the air dry function, even though it's heated just takes to damn long.
- 4ad 8y ago
  Just like those stupid hand air driers at public facilities. God, how I hate those. Americans have it easy, in general paper towels are available even when the damn air thing is installed. But here in Europe, most often you only get the stupid air machine with no paper towels.
  - krageon 8y ago
    The high end ones take maybe 20s to dry your hands off. Properly drying your hands with paper towels takes at least as long and it wastes paper. What is your problem with an air dryer?
    - stedaniels 8y ago
      You answered your own question. "The high end ones" all others take anywhere from 30 seconds to infinity. I can probably dry my hands on a paper towel in about 4 or 5 seconds max. I don't feel strongly enough about the subject to argue either way, just adding some more data points to your view on the matter.
    - 4ad 8y ago
      No, it doesn't take 20 seconds, even a 2 (two!) second wipe job does a better job at drying than 30s of air. Apart from that, air driers are incredibly unsanitary, spreading stuff everywhere. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20141121/restroom-hand-dryers-spread-more-germs-than-paper-towels-study-finds https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20141121/restroom-h... Also see this episode of mythbusters, which goes into much more depth than the synopsis on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)#Episode_199_–_"Down_and_Dirty/Earthquake_Survival" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)#Epis... And the high-end ones, which are only marginally better, are very, very loud. Loud enough to trigger tinnitus in myself, for example. Paper towels don't "waste" paper, they use paper (of which there's no shortage of, in the world) very efficiently. Plus in Germany and Portugal (at least) they have these reusable cloth towels that move between two spools. If I don't have towels of any kind, I just wipe my hands on my clothes. It's not great but it sure beats the damn useless contraption.
bhnmmhmd 8y ago
Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسار1-700x700.jpg https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.
- afroboy 8y ago
  All Arabs and Muslim countries use water to clean too, and that toilet too is used by 90% in Arabs homes and in public toilet is considered must have since it's easy to clean.
  - Chris2048 8y ago
    A good spray helps clean the toilet bowl of poop too, which is ten times harder once it dries to the porcelain..
- tomcooks 8y ago
  Easier to wash too, and to lose your smartphone into
- user5454 8y ago
  But worse for your knees...
  - badosu 8y ago
    Squatting is a more natural position for evacuating
  - chimeracoder 8y ago
    A proper squat puts zero pressure on the knees. That's why people with ACL injuries are still able to do squats. Grab a copy of a basic barbell weightlifting book, and you'll see - it'll say the same thing.
jasonkester 8y ago
The "hose" is a recent innovation. You can still find the old version occasionally, consisting of a big bucket of water and a smaller bucket for scooping. But yeah, once you've discovered the beauty of the hose, it's hard to go back. Worse is traveling in other tropical parts of the world with bad plumbing, where the solution to the same problem is "giant garbage bag filled with used toilet paper".
O_H_E 8y ago
As an Arab and now not living in the Middle East. I feel just sick trying to clean with toilet paper
tikkabhuna 8y ago
After our trip to Cambodia we wanted to bring the "Bum Gun" to the UK. For those who haven't tried it, it's the weirdest thing and sounds disgusting. To quote a crazy Canadian we met, "if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?" That said, SE Asia really lends itself to the Bum Gun. Its warm and can be humid, so you're not really worried about being a bit damp afterwards. I can't imagine being in a suit in cold UK winter and using one. Looking forward to trying a Japanese toilet with those sprays...
- andrepd 8y ago
  >if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean? Whoa...
- JustSomeNobody 8y ago
  Do those sprays have the pressure and duration to really spray everything down? I can poor water from a bottle of water onto the poo on my arm and I'd still think it'd be unclean. I'd need some positive pressure to think otherwise. Oh, and some soap.
  - peletiah 8y ago
    Combine it with your hand and you get clean, even better when there's soap. Then wash your hands properly. On our bicycle-journey through Asia we had a dedicated squeezable poo-bottle and poo-soap ("Kackflasche" and "Kackseife" in German).
    - VVyattPrentice 8y ago
      Googled "kackflasche". Was disappointed.
  - Idontknowmyuser 8y ago
    I've been Tunisia where they had a hose like this in the hotel, as you can see it has variable pressure, and even without setting it to the maximum it's sufficient. https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/b7/48/74/carlton-hotel-tunis.jpg https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/b7/48/74/... Some of them also have variable temperature.
weeksie 8y ago
Yeah, when I got back from spending about a year in SEA I immediately bought a TOTO for my apartment. Now I dread having to go when I'm out and being forced to use a barbarian toilet. I can't _wait_ for the States to catch on.
ivanhoe 8y ago
You can use toilet paper, and then in addition wash yourself afterwards. That's what bidets are used for by most of Europeans.
emiliosic 8y ago
It's called Bidet, from the french word. Bidets are very common in southern Europe. Bidets are more common in Mexico and parts of Canada than US. Anglo regions are behind on the trend here.
samhain 8y ago
Maybe I'm weird, but I've been spitting on toilet paper for years.

Antifragile1 8y ago

You don't only feel cleaner. It IS cleaner. Developed parts in asia and the middle east have toilets with sprinklers. I don't understand why Europeans and Americans love their stinky butts so much. It's disgusting!

nerdwaller 8y ago

After traveling through a decent portion of China I tend to agree. The design of the “facilities” (e.g. “squatty potty”) in a lot of locations made a few in my group question toilet paper all together. Though being back in the states there are a lot of weird looks trying to find ways to mimic the stance... A few years after my time there I saw the “Squatty Potty”[0] on Shark Tank, but haven’t tried it. Anyone with thoughts? [0]: https://www.squattypotty.com/ https://www.squattypotty.com/

dancek 8y ago
I use things similar to that Squatty Potty and it feels better for me. I discovered this a couple of years ago. Coincidentally we have brand name ones at work, but any stable platform will do--my favorite might be this kids' stool from Ikea: https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/60248418/ https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/60248418/
- donatj 8y ago
  Having not used such a contraption, it always seems to me that the same thing could be achieved by leaning forward without one?
  - dancek 8y ago
    It might be possible, but at least for me achieving the same position in a different rotation requires a lot of strength (due to gravity). And I can't poop while flexing half of my muscles.
  - omgbananas 8y ago
    I lean forward (elbows resting on thighs). I've always done it. I never even thought it was a thing not to lean forward until I saw/heard advertisements for the Squatty Potty. That, spreading cheeks when sitting down, and a decent diet means almost zero clean up.
carlmr 8y ago
I like Chinese toilets as well, but I think they're a hard sell here. They're more hygienic (no touching), better for health (in terms of poop position) and simpler to clean (just mop the whole floor and you're done).
- ivanche 8y ago
  An honest question: how these handle when you have to drop a "scatter bomb"?
  - carlmr 8y ago
    Never had an issue, you just have to squat deep enough.
  - loxs 8y ago
    When you are in that position, it doesn't scatter, or at least my limited experience on the topic says so.
23478s882u 8y ago
A squatting posture made a big difference for me. I get more thoroughly emptied out more easily. I literally need to go less often than I used to.

akkat 8y ago

Do you dry yourself before putting your pants on? If so how?

jm547ster 8y ago
The hand towel
- hn_user2 8y ago
  Or TP to dry.
nashashmi 8y ago
This is the most important. Use toilet paper before and after water use to ensure cleanness.
VVyattPrentice 8y ago
I carry a portable electric hair dryer. It's rechargable and lasts about a day.

theprotocol 8y ago

I'd be afraid of the sprinkler collecting fecal and other matter, and am not too eager to nebulize that onto my behind.

m_mueller 8y ago
It's not really an issue. It sprays from an angle below that should minimize sprayback (no idea whether that is a word), plus you just clean it when doing the normal toilet cleaning. For sure is better than those overfull American toilets that welcome your butt with splash toilet water everytime you drop something.
jakevn 8y ago
The $300 add-on unit I have does self-cleaning after every use. When the sprayer retracts, it again sprays, but since there is now plastic directly above it, it cleans off the sprayer head on the rebound.

darklajid 8y ago

There are lots of places here in SG that have these toilets. They ... freak me out, tbh. Mostly because I have not the faintest idea how you'd use them and "So, how do you do your business" is not among the list of conversations I want to have. This whole floor (hosting six companies I think?) in a prominent office tower has one shared male restroom. Two booths. One is usable for me, the other one the scary thing. Most people, locals included, fight for the single seat..

pzs 8y ago
May be a naïve question: have you tried googling the topic?
- darklajid 8y ago
  I honestly did. But the descriptions (just like the StackExchange link's replies) are utterly alien to me (squat..? How?) and I haven't found it in me to go on a video hunt (the StackExchange one links to something which supposedly is safe and helpful).
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    > (squat..? How?) This is a thing for westerners; the squat position (with feet flat on the floor) is really hard to do for a lot of them, iirc mostly having to do with ankle flexibility (for me personally anyway). In countries with squat toilets the people are a lot more used to the position / motion. I guess most people could get by with doing a toe squat, but that's harder to keep balance.
    - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
      Yes, ankles, after 18 months learning Shotokan karate I can almost do a squat now, kids can do it with ease. I think with a toe squat you can't relax as much, which makes it difficult to open your sphincter.
    - moosekaka 8y ago

lsc 8y ago

So, my current employers have the, uh, washlets you describe, real high grade ones with a heater and a dryer. And I use them for the wash cycle, but I've found that I still prefer to dry off using toilet paper; the air dry function, even though it's heated just takes to damn long.

4ad 8y ago
Just like those stupid hand air driers at public facilities. God, how I hate those. Americans have it easy, in general paper towels are available even when the damn air thing is installed. But here in Europe, most often you only get the stupid air machine with no paper towels.
- krageon 8y ago
  The high end ones take maybe 20s to dry your hands off. Properly drying your hands with paper towels takes at least as long and it wastes paper. What is your problem with an air dryer?
  - stedaniels 8y ago
    You answered your own question. "The high end ones" all others take anywhere from 30 seconds to infinity. I can probably dry my hands on a paper towel in about 4 or 5 seconds max. I don't feel strongly enough about the subject to argue either way, just adding some more data points to your view on the matter.
  - 4ad 8y ago
    No, it doesn't take 20 seconds, even a 2 (two!) second wipe job does a better job at drying than 30s of air. Apart from that, air driers are incredibly unsanitary, spreading stuff everywhere. https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20141121/restroom-hand-dryers-spread-more-germs-than-paper-towels-study-finds https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20141121/restroom-h... Also see this episode of mythbusters, which goes into much more depth than the synopsis on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)#Episode_199_–_"Down_and_Dirty/Earthquake_Survival" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2013_season)#Epis... And the high-end ones, which are only marginally better, are very, very loud. Loud enough to trigger tinnitus in myself, for example. Paper towels don't "waste" paper, they use paper (of which there's no shortage of, in the world) very efficiently. Plus in Germany and Portugal (at least) they have these reusable cloth towels that move between two spools. If I don't have towels of any kind, I just wipe my hands on my clothes. It's not great but it sure beats the damn useless contraption.

bhnmmhmd 8y ago

Agreed. They use water in Iran, too. Other than religious considerations (that only water will really clean mess), it actually feels better and cleaner. Plus, their toilets have a different shape, something like this: https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسار1-700x700.jpg https://behsakala.com/image/cache/data/products/-پارمیس-گلسا... As far as I've heard, this form of toilet is better and easier for colons.

afroboy 8y ago
All Arabs and Muslim countries use water to clean too, and that toilet too is used by 90% in Arabs homes and in public toilet is considered must have since it's easy to clean.
- Chris2048 8y ago
  A good spray helps clean the toilet bowl of poop too, which is ten times harder once it dries to the porcelain..
tomcooks 8y ago
Easier to wash too, and to lose your smartphone into
user5454 8y ago
But worse for your knees...
- badosu 8y ago
  Squatting is a more natural position for evacuating
- chimeracoder 8y ago
  A proper squat puts zero pressure on the knees. That's why people with ACL injuries are still able to do squats. Grab a copy of a basic barbell weightlifting book, and you'll see - it'll say the same thing.

jasonkester 8y ago

The "hose" is a recent innovation. You can still find the old version occasionally, consisting of a big bucket of water and a smaller bucket for scooping. But yeah, once you've discovered the beauty of the hose, it's hard to go back. Worse is traveling in other tropical parts of the world with bad plumbing, where the solution to the same problem is "giant garbage bag filled with used toilet paper".

O_H_E 8y ago

As an Arab and now not living in the Middle East. I feel just sick trying to clean with toilet paper

tikkabhuna 8y ago

After our trip to Cambodia we wanted to bring the "Bum Gun" to the UK. For those who haven't tried it, it's the weirdest thing and sounds disgusting. To quote a crazy Canadian we met, "if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean?" That said, SE Asia really lends itself to the Bum Gun. Its warm and can be humid, so you're not really worried about being a bit damp afterwards. I can't imagine being in a suit in cold UK winter and using one. Looking forward to trying a Japanese toilet with those sprays...

andrepd 8y ago
>if you had poo on your arm and you wiped it off with toilet paper, would you say its clean? Whoa...
JustSomeNobody 8y ago
Do those sprays have the pressure and duration to really spray everything down? I can poor water from a bottle of water onto the poo on my arm and I'd still think it'd be unclean. I'd need some positive pressure to think otherwise. Oh, and some soap.
- peletiah 8y ago
  Combine it with your hand and you get clean, even better when there's soap. Then wash your hands properly. On our bicycle-journey through Asia we had a dedicated squeezable poo-bottle and poo-soap ("Kackflasche" and "Kackseife" in German).
  - VVyattPrentice 8y ago
    Googled "kackflasche". Was disappointed.
- Idontknowmyuser 8y ago
  I've been Tunisia where they had a hose like this in the hotel, as you can see it has variable pressure, and even without setting it to the maximum it's sufficient. https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/b7/48/74/carlton-hotel-tunis.jpg https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/b7/48/74/... Some of them also have variable temperature.

weeksie 8y ago

Yeah, when I got back from spending about a year in SEA I immediately bought a TOTO for my apartment. Now I dread having to go when I'm out and being forced to use a barbarian toilet. I can't _wait_ for the States to catch on.

ivanhoe 8y ago

You can use toilet paper, and then in addition wash yourself afterwards. That's what bidets are used for by most of Europeans.

emiliosic 8y ago

It's called Bidet, from the french word. Bidets are very common in southern Europe. Bidets are more common in Mexico and parts of Canada than US. Anglo regions are behind on the trend here.

samhain 8y ago

Maybe I'm weird, but I've been spitting on toilet paper for years.