5 ms·

It amazes me that after widespread adoption of dishwashers, we still build very customised bathrooms into houses that require manual labour to clean each surfac

by prawn 6y ago

It amazes me that after widespread adoption of dishwashers, we still build very customised bathrooms into houses that require manual labour to clean each surface - tiles/grout, basins, benchtops, toilets, floors, etc. A bathroom that could be sealed and cleaned as though it was a dishwasher would be great. For everything but the toilet, lightly pressured spray of hot water would probably be sufficient. Throw the towels in the wash, close the waterproofed door, press the cleaning button and head off to work. Then the door/vents open to air it out after the cleaning process. There are public toilets that do it so surely we could make an attractive home version of that? And if not the entire bathroom, at least have self-cleaning toilets rather than almost every single model being a slightly different shape so there's no standardised solution better than a toilet brush. The lifetime cost of paid cleaners or just cleaning the bathroom yourself has to be worth something that could be invested into a bathroom upgrade when building.

latentpot 6y ago
You're onto something here
ehonda 6y ago
That's how I remodeled my bathroom. I opted against materials that require grout lines, among other things. It looks boring and utilitarian but its a hell of a lot easier to clean.
- sjg007 6y ago
  Giant fiberglass bathroom?
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    AKA a Japanese "Unit Bathroom" https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+unit+bathroom&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=ALeKk02AraMlwr-mivJ0qBx7tL53wwvncA:1602163519757&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiX9d2bjKXsAhUKA4gKHZx2Aj4Q_AUoAXoECBUQAw&biw=1742&bih=1536 https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+unit+bathroom&clien...
bluedino 6y ago
Bathrooms need to look nice. Tile floors, walk-in showers, fancy sinks, these are all status symbols. The maid cleans the bathroom anyhow.
- prawn 6y ago
  I think it would be possible to combine both. Even having a hot pressurised nozzle discretely in the shower would probably take care of that area if it was quick enough to spray down every couple of days. It's 2020 and whether it's you or a maid, humans are still scrubbing toilets.
realityloop 6y ago
Frances Gabe built a self cleaning house https://youtu.be/h95O5dQkoD4 https://youtu.be/h95O5dQkoD4
bluGill 6y ago
Self cleaning toilets exist https://www.americanstandard-us.com/bathroom/toilets/acticlean-self-cleaning-right-height-elongated-128-gpf-toilet-24152 https://www.americanstandard-us.com/bathroom/toilets/acticle... I don't know if they work well or not.
- prawn 6y ago
  I had checked reviews earlier and there are a lot of critics. Without a mechanical scrub, I don't know that you'd dislodge everything either.
rsynnott 6y ago
As you say, this is already a thing for public toilets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette For a whole bathroom, it would be quite expensive; you'd need a fully watertight room (most bathrooms, even wetrooms, are not) and you'd risk contamination. Would also be difficult to retrofit unless you had a wetroom already. Also the failure modes are quite bad; what happens when the drains clog? You'd need the whole thing sunken to prevent water egress to the rest of the house. Definitely not saying it's impossible, or even impractical, but it wouldn't be cheap.
- prawn 6y ago
  In my bathrooms, there's already a drain in the shower (the shower is recessed an inch) and in the centre of the main area. They don't clog. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to wash baked-on lasagne from myself in the shower as happens in a dishwasher. I think it would largely be dust and the like if it wasn't left to build up. I'm thinking these things would be designed for new-builds rather than retrofitted. Recess the floor an inch. Sealed door. Pressure sprays angling down that hit the wall up to a height of around 6-7' or so. Doesn't need to be fully watertight. Run an exhaust fan during and/or after. Maybe have a linear grate/drain at the shower end, and an air spray to help push water as well as dry the tiles. Seal or hide power points. Cabinets would need a loose seal (they're sprayed, not submerged).
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    > In my bathrooms, there's already a drain in the shower (the shower is recessed an inch) and in the centre of the main area. They don't clog. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to wash baked-on lasagne from myself in the shower as happens in a dishwasher. I think it would largely be dust and the like if it wasn't left to build up. I'm guessing no one in your household has long hair. my hair will clog any shower without a decent drain grate in a week or two.
    - prawn 6y ago
      Yes, wife and one daughter have long hair. We've not had a clogged drain in 10ish years in this house. I don't think the sprays required to keep tiles clean would be enough water to flood an inch-deep recessed floor.
pwinnski 6y ago
After visiting Asia a few times, I can't look at American bathrooms the same way. Why can't I just turn a hose on in the bathroom to clean everything? Argh!
vel0city 6y ago
It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but dishwashers are not necessarily self-cleaning. Dishwasher owners really should spend some time every now and then to scrub and clean out their dishwashers, along with running some kind of cleaner through their dishwasher. Mold, scale, and food debris will eventually build up throughout the dishwasher, even if you try to let it air out completely. Proper cleaning and maintenance of your dishwasher will help it last a lot longer than assuming it is self cleaning. I should know, I recently came into ownership of a 12 year old dishwasher which "didn't work". Scrubbing and cleaning the machine led to the machine working for quite a while after.
Chris2048 6y ago
Dishwashers spray hot water around an enclosed space, how would a bathroom work? Would teach component (bath/toilet etc) have an enclosure, or the whole bathroom? How much hot water would you need for that? What liability would there be for being inside when it went off? Probably a tile-crawling robot would be a better bet.
- prawn 6y ago
  Rotating pressure sprays mounted about 6-7' up that spray the shower walls and bathroom floor, aiming diagonally down. Water would quickly drain via floor drains. Besides the toilet, it really only needs to deal with a bit of dust that wouldn't be hard to dislodge if cleaned every few days. I don't think it would need to be so hot that it was an issue if you were caught inside - just like being on the lawns when sprinklers go off. Powerpoints would need to be sealed. Room would need to be slightly recessed (inch maybe). Cabinets would need some sort of seal. Or it could just do the shower, which is generally already recessed, has no powerpoints/cabinets/towels. In my bathroom, that would leave the toilet (its own beast), floors (easy to do), basins (bit annoying around the taps) and benchtops (easy). If a shower had a powered, pressure nozzle, it would probably be easy enough to do yourself once a week while in there. The toilet is the thing to solve though. My kids are old enough to leave streaks but not old enough to reliably clean them without touching everything they shouldn't!
  - blacksmith_tb 6y ago
    The key is that the volume of the dishwasher is small, and in fact it has heating elements (plus insulation) to raise the water temp, so it can recirculate that hot water (mixed with soap). I can imagine a bathroom with a drain (mine in fact has a concrete floor and a drain, so I can mop the whole floor into it) but there's no way to recirculate (or heat) water sprayed all over it, so the waste of water and energy would be huge.
    - prawn 6y ago
      I think a pressurised spray done frequently enough (every few days) wouldn't need much water and certainly less than I use in a daily shower.

by prawn 6y ago

latentpot 6y ago

You're onto something here

ehonda 6y ago

That's how I remodeled my bathroom. I opted against materials that require grout lines, among other things. It looks boring and utilitarian but its a hell of a lot easier to clean.

sjg007 6y ago
Giant fiberglass bathroom?
- kalleboo 6y ago
  AKA a Japanese "Unit Bathroom" https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+unit+bathroom&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=ALeKk02AraMlwr-mivJ0qBx7tL53wwvncA:1602163519757&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiX9d2bjKXsAhUKA4gKHZx2Aj4Q_AUoAXoECBUQAw&biw=1742&bih=1536 https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+unit+bathroom&clien...

bluedino 6y ago

Bathrooms need to look nice. Tile floors, walk-in showers, fancy sinks, these are all status symbols. The maid cleans the bathroom anyhow.

prawn 6y ago
I think it would be possible to combine both. Even having a hot pressurised nozzle discretely in the shower would probably take care of that area if it was quick enough to spray down every couple of days. It's 2020 and whether it's you or a maid, humans are still scrubbing toilets.

realityloop 6y ago

Frances Gabe built a self cleaning house https://youtu.be/h95O5dQkoD4 https://youtu.be/h95O5dQkoD4

bluGill 6y ago

Self cleaning toilets exist https://www.americanstandard-us.com/bathroom/toilets/acticlean-self-cleaning-right-height-elongated-128-gpf-toilet-24152 https://www.americanstandard-us.com/bathroom/toilets/acticle... I don't know if they work well or not.

prawn 6y ago
I had checked reviews earlier and there are a lot of critics. Without a mechanical scrub, I don't know that you'd dislodge everything either.

rsynnott 6y ago

As you say, this is already a thing for public toilets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette For a whole bathroom, it would be quite expensive; you'd need a fully watertight room (most bathrooms, even wetrooms, are not) and you'd risk contamination. Would also be difficult to retrofit unless you had a wetroom already. Also the failure modes are quite bad; what happens when the drains clog? You'd need the whole thing sunken to prevent water egress to the rest of the house. Definitely not saying it's impossible, or even impractical, but it wouldn't be cheap.

prawn 6y ago
In my bathrooms, there's already a drain in the shower (the shower is recessed an inch) and in the centre of the main area. They don't clog. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to wash baked-on lasagne from myself in the shower as happens in a dishwasher. I think it would largely be dust and the like if it wasn't left to build up. I'm thinking these things would be designed for new-builds rather than retrofitted. Recess the floor an inch. Sealed door. Pressure sprays angling down that hit the wall up to a height of around 6-7' or so. Doesn't need to be fully watertight. Run an exhaust fan during and/or after. Maybe have a linear grate/drain at the shower end, and an air spray to help push water as well as dry the tiles. Seal or hide power points. Cabinets would need a loose seal (they're sprayed, not submerged).
- leetcrew 6y ago
  > In my bathrooms, there's already a drain in the shower (the shower is recessed an inch) and in the centre of the main area. They don't clog. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to wash baked-on lasagne from myself in the shower as happens in a dishwasher. I think it would largely be dust and the like if it wasn't left to build up. I'm guessing no one in your household has long hair. my hair will clog any shower without a decent drain grate in a week or two.
  - prawn 6y ago
    Yes, wife and one daughter have long hair. We've not had a clogged drain in 10ish years in this house. I don't think the sprays required to keep tiles clean would be enough water to flood an inch-deep recessed floor.

pwinnski 6y ago

After visiting Asia a few times, I can't look at American bathrooms the same way. Why can't I just turn a hose on in the bathroom to clean everything? Argh!

vel0city 6y ago

It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but dishwashers are not necessarily self-cleaning. Dishwasher owners really should spend some time every now and then to scrub and clean out their dishwashers, along with running some kind of cleaner through their dishwasher. Mold, scale, and food debris will eventually build up throughout the dishwasher, even if you try to let it air out completely. Proper cleaning and maintenance of your dishwasher will help it last a lot longer than assuming it is self cleaning. I should know, I recently came into ownership of a 12 year old dishwasher which "didn't work". Scrubbing and cleaning the machine led to the machine working for quite a while after.

Chris2048 6y ago

Dishwashers spray hot water around an enclosed space, how would a bathroom work? Would teach component (bath/toilet etc) have an enclosure, or the whole bathroom? How much hot water would you need for that? What liability would there be for being inside when it went off? Probably a tile-crawling robot would be a better bet.

prawn 6y ago
Rotating pressure sprays mounted about 6-7' up that spray the shower walls and bathroom floor, aiming diagonally down. Water would quickly drain via floor drains. Besides the toilet, it really only needs to deal with a bit of dust that wouldn't be hard to dislodge if cleaned every few days. I don't think it would need to be so hot that it was an issue if you were caught inside - just like being on the lawns when sprinklers go off. Powerpoints would need to be sealed. Room would need to be slightly recessed (inch maybe). Cabinets would need some sort of seal. Or it could just do the shower, which is generally already recessed, has no powerpoints/cabinets/towels. In my bathroom, that would leave the toilet (its own beast), floors (easy to do), basins (bit annoying around the taps) and benchtops (easy). If a shower had a powered, pressure nozzle, it would probably be easy enough to do yourself once a week while in there. The toilet is the thing to solve though. My kids are old enough to leave streaks but not old enough to reliably clean them without touching everything they shouldn't!
- blacksmith_tb 6y ago
  The key is that the volume of the dishwasher is small, and in fact it has heating elements (plus insulation) to raise the water temp, so it can recirculate that hot water (mixed with soap). I can imagine a bathroom with a drain (mine in fact has a concrete floor and a drain, so I can mop the whole floor into it) but there's no way to recirculate (or heat) water sprayed all over it, so the waste of water and energy would be huge.
  - prawn 6y ago
    I think a pressurised spray done frequently enough (every few days) wouldn't need much water and certainly less than I use in a daily shower.