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These are neat, but not an option for those in rentals/apartments. Instead, on the advice here, about five years ago I bought a “bum gun” from Home Depot, the
by mixmastamyk 1y ago
These are neat, but not an option for those in rentals/apartments. Instead, on the advice here, about five years ago I bought a “bum gun” from Home Depot, the fancy stainless steel version for maybe $60 at the time.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Bath-Bidets-Handheld-Bidets/N-5yc1vZ2fkpcuu https://www.homedepot.com/b/Bath-Bidets-Handheld-Bidets/N-5y...
These deliver 90% of the benefits for under 10% of the cost, and less maintenance. It’s like a small metal garden hose with gun shaped valve at the end, you attach between the wall spigot and hose to the toilet with an adjustable wrench. Takes maybe 10 mins.
Would never go back to the dirty butt lifestyle. ;-)
- alwa 1y agoThere definitely exist full-featured models that replace only the seat of the toilet—a 5-minute, highly reversible effort well within the capabilities of even the most nervous renter. The water hose stacks inline with your existing supply at the point where it enters the toilet basin—a simple unscrew-and-rescrew operation on the order of attaching a garden hose. If the seat and water are heated (vigorously recommend!), the extension cord plugs into your existing shaver outlet / GFCI. I’m familiar with Brondell as a non-Toto option, and I’m sure there are others!
- mixmastamyk 1y agoPower outlets are not allowed near water basins here and so are not installed into the wall near the toilet. Most often there’s only one outlet near the sink with a circuit breaker on an opposite wall. Heated is not necessary in California and more complexity means more likely to break, so YMMV.
- simfree 1y agoYou certainly can put a GFCI outlet adjacent a toilet, sink or in any other wet space. Please don't spread electrical code myths.
- sublinear 1y agoAnd yet most apartments don't have an outlet near the toilet.
- mulmen 1y agoI have lived in close to a dozen places built over the entire second half of the 20th century and into the 2010s and never had a bathroom with more than 6 feet between the toilet and an outlet.
- seanmcdirmid 1y agoMy master bathroom in a 2016 build has a separate toilet room, and only one outlet that is definitely more than six feet away, it would also require drilling a hole somewhere.
- mulmen 1y agoWeird. That’s certainly not common in apartments.
- seanmcdirmid 1y agoI don’t think separate toilet rooms are very common in the states at all.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoSeparate sink, bathroom+toilet rooms here.
- zrobotics 1y agoYeah, NEC only requires 1 outlet within 3 feet of each sink in a bathroom, and 2 sinks 6' apart could share 1 outlet. Bathrooms are the really the only place where the NFPA hasn't extended the required number of outlets, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that changed in an upcoming revision. At the very least I wouldn't be shocked to see a NEC requirement for an outlet within 3' of each toilet in the next decade.
- jki275 1y agoAs already posted, GFCIs are required, they cost ten bucks and take about five minutes to install.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoTearing through the walls to install an outlet, priceless.
- jki275 1y agoI haven't seen a relatively modern house that didn't have an outlet within a few feet of the toilet area in a while.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoNIMBYs haven't allowed enough new builds to meet demand for decades.
- jki275 1y agoThat statement is so broad as to be impossible to even debate. There are thousands of new houses going up where I live. Maybe there aren't where you are. Who cares?
- mixmastamyk 1y agoThere are millions of new people to house. 10,000 babies born per day in the US. "Just buy a new house for your powered toilet" is not a useful argument. Most of us are going to have to deal with the older place we live in, that doesn't have power near the toilet, and/or spouse says no to an extension cord. As I wrote originally, the "bum gun" is a lot more practical in these situations.
- jki275 1y agoSeriously. Nobody said "buy a new house". Adding an outlet is a few minutes worth of work. It's not "buy a new house", that's about as ridiculous a straw man as I have ever heard of.
- kelnos 1y agoA little confused; unless your sentence about California is unrelated to your first paragraph, that doesn't make sense. I live in California and I have outlets near my bathroom sinks, but there are no circuit breakers in the room. (The outlets are GFCI.) I've definitely seen homes here with outlets near the toilet as well, with no extra safety devices beyond GFCI. (And a quick search suggests that building code requires an outlet within 3 feet of every wash basin.) If you are not talking about California, then... bummer; that level of restriction seems entirely unnecessary for safety.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoGFCI is another circuit breaker. Approx. no one knows this acronym. So if you know electrical jargon you certainly know this. As mentioned in this thread I forgot the word ‘normal’ as in standard outlets are not allowed.
- smegma2 1y agoUse an extension cord? That’s what I do
- jfim 1y agoThey're totally installable in a rental, takes about half an hour to install the first time, and about ten minutes to remove when you move out. The only thing is that one will typically need to run an extension cord to reach the toilet, but typically apartment bathrooms are pretty small anyway so it's not a particularly long extension cord.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoRight, just buy a thousand dollar Toto and run an extension cord across your bathroom! Install it and oh, find a place to store the existing toilet.
- ghaff 1y agoI wouldn't run an extension cord but there are absolutely Toto washlets that just replace the existing seat. IMO, absolutely the better answer as there things probably can break in ways that a regular toilet won't.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoHand sprayer still cheaper and less likely to break. Power still an issue.
- Tadpole9181 1y agoBidet seats only have power for things like seat heating. I don't why everyone is bringing this up like it's required. The cheaper options at $100 hook up to the existing waterline for the toilet and are entirely mechanical. No power.
- kelnos 1y agoFor a bathroom where I didn't have an outlet nearby, I bought a non-electric model from Brondell. It doesn't even replace the seat; it just sits under it. Super simple to install. It was $60, I believe. Sure, the hand sprayer is probably cheaper, and maybe -- maybe -- less likely to break, but I value the convenience of not having to use a hand sprayer.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- kelnos 1y ago> These are neat, but not an option for those in rentals/apartments. In the last place I rented, I bought and installed a Toto Washelet seat. When I moved out, I removed it and replaced the original seat. Same unit is now in a bathroom in the house I own. The seat replacements aren't as integrated as the entire-bowl replacements, but they come pretty close.
- Sohcahtoa82 1y agoHow do you use something like that without making a mess splashing water everywhere? My toilet has a round seat which seems a bit small to use something like that. I'd have to get up and hover my butt over the toilet to use a handheld bidet like that, and I just imagine it splashing everywhere.
- mixmastamyk 1y agoNot really. Scoot/lean forward, keep the angle low, start with the water pressure weak and then gradually increase it. Was awkward for a day or two, then I was a pro. ;-) Try from a store with a return policy I guess.