That being said, if the toilet component sucked then the whole experience will suck. I just wouldn't discount ass-spraying toilets from one bad toilet.
EDIT: Almost all the toilets with bidets I've used have also had manual flush options, although the UX is hit or miss.
But then I heard the line (from a Frenchman) "If you got shit on your fingers would you wipe it off with a piece of tissue, or wash your hands? Why would the answer be different for your bum?".
On reflection, why aren't they everywhere?
South Park recently had a very funny (and tame for them) episode about toilet paper and bidets. Obviously it’s fictionalized but a combination of marketing and non historical usage keeps people in the US from widely adopting something that would be hugely beneficial to them.
They are very common in the Middle East.
Personally I wouldn't do without one and would install one in any new home I moved to.
I guess it's a good way to ensure that you are awake in the morning.
s26e03. "Randy Discovers Japanese Toilets":
For one thing, I don’t eat with my bum. I’m still in favor of bidets.
Yes a water pressurized bidet spraying your crack is quite a bit better... not as good as actual soap but still. You can apply this to any body part and ask yourself if you think wiping that part with some shaved off tree is better than water???
I don't know about you but I don't tend to touch my keyboard or food with my anus like I do with my hands
- you need an electric plug, and builders tend to avoid putting them in the toilets or aren't asked for in the first place.
- once you have them, the water clogs the thin pipes with calcium apparently. So every one/two year we'd have to replace the tubes.
I am skeptical, whether spraying water at the butt is a good idea. What about the additional aerosols that creates? And if the spraying does not have the water pressure, you might end up with a dirty and wet butt, instead of only a dirty butt.
I also dislike toilets, which when you dump, allow water to splash up at you. I don't think that water is necessarily very clean.
Presumably the tech is called Google Wave?
Why are american toilets like that? As a european, it seems barbarian.
Also USians are used to it, so we don't complain :)
But the reason for the shorter partitions isn't generally cost.
1. Security: you can see if someone is still in the toilet when it is closing time, etc.
2. Cleaning: it is easier to clean with a gap, more clearance for the mop.
What I really wish we would get is stall door locks that indicate if locked or not. A properly hung stall door should naturally move to the open position but most are not properly hung. So you have a row of stalls all with the door closed and no idea if they are occupied or not. Which means you are either pushing on the doors, looking under or through the gap. It's Barbaric.
ADA Standards: 604.8.1.4 Toe Clearance
Those reasons are valid, but I'm not sure they beat "my vendor has a kit for this."
Like, even if you wanted a partition that went to the floor, a lot of vendors don't even have them. That's why I say precedent is a big reason why.
Wait......that's not standard in the US????? I've never seen a bathroom with a door lock that doesn't show its state on the outside, even if it's a simple mechanical latch.
The "moving part" doesn't go through the door.
Fancier bathrooms have deadbolts or equivalent that show the occupancy on the outside; amusingly enough so do the portapotties.
This is so simple (turning the lock reveals a patch of green or red) and useful that I can't really believe this is uncommon anywhere.
Go insane when a nipple shows on TV, but fine to almost see each other's parts in public.
You literally just T junction off the line that's already present. Not complex at all. The bidet itself has a valve that stays closed until you're ready for it to spray.
I'll never go back to pure tp after having a bidet.
If you spread your cheeks apart before sitting down, there is a lot less surface you have to wipe.
If you lean forward when you go (rest elbows on thighs), you're in the anatomically correct position (the Squatty Potty's selling point).
Wipe any sweat/hairs off the seat after you get up before you flush, and close the lid (or lift the seat if there is no lid) before you flush to avoid spraying dirty water on the seat.
Having a somewhat decent diet (mine isn't great, but it's still good enough) helps a lot too: turds will have form rather than just be like a paste, requiring just one wipe to make sure things are clean.
I doubt 99% of parents teach that (and they probably don't even practice that themselves). And most people aren't going even consider optimizing their toilet routine or care about the person using the toilet after them.
My kids used to get scared by the toilets which automatically flushed because their bodies were small and it was easy to be missed by the sensor and it would flush while they were still sitting on it. It's older technology, sure, but it's solving the problem of people not flushing toilets while introducing new problems.
I was once in the Microsoft building in NYC and used the toilet when the person in the stall next to me quickly fled the room and I saw water starting to run under the toilet wall (which was maybe 20cm from the floor). I had to quickly finish my business and tell the person working the desk that I had gone to use the bathroom and saw that a toilet was overflowing. I guess what I'm getting at here is that either all of the tech giants have toilet problems or you need more fiber in your diet.
I had a chance to visit Google's Mountain View office a few years ago, where they had these modern toilets that were supposed to "wipe your ass for you" by spraying water at your asshole or something similar. Never got to even try that feature as I took a pretty properly sized dump and jammed the system somehow.
Unfortunately, there was no plunger at hand to unclog it, neither was there a flush button as everything was automatic. I spent 10 minutes trying fix the situtation, but had to run into a meeting eventually, so I left the big pile of shit for the next person to handle.
Next day, I tried again using a different box in the toilet. Unrelated: the toilet walls and door had like 70cm of space underneath where you could almost see the junk hanging from the person sitting next to you. Very unpleasant. Anyways, the goddamn toilet did not work again. This time I had no meeting and eventually I was able to flush the shit down, but it took like 15 minutes.
I wonder if they still have those toilets, but this was possibly one of the worst toilet-going experiences in my life. I felt like I was unwillingly participating in some sick experiment set up by some psycho.