For 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.
In my downstairs bathroom, I do indeed have a power outlet within 6 feet of the toilet, but until I added a second, closer outlet, plugging in my bidet required running an extension cord along the back of the counter, behind the sink, to reach the original outlet. Not the most attractive setup, and probably not the safest either.
In my old apartment, the master bedroom had the toilet in a separate room from the sink, with no power outlet at all.
A 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.
> 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.
Assuming you clean the guest bathroom after a guest leaves (or at least before a new guest arrives), you can simply add the bidet wand to your list of items to clean, no?
I have Toto bidets installed at home (in the US)... was visiting Japan for a couple weeks last month and was overjoyed (not exaggerating) to see bidets in pretty much every bathroom, even in low-end bars and restaurants. I think I remember exactly one toilet I used that didn't have a bidet.
Then I come back home and go out and about and am disappointed when even nice restaurants don't have them.
There are models that don't require electricity, but the higher end ones (that do) will heat the water before hit hits your butt, and also might have a heated seat as well as other features.
I use a non-heated bidet in Truckee, California (near lake Tahoe). In the winter the water that comes out is cold, but it's only for a few seconds, so I just grin and bear it.
> Button to automatically raise and lower the lid. Bonus points if it’s motion activated to raise the lid when you enter the bathroom.
I have this, and eventually disabled it. It's super annoying, and goes off if if I enter the bathroom and go near the toilet for any reason, even if I'm not about to use the toilet.
It probably only works in Japan where, if possible, the toilet is in it's own separate room, separate from the room where you wash your face, separate from the room with the shower/bath. You'd never be in the toilet room except to use the toilet. The door stays closed so the toilet is only going to open when you open the door to the toilet room.
It's still kind of annoying since you can just leave the lid open instead of waiting for it to open...
Except, the motorized seat is indeed convenient, for which the lid might be a dependency, and I guess at which point a scope creep into auto opening everything is just an inevitability.
I am much more likely to buy something if I can pay with a credit card. Making a wire transfer is stressful; I'm worried that I got the wire instructions wrong, and my money will go to the wrong place and be gone forever. Paying with a cashier's check is stressful; I worry that I will get mugged between the bank and wherever I'm spending it, or that I'll just lose it on the way. Cash isn't quite as bad, and I almost always have some cash on me.
But given the choice of paying with cash or credit card, I will almost always choose the credit card. I like the idea that if I walk away from that transaction and then later realize that the merchant sold me something defective or outright fraudulent, I will have some recourse in getting that money back.
I get that a merchant will prefer an irreversible transaction, all else being equal. But I don't think all else is equal; I absolutely buy the GP's argument that purchasers will be more liberal with their spending if they don't have to worry so much about the merchant being a scammer. And regardless, there are many many more purchasers than merchants, and most (if not all) purchasers would at least have a slight preference toward a reversible transaction.
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