#bidets

It's Tuesday, and it's been a few weeks I think since my last Off Topic Tuesday, so I want to take the opportunity to talk about something very near and dear to my heart: the bidet.

I am an unapologetic bidet enthusiast. I strongly believe bidets to be superior over toilet paper alone.

Bidets are more eco friendly. People bring up the water usage as an environmental concern, however, bidets actually use less water than the amount of water it takes to produce toilet paper. As the article points out “It takes 37 gallons of water to make just one roll of toilet paper.” (Producing one roll of toilet paper also requires approximately 1.5 pounds of wood.) In contrast, using a bidet only consumes about one pint of water."

Also pointed out in the article: it's more hygienic because your hands are less likely to come into contact with your waste.

And also pointed out, it's (generally) gentler on the skin to use water rather than to scrape yourself repeatedly with dry paper.

And honestly, you just *feel* fresher and cleaner than when you only use toilet paper.

One thing I take issue with in this article is that it makes the sweeping generalization that "Europe uses bidets". Which, honestly, to me seems like bidets are mostly common in southern Europe, and outside of southern Europe their usage is hit or miss.

I know for a fact that Finland is the only Nordic country where bidets are widely used and common in most households. It was actually briefly living in Finland that made me a bidet convert. I still favor the Finnish style of bidet and find them to be superior to the other types, mostly because the Finnish style (a hose attached to the sink) allows more maneuverability than the kind that's built into the toilet seat (more common in east Asia) or the kind that is a separate bowl next to the toilet (more common in southern Europe).

But outside of Finland, bidet ownership and usage is scarce to nearly non-existent in most of the rest of northern Europe. When I came back to Iceland I scoured every hardware and housing goods store I could find, and none of them had a bidet, so I had to order my bidet online.

So no, as a whole not all of Europe uses bidets. Mostly southern Europe, and outside of southern Europe a few places here and there, like Finland.

However, I hope that can change, and more people can see the light when it comes to bidet ownership. Everyone I know who I've talked into using and/or buying a bidet has thanked me, even if they were apprehensive at first.

If you think of bidets as gross or weird, think of this: if you got some of your waste on your arm while you were in the bathroom, would you just wipe it off with paper and call it good? Or would you actually want to wash that off properly? Why should your nether regions get inferior treatment from the rest of your body?

No, because bidets aren't (supposed to be) squirting water into your anus that you need to push back out. They're just cleaning the outside, which is very different.

My father is 76 years old and disabled, and can no longer twist his arthritic shoulders around to reach behind him. He’s moving into an assisted living place, so we can’t just get a whole new toilet for there, but they said we could remove the toilet seat and put on a bidet toilet seat for him. We were looking at the comfybidet, but after some research I see that Toto is the best? Any recs on something in the $150-$300 range would be great.

Main issues we have are that my dad has a special seat that will go over the toilet, freestanding, like a commode, so that he’s higher up & able to transfer on and off easier. So the first question is what is a bidet that’s going to spray up to like 4 inches so that it will reach him even though he’s raised up over the toilet seat? And the second question is what’s a bidet that will operate even if the sensor isn’t picking up that he’s sitting on the toilet? I asked on Amazon about the comfybidet and it was determined that the spray would probably reach him, but that it wouldn’t allow the thing to turn on if it didn’t sense him sitting on the seat, which he won’t be doing because he’ll be sitting on his elevated seat. Does all that make sense? He needs something that will turn on when he pushes the button & spray regardless of whether or not it recognizes someone is sitting on it and we need something that will spray like 4 inches up so that it will reach him.

My girlfriend installed a bidet-style toilet seat in 'my' bathroom in her house. It's not the bells-and-whistles integrated seat/washer/dryer, just a swing-arm sprayer. Still and all, it's quite a sensation.