Nobody likes touching poop. Kids love joking about it, but touching it is no good. We all make poop, and there’s only three ways to avoid touching it:
Hire a personal nurse that will handle your business for you. Unlikely, but thank you to all the medical pros out there that provide this service to those who really need it.
Use toilet paper. Poop transfers more disease than almost any other item, so why not use 0.1mm thick paper to separate your clean hand from this gross, germ-ridden substance. Maybe you’re a “folder” and fold 10 layers of double-ply to create a 2mm thick germ barrier. Or, maybe your a “scruncher” and take your chances by scrunching a ball of toilet paper together to make a thick wad to wipe away the nastiness. You’re really taking your chances there since a crevasse in your random wad may randomly align with your finger. That’s really leaving your well-being up to chance. It also wastes a lot of paper.
The best option (medically speaking) is to use a bidet or bidet seat - known as a washlet. This is a $100 - $1000 toilet seat that replaces the one you already have. These squirt water to clean your poop away … and it is HANDS FREE! The more money you spend on a washlet seat, the more features you get like: a heated seat, heated water, nightlight, deodorizer, pulsating massage spray, an air dryer, a heated air dryer, a sanitizer, and even a lid that closes automatically. The bidet or washlet cleans you better than just toilet paper alone. Since you don’t need to use any toilet paper (or just a few sheets to pat yourself dry), you end up saving paper, and you also save water due to multiple flushes that are commonly needed with too much toilet paper from wiping. Most toilet flushes are for moving toilet paper through pipes and not our actual human waste. Doctors also recommend bidets and washlets because cleaning with water is more sanitary and it prevents skin irritation and abrasions on your bum caused by repeated wiping with dry paper.
If you can’t tell, we are a proponent for option #3 above for saving water, saving paper, protecting the infrastructure from clogs, and preventing the spread of disease from fecal matter. In order to make a bidet or washlet seat work, you typically do not need any changes to ordinary plumbing. The device plugs directly into the ordinary waterline that all toilets use. The one consideration you do need to implement is an electrical outlet. Electricity controls the spray of water and the extra features if you have them (like the nightlight, fan, heat, etc). In existing homes, it’s usually relatively simple to add a new outlet nearby your toilet since most bathrooms have light switches and lights in them that you can tap into for a new outlet. A bidet or washlet will be life-changing. Give it a try!
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help