You holiday to Japan for the snow, the food, the temples and the cherry blossoms, and you come home talking about the toilets.
People are always a bit sheepish admitting it, because nobody plans a holiday around plumbing, but you use a heated washing seat in a hotel, the shopping mall and restaurants and much to your initial skepticism….You really like them.

Then you land back in Sydney and realise you’ve become a tolet snob, you loved the warm seat, the warm water washing your bits, the warm air drying you, and no smells with the built in deodorising.

What a Japanese toilet actually does when you sit on it

For anyone who has not used one, the word bidet does not match what a modern smart toilet. They are nothing like the weird porcelain bowls found in Italian homes in the eighties.
A modern Japanese toilet seat is a completely different animal, since it replaces the seat you already have and plugs into the water behind the pan.

• Warm water wash: a slim nozzle extends out from under the seat, washes with warm water, and retracts back out of the way when it is finished.
• Adjustable everything: water pressure, temperature and nozzle position are all set by you, because everybody develops an opinion about this once they have tried it.
• Heated seat: the feature people mention first, and the one that wins over anybody who has ever sat down at three in the morning in July.
• Self cleaning nozzle: the nozzle rinses itself before and after use, which is the question everyone wants to ask and nobody quite wants to say out loud.
• Warm air dryer: a gentle warm air dry afterwards, which is the part that has people rethinking how much toilet paper they actually buy.
• Deodoriser: a filter quietly pulls the odour out of the bowl while you sit there, and it beats any spray on your shelf.

Where a Japanese smart toilet goes further than a bidet seat

Go up to the full Japanese smart toilet, where the pan and the seat are one integrated unit rather than a seat retrofitted to the toilet you own, and the thing starts showing off. The lid opens as you walk up to it, it flushes on its own once you are done, and some units light the bowl softly at night so you are not standing there hunting for the switch.
The first time a lid opens by itself you will be amused, and then within about a week you will find yourself silently comparing them and what features you like the most

Toto, the Washlet, and the Japanese toilet everyone remembers

Most people come home from Japan not sure of the actual toilet brand name, but the brand is almost always Toto and the product is the Washlet.

Credit where it is due here, because Toto did the hard part. They kept building the same product for decades until it stopped being a quirky gadget and became the stock standard toilet seat in most homes and venues.
Read more about our Toto toilets installations

So when someone wants a Japanese style toilet, Toto is the brand that most people are wanting to install in their homes.

Why Australia was slow to warm to the bidet seat

This is the bit that gets misunderstood , the compliance the the older style bidets and the separate bidet sprays needed was strict.
They required a backflow prevention device fitted by a plumber before the bidet itself could be connected and then yearly compliance testing to ensure the bidet was safe to use.

Covids great toilet paper shortage bought a flurry of bidet enquiries and when people were panicking about being dependant on toilet papert being in stock.
Then when travel opened up again, people went to Japan in numbers, and the idea stopped being fanciful, because the modern bidets were now easier to install with just seat attachments that could fit to most toilets.

What changed for Japanese toilet seats in Australia

The current approved bidet seats sold in Australia have backflow prevention built into the unit itself, so there is no separate device to fit and no extra hardware or yearly complainace testing required.

This change is why these seats have become an affordable and practiacl upgrade to bathrooms. The seats are available from plumbing suppliers as well as larger applaince outlets. (You still need a plumber to connnect them as well as a complaince certificate.)

Putting a Japanese toilet in your bathroom, the practical reality

There are requirements that do have to be met.
If you want a heated set, heated water and warm air, you are going to need a power point close to the toilet, so you will need to book an electrician for this and we can help you with this part as we work with a couple of local electricians who we trust to this right.

If a renovation is anywhere on your horizon, this is the perfect timing to run a socket to the right spot while the wall is open.A bathroom renovation in Sydney can get you the bathroom easily designed around a japanses style toilet!

Pan shape and water pressure change how a Japanese toilet seat fits and feels

Two site conditions do most of the deciding.

• Pan shape: seats fit most standard Australian toilets, and the fixing kit in the box handles the mounting, but round and elongated pans sit differently and the seat needs to match yours so it does not overhang or sit short. This is a two minute check, done before anything is ordered.
• Water pressure: a non electric seat runs entirely on your mains pressure, so if you water pressure is low, the wash will feel gentler than the one you remember from your holiday. We can help boost low waster pressure if it is needed.

The water connection makes this licensed bidet installation work

The seat itself clips easily onto the pan with the kit that comes in the box. The water connection is licensed plumbing work and you will need a Plumbing Certificate of Compliance. This certificate will be required if you put your home on the market.

Blue Rhino Plumbing holds NSW Fair Trading contractor licences 289152C and 356773C.
All plumbing work is done right and certified , read more about bidet installations.

Electric versus non electric Japanese toilet seats, told straight

Heated or non heated and this is what it comes down to

• Non electric bidet seats: they run on mains water pressure alone,they do not require power and have mechanical controls with nothing to program. The water is unheated, as there is no heating element
• Electric bidet seats: they heat the water and the seat, give you adjustable temperature and pressure, add the warm air dryer and the deodoriser, and on the higher models the lid opens on a sensor. They need a power outlet near the toilet to do any of it.

The water tempertaure is the whole decision and out of all the seats we have installed, everyone of them has been heated.
The cold water option might be more popular for Darwin or Cairns!

So is Japanese toilet envy worth doing something about?

Honestly, for most people who ask me, yes. It is one of the few household upgrades you notice every single day, and the ones who were most sceptical beforehand tend to be the loudest converts a fortnight later. Modern homes have modern bathrooms, and adding a smart toilet makes sense.

Talk to Blue Rhino Plumbing about a Japanese toilet seat installation in Sydney

If you have come home from Japan with a mild case of toilet envy, we can tell you what will fit your bathroom and what is required.
Blue Rhino Plumbing is a service area business, so I come to you rather than working out of a showroom, across North Ryde, Ryde, West Ryde, Macquarie Park, Marsfield, Eastwood, Denistone, Gladesville, Meadowbank and Putney, with someone on call 24/7 for the inconvenient hour, which is the only hour anything ever goes wrong.

Call 0468 014 771, email plumbing@thebluerhino.com, or read through the bidet and smart toilet installation options first if you would rather know more before you ring. normal.