These days, technology is everywhere, giving us more options and convenience than ever before—including for your toilet! If you're replacing your home's porcelain toilet, we've put together a comprehensive guide to all the features you should consider before buying an intelligent toilet.
What is a Smart Toilet?
It couldn't be more straightforward: an intelligent toilet includes more features than a flush. The features include everything from Bluetooth speakers to environmentally efficient toilets. Most smart toilets share the following features:
- Temperature control on the seat
- Automatic flushing and self-cleaning functionalities
- Water-saving capabilities, making it eco-friendly and functional
- Ambient lighting
- Bluetooth speakers and wifi
- Remote and automatic capabilities
Are Intelligent Toilets Worth It?
Although nearly every aspect of our homes may be automated with the help of technology, updating your toilet isn't typically the first option. You may wonder why you would need a more expensive model of something you use only for flushing. But once you learn about all the advantages of top-quality intelligent toilets, you may realise that investing in one can be the perfect move for elevating your bathroom’s design and functionality. Here are some of the main pros of buying a smart toilet.
Automatic Flushing
Never again touch a dirty toilet! Sensors in intelligent loo options can tell when it's time to flush, eliminating the inconvenience of touching a handle contaminated with germs. Additionally, because there’s a constant check-up on water levels, this reduces the need for unnecessary flushing.
Overflow Protection
Concerning water levels, intelligent toilets can also help prevent overflowing. Smart toilets can tell when they become clogged and stop further flushing when there’s an obstruction. That prevents water from overflowing into the bowl, reducing the need to clean up the horrifying toilet water leak.
Self-Cleaning Functionality
No homeowner enjoys cleaning a dirty toilet, which is why the self-cleaning features of the smart toilets can take care of the chore for you! Every toilet type does the task differently: some use a wiper blade, others use only water to rinse the bowl, and some variations can even destroy bacteria and parasites using UV radiation. Be aware that you will still need to clean your toilet manually a few times a year.
Self-Warming Technology
The prospect of a chilly toilet seat makes us all quiver. Consequently, heated seats are a feature of smart toilets. You may change the heat to your preferred level with the remote control or the device.
Water-Saving
While you wouldn't expect an intelligent toilet to be a money saver given that it costs more than a conventional one, it’s the case. These toilets can reduce water consumption and energy use and may even save you money in the long run. How do they do that?
Smart toilets stop unnecessary flushing and address flushing demands more effectively because they are automated. Additionally, they monitor the water level and adjust the flush as necessary. That indicates that they don't utilise the fixed amount of water used by regular toilets, only the amount needed for a single flush. That helps to save several litres of water yearly because flushing adjusts to the water level.
Choose Your Features
Once you decide to take your bathroom aesthetics and function to the next level with an intelligent toilet, you must choose your features to make the most of your investment. Here are some that we love.
Eco-Friendly Functionality
Water-saving features that make smart toilets more environmentally friendly are one of their first and most fundamental features. The various eco-friendly toilets you can find while shopping for a new lavatory are listed below.
Low Flow Toilets
Most older toilets consume 22 litres of water per flush, which is excessive! Low-flow toilets are as efficient at removing human waste as their previous versions but require only 6 litres of water per flush.
Dual Flush Toilets
These toilets go one step beyond being environmentally friendly by having two flushing choices, one for using liquid waste that uses only 3 litres per flush and another for solid waste, using 6.
Toilets with Integrated Sinks
While less typical than the other environmentally friendly choices above, some toilets can conserve water by having a sink built into the lid. When you wash your hands, clean water is pumped via the faucet, drained into the toilet bowl below, and used for flushing.
Innovative Self-Cleaning Cleaning Technology
The simpler it is to clean a toilet, the better! The best intelligent toilets have cutting-edge, novel self-cleaning features that guarantee a more hygienic bathroom experience. Many smart bidet accessories can provide the same functionality even if you choose not to purchase a whole smart toilet. Here are only a few examples of these technologies:
Eco-friendly Electrolysed Water
Toto invented and pioneered the usage of eWater+, a kind of electrolysed water that serves as a safe, environmentally-friendly disinfection and lessens the need for harsh cleaning agents by removing stains, odours, and other contaminants. With this cutting-edge technology, Toto toilets automatically mist the bowl with eWater+ after each use or after 8 hours of inactivity.
UV Light
Some smart toilets come with a special UV light or other illumination features that can assist you in frequently cleaning and disinfecting your toilet bowl and bidet wands.
Toilet Seat Opening/Closing & Automatic Flushing
Automatic flushing and lid opening/closing functions aren’t only practical but are also more hygienic, as these touchless, motion-activated features remove high-touch locations like toilet lids and handles.
Seat Warmers
Seat warmers aren't just for vehicles anymore! When you consider that the typical person spends 3 hours per week taking care of business, heated toilet seats are an innovative high-end feature for modern toilets that are wonderful. Smart toilets often come with heated seats as a standard feature, but you can also purchase a separate heated seat to swap out the one with your lavatory.
Ambient Lighting
Are you tired of going to the restroom in the middle of the night while it's dark and uncertain? Then, it may be time to give your toilet a nightlight! Want lighting that blends in with the design of your bathroom? For that, there are choices as well! Numerous toilets with lighting options come with different colour and brightness settings and energy-saving auto-off capabilities.
Deodoriser
We can all agree that some bathroom visits are smellier than others. That’s why intelligent bidets with built-in deodorisers are a terrific addition!
WiFi and Bluetooth Speakers
Some high-tech toilets have Bluetooth speakers so you can play music from your phone. You can use services like Amazon Alexa and make settings remotely if you have wifi capabilities.
Smart Toilet Seats Are a Good Upgrade, Too!
If you aren’t ready to switch to an intelligent toilet, know there are also smart toilet seats available with heated seats, motion-censored lids, bidets, and other features. That can be a nice upgrade, too, providing the many benefits of design-led and practical toilets of today.
