It's Time for Americans to Get over It and Embrace the Bidet (2015)

I would venture to bet that the vast majority of Americans have never had the opportunity to try a bidet, and wouldnt know how to use one or what to expect if they did. I know I haven&#x27;t.<p>I think this is an education problem. And articles like this only serve to highlight the problem, not solve it.<p>In ignorance, spraying water at feces on a rear, especially with no way to aim things before hand, leads me to expect a mess being sprayed around the bowl at least, and outside the bowl if you don&#x27;t have a good seal. Aerosolizing feces is already a problem with the flush, now we are splashing it around? And I assume you still need to use TP to wipe up, but anyone who has used toilet paper around water knows how ineffective it is at drying things.<p>I&#x27;m sure im wrong and theres good answers to all of these concerns - ive heard many proclamations of my savagery at not using a bidet over the years, but ive never seen these things addressed. Find a way to tell people how they actually work and I bet you would see a lot more movement. Put them in hotels or other places where people have a chance to give them a try.

Once you&#x27;ve gotten used to using flowing water to clean yourself, going back to a place where there are no bidets (or equivalent middle-east style handheld toilet shower) and you can use toilet paper only feels like the grossest&#x2F;nastiest thing.<p>I heard someone explain it like this: &quot;Imagine you got some shit on your hand, how would you clean it? Well you&#x27;d go to a sink and wash it off with soap and water, you wouldn&#x27;t just wipe it off with some paper towels. Ok, so why do we do that with our asses?&quot;

I need a god damned lesson on this. I just don&#x27;t get it. It&#x27;s not like the bidet is a precise instrument. It does a half-assed job (literally!), and everything winds up wet and half clean. I then break a bunch of toilet paper trying to get everything dry, meaning my hands -- which I use to touch things other people touch -- are at least until washed decided less clean. I&#x27;ve only tried these damned things a couple times, but I definitely do not get it.

Ok so tell me, I didn’t do research but might aswell sacrifice some dignity to get some answer for a friend in here:<p>1. You spray water up the butt… how does one prevent everything, including underwear, from getting wet?<p>2. What takes the dirt away eventually? A clean towel? The force of the water? Where is it taken? With the spraying water? Into the laundry machine?<p>I’m sure there is some excellent YouTube material that answers all my dumb wiper questions, if so please link it here for me and the other people stuck in the past. I feel like I don’t understand the 3 seashells…

Got one 5 years ago, and wouldn&#x27;t go back.<p>It&#x27;s really nice, especially if you can regulate the temperature. Very refreshing in the summer.<p>Don&#x27;t even need paper anymore, it just blasts everything away, lol.

Bidets are like acid: people who try it once have to tell everyone to try it too. Personally, I find the fixation on how I&#x27;m supposed to clean my ass a bit weird.

It&#x27;s time? Brother I did that <i>years</i> ago.<p>Changed my frickin&#x27; life.

If you don&#x27;t have access to a bidet, just use the &quot;dab of lotion on the TP&quot; technique.<p>Wipe like normal. Then put a bit of lotion on new folded TP and wipe. Repeat a few times until the TP is completely clean. It&#x27;s not at the level of bidet, but it gets you pretty squeaky clean (try it).<p>Best is to use thicker lotion with enough &quot;slipperyness&quot;, like true cocoa butter, etc. Cheaper lotions generally don&#x27;t work as well. Keep a small tube of the lotion in your backpack if you need it when you&#x27;re out and about.<p>(Fun fact: I submitted this technique as part of my YC application years ago and PG mentioned it to me when I ran into him at Stanford)

I introduced my landlord to bidet when I asked his permission and he liked it so much that he got several of them for other tenants (as a perk) and family members. It is a single life improvement that really helps me navigating. I work from home because the university wouldn&#x27;t agree on installing it in my department building.

For those who got addicted to a flowing-water toilet shower and now can&#x27;t (or don&#x27;t want to) take a dump on a public restroom, don&#x27;t worry, us Germans got y&#x27;all covered with the portable butt cleanser [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.happypo.de&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.happypo.de&#x2F;</a>

One of the best products I use in my house. Truly an amazing quality of life hack that is severely underrated.

I&#x27;m convinced we&#x27;d all be using bidets if it didn&#x27;t have the fancy sounding name. If it was introduced as something like the Ass-Blaster 5000™ it would be in every home.

There do seem to be plenty of odd reactions and a strange inability to figure out how it works from even the most brief of observations plus some obvious principles.<p>I suppose it wouldn&#x27;t be wise to get onto the similarly odd beliefs around hard driers, which many seem to believe blow concerning amounts of faeces around public conveniences!

&gt; Here we are in the world’s most sophisticated city<p>er, no

I always had one (likely stupid) question regarding these as I don‘t own one but would very much like an improvement over the paper, so now is the time to ask the experts: Are you supposed to additionally use a hand while the water runs or is the water pressure sufficient to get completely clean?

After living with a bidet, it’s really hard to go back. I don’t know why America doesn’t make it standard, especially new homes. You need to run an electrical line to the toilet though which most American bathrooms don’t have.

We were thinking about a fancy Japanese setup (heated toilet seat, warmed water used to clean), but our toilet room isn&#x27;t wired at all. It is a bit too cold where we are to consider an unheated solution.

Does being part wookie make a bidet less effective? I am asking for a friend.

This is a good reminder to write our bidets into our wills.<p>I have two Washlets and a Brondell. Absolutely game-changing. I also have a travel bidet that works amazingly while I&#x27;m traveling.

I have a bidet; when I travel I bring a cheap portable bidet with me. If you are undecided about getting one installed on your toilet and having a plumber hook it up to your water line etc, you could try this one [0] for pretty cheap. It&#x27;s a bit low pressure compared to the one I have installed, and it doesn&#x27;t heat up the water at all, but it&#x27;s still infinitely better than the alternative.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Portable-Electric-Rechargeable-Handheld-container&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B0BYVR1HCX" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Portable-Electric-Rechargeable-Handhe...</a>

I&#x27;m too lazy to bother with a bidet installation at home when the shower is <i>right there</i>.<p>In public spaces, an option to use is is definitely appreciated.

I&#x27;ve had a bidet two apartments back, but part of becoming a parent for me was to discover that flushable wet wipes do an equally good job.

I came to the conclusion that if the toilet paper shortages of the pan didn’t push us to a bidet revolution, it’ll sadly never happen.

It just costs money to get electrical lines run to your toilet and then get it installed. Otherwise, I would do it.

you can also get handheld bidet spray guns that are installed next to the toilet and are popular in asia particularly. A bit more awkward to handle manually (easily to spray out of the bowl), arguably, but also doubles as a cleaning sprayer.

One of the arguments I’ve heard is that it is unsanitary. It makes no sense to me because the argument I have is that, if you accidentally tripped, fell in poo and got some on your face, would you feel comfortable wiping it with a napkin and walk around for the rest of the day? Or would you wash your face with soap?

Absolutely love mine, I hate using any other bathroom without one

Visiting Japan left me feeling spoiled. Every single place we went had a bidet. Every restaurant, bar, teahouse, mall, and the places we stayed overnight. The expensive restaurants had bidets that auto opened and auto flushed.<p>I have a bidet on all three toilets in my home, so it feels crappy (ha) to poop at a public restroom. It&#x27;s just so unclean.

It&#x27;s stupid and unnecessary

Already have.

(2015)

PSA: please use toilet paper and then use the Bidet.<p>Imagine if your face was smeared with toothpaste. You would first need to wipe it off before washing it.