We’re living in a smart world: smart homes, smart security, smart irrigation, smart lighting, smart heating, smart televisions, smart audio, smart communications, smart fridge, smart ovens… it’s all too smart for words. So shouldn’t the humble toilet be given the smart treatment too? Well, it has. New Zealanders can now put an intelligent toilet in their bathroom and enjoy the many benefits they offer.
Worldwide, smart toilets are becoming regular fixtures, if you’ll pardon the pun. Some of the more common features found in these upgraded pieces of sanitary hardware include:
- Seat warmers: Pretty much every smart toilet can warm the toilet seat to meet the desired temperature requirements of the individual user.
- Automatic lid: This allows the lid to open or close automatically, which makes it touch-free and highly hygienic.
- Nightlight: When it’s time to visit the bathroom in the wee small hours, some smart toilets provide ambient night lighting.
- Bidet pressure and temperature adjustment: When a smart toilet includes a bidet, some allow you to adjust the spray pressure and water temperature.
In New Zealand, it is possible to access this sort of toilet technology. Fancy a toilet with a remote control? That’s how smart these things get, with the remote making it easy to perform a whole lot of functions with the push of a button. These include:
- Intimate cleaning of both posterior and anterior region after the deed is done
- Oscillating massage action of that cleaning water for superior results and comfort
- Warmed air to gently dry after the cleaning cycle is complete
- Adjustable temperature of the wash water and drying air
- Adjustable cleaning water pressure to suit individual intimate hygiene preferences
Beyond the remote control functions, the smart toilets now available in New Zealand also feature things like an auto-cleaning retractable nozzle so you never have to touch a toilet brush again, as well as a presence detection sensor which automatically flushes the toilet once the user has moved away.
A smart toilet might seem a little self-indulgent. Do we really need all of these comforts in the bathroom? But smart toilets are beneficial too. For example, they’re often operated and even cleaned in a completely touch-free fashion, so they’re more hygienic than conventional toilets. Plus, smart toilets are able to monitor just the right amount of water to be flushed every single time, dramatically reducing the amount of water used on each flush – and in a family home, that water saving can be considerable.
These North Shore plumbers are certainly fielding a growing number of enquiries about smart toilets and such is the interest in them, they’ll become a more common feature in New Zealand bathrooms in the years ahead. They’ll add a lot of theatricality to the bathroom-going process but as long as they reduce water usage and increase hygiene at the same time then it’s fair to say there’s more to smart toilets than might originally meet the eye.
