Ah So Hot

The craze for augmented toilets has spread from it homeland in Japan ....

A Typical Smart Toilet Design

.... also known as Smart toilets, that are actually like the often misquoted A.I. which people think is for Artificial Intelligence, but I believe is Artificial Imbecile.

The original modern Western style toilet was developed by Sir John Harrington in 1596. But this wasn't good enough for the Japanese, who had all that technology in the late 80's and early 90's, but needed more products ..... so they came up with the idea that features such as seat warmers, and music speakers, could make the bathroom experience more pleasant.

It took a while for them to catch on in Japan, but they eventually warmed to the idea and became common, with 75% of Japanese households having a smart toilet. They have since spread elsewhere, and of course the other Asian super power started making them as well ..... so they caught on in China.

The proclaimed benefits and features of these products are:

•     Heating for the seats.
•     A bidet system that will spray water and clean your bottom area.
•     Music speakers.
•     Voice command.
•     Auto flushing abilities.
•     Self cleaning and water-conservative 1.0–1.28 gallons per flush.
•     Deodorizer.
•     Illuminating night-lights.

Personally I use a  wooden seat, the bathroom light, a radio, a dual flush system, toilet paper and a deodoriser spray .... but maybe I am just old fashioned like that? Anyway, my idiosyncrasies aside, the spread of these toilets to the USA and Western Europe has gathered pace, but there are some concerns about these products.

For instance in December 2023, a Chinese man in Fujian province was sitting on his smart toilet, presumably enjoying the music and scent, and waiting for his fundament to be squirted with warm water when he smelt smoke and burning. Then smoke started billowing from within the bowl he was sat above. He leapt up, and with not even time to pull up his pants, saw the bowl engulfed in furious flames and heat. A narrow escape from a fate really worse than death.

But he was not alone in this sort of event, because as Chinese firms have developed their own brands, safety may not always have been at the forefront of designs, because China has had a series of toilet infernos, where the devices have short-circuited and caught fire.

Whilst in Japan, a government agency report in 2024, confirmed that there had been 69 reported cases of injury involving the devices over the previous decade. The injuries ranged from users have sustained serious burns from seats that have overheated on older models that incorporate a bidet function, while others have been scalded by hot water escaping from damaged units, or suffered smoke inhalation damage when plastic components in the devices have caught fire.

With 80 per cent of the incidents in Japan involving products more than 10 years old with the deterioration of internal components, it highlights that these expensive products need to be replaced after a decade of use ...... I'll be sticking to my old-fashioned ways.