In movies and on television, bidets are often cast as the butt of the joke, so to speak. Foreign, hard to use, water spraying everywhere — we admit we’ve laughed, too. But the truth is, bidets are actually pretty awesome. Here’s why.
Definition
First off, a bidet is a low-mounted fixture, sometimes combined with a toilet, intended to wash, well, the parts that get soiled when you use the restroom.
Hygiene
If we weren’t so concerned about getting ourselves cleaned up, we wouldn’t have dozens of different kinds of toilet paper. Single ply, double ply, triple ply, thick, quilted, thin, recycled, moistened — the list goes on. But let’s be honest — sometimes it takes enough toilet paper to get the job done that it would have been easier to just hop in the shower. So let’s think of the bidet like a miniature shower and dryer for your nether regions. Bidets use jets of water and heated air to clean and dry, so you eliminate the need for toilet paper, which can irritate sensitive skin. Which leads us to…
Going Green
Think how much toilet paper you use every day, multiplied by seven days a week, multiplied by 52 weeks a year. That’s a lot of trees, folks. In the United States alone, this represents about 15 million trees a year, not to mention the billions of gallons of water, hundreds of thousands of tons of chlorine, and incredible amounts of electricity used to produce the paper. A bidet eliminates the need for toilet paper completely (and saves you money in the process).
Keeping Up With the Rest of the World
Compared to the rest of the modern world, the United States is actually pretty far behind in bidet usage. They’re in the majority of households in countries as far apart as Japan and Venezuela, and the integrated bidet is standard in all toilets in Turkey. The popularity of bidets across the world points to the fact that they are not as difficult to use as the entertainment industry makes them out to be.
Cost
Just like traditional toilets, bidets vary widely in cost, anywhere from $30 to $3,000, but there are plenty in the affordable range. If you’re interested in having a bidet installed in your home, our certified professionals at Andy’s Pipe Dream can help. We’re big fans of the bidet, and we’d love to talk to you more about the benefits and how you can get one in your home — and of course show you how it works so you don’t end up bidet-ing your face instead of your bum. Give us a call at 913-210-5598 or visit our website for more information.
