I'm sure it was operator error but I kept getting the back of my shirt wet when using the washlets in Japan. There must be a learning curve with that as well? I thought a handheld bidet would be easier.

I get a bit skeeved out by not-very-clean water splashing on my hand on the way to the bowl when using the handhelds. That and it's a strain to hold myself in the squatting position necessary to use it. I much prefer the Washlet seats.

I'm glad I came across this. I want a handheld one, the washlet is not an option for me. I'll be interested to see what everyone has to say! I really want one!

I use the handheld Toto at work? It works well and I like it for when I am away from home. The negative is that you do run out of water and you have to refill it which is a little difficult in the work bathrooms. The temperature of the water is set based on the temperature of the water you put into the unit. I would not want this to be my primary Washlet.

At home, I have the S300 with the heated seat and I love it. The endless hot water is also a great thing. The two are not comparable because they have different functions.

Good luck with your decision.

We have this thing and it's great.

Here is a link that might be useful: bidet

If a bidet is simply not in the budget and you really want the option to clean with water, then a handheld would have to do, BUT, as someone else said, they're not comparable. A washlet is a better option in every area (except cost). Convenience, ease of use, sanitary, many MANY more features. And that heated seat! Nothing says home more than a heated seat on a cold winter morning :) Hate using the bathroom anywhere else!

I have a hand-held from Biffy. They make a heater, called the Bun Warmer, but it gives me only a few seconds of warm water, and I have to wait for the cold to flush out before I get the warm. I do not get my hand wet on the way to the intended target, so do not know what you are referring to. I don't pull the trigger until I am properly aimed. Here is the Biffy site: http://www.biffy.com/handheld-bidet-sprayers/

In the clicky, I am directing you to the hand-held I wish I had gotten. It is by HydraWand. They have a "J" shaped wand that just seems like it would work better. For $140 you can get their Under-Sink Bidet Mixing Valve Kit and can set the temperature for your HydraWand water. We bought their valve for attaching the Biffy to the water tank of the toilet because we could not get the nylon one that Biffy sent to stop leaking. It is an all-brass, high quality valve that has done its job flawlessly.

Here is a link that might be useful: HydraWand

Phypno1: "I'm sure it was operator error but I kept getting the back of my shirt wet when using the washlets in Japan. "

Either you were using a defective Washlet® (registered trademark of Toto) or you were sitting way forward on the seat. A design deficiency (IMHO; others may disagree) of the Toto Washlet® is that Toto tries to make do with a single cleansing wand for both "feminine" and oshiri operations. (Toto's great rival, Inax, uses two separate, specialized wands for the respective operations.) That means that the Toto water stream is aimed very much toward the front of the bowl, at an angle that is actually a bit closer to horizontal than to vertical (43º from horizontal) for the oshiri cleansing.

Happy Black Friday, everyone.
I want to thank you for all your posts, I'd be lost without them.
I'm following Herring Maven's advice and going with the Inax C and getting either a Aquia, Drake or Vespin.
I' m 5'3 and have a small frame so would I be better with the round instead of the elongated style?

Hold the Phone! I hear that Inax is not longer offering advanced toilet seats in the USA. Their US site is down too. I believe that American Standard will be handling an advanced toilet seat through the DXV line. And since both company's have the same parent company, that might be the solution.

I just bought, a minutes ago, the Novita BH-90. It has what I like, 2 separate wands. It has a continuous water heating system. It has auto close on the seat and lid. It has a night light. A hand held control that can be wall mounted into a holder. Novita is a Korean company that apparently is the most frequently imported foreign advanced toilet seat to Japan. But I don't know what that really means, since they have 2 makers of their own, Toto and Inax. Kohler is involved with the company for the USA or North American distribution I believe. 3 year warranty 100% labor and parts.

Herring Maven, have you heard of this? I love my Inax Luscence, but this Novita will probably be a great substitute. And it really beats it for the options available. I had heard that Inax didn't have the features that other seats had. Inax has been a work horse for me though. I love the thing.

The contact at bidet king, I spoke to via chat, stated that he liked the Novita better than the Toto seat. They sell both. They have a Novita in their company bathroom.

Here is a link that might be useful: Novita BH-90/93

enduring: "Hold the Phone! I hear that Inax is not longer offering advanced toilet seats in the USA. Their US site is down too. I believe that American Standard will be handling an advanced toilet seat through the DXV line. And since both company's have the same parent company, that might be the solution."

The marketing strategies of large corporations are hard to fathom, but I can offer some (tiny) insight into the structure of INAX/American Standard/Lixil.

INAX got started as the chosen supplier to Frank Lloyd Wright for the custom tiles that he designed for the (original) Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, one of Wright's iconic designs. The company has been a giant in architectural materials to this day, but in the 1960s and 1970s got into the high-end plumbing business and was the pioneer -- before Toto -- in the new advanced toilet eat market. In the public perception, the plumbing business has a higher profile than bricks and tiles, so not that many years ago, the company decided to create a brand differential with different brand names for divisions, under a corporate umbrella with a made-up name, Lixil. A couple or three years ago, Lixil bought out the North American operations of American Standard; it was a purchase, rather than a merger.

After that, INAX took down its American website, and apparently made no effort to refresh the pre-purchase American Standard website, and entering the old INAX website address into a browser now redirects to the American Standard website. Why the company did it that way, I do not know, and it may be simply marketing ineptitude, but (without any separate date to back up my guess) I speculate that INAX has no intention to stop selling the high profit margin INAX line, which is a growing market segment, in North America to sell only cheap contractor-grade American Standard level products. That is pure speculation on my part, but it seems common sensical to me.

The Japanese market does support more than just INAX and Toto advanced toilet seats, but most non-Toto, non-INAX, seats that one sees there are from the usual suspects among giant electronics industrial firms like Matsushita (Panasonic), Toshiba, etc. I have not gone shopping specifically for toilets in Japan (where the culture generally would have homeowners buying through contractors doing major work on their home, rather than buying at retail), but I guess that the way a Korean brand would have to build a market there would be through 100-yen type stores (the equivalent of dollar stores in the United States) and deep discount department stores, as most home contractors are generally tied to a limited number of Japanese suppliers.

The very high-end INAX showroom was alive and well just off the Ginza in Tokyo the last I looked, and the company clearly is proud to show off its luxury offerings. That is why I doubt that INAX will disappear from the North American market any time soon, though the company may create a special brand name for the products. But that is all speculation on my part.

Thanks herring_maven. I hope my Novita preforms better than a dollar store equivalent, lol. One website stated that Toshiba and Samsung are involved with the electronics. I took the plunge and time will tell. I will keep the forum posted on this puppy.

Just an FYI, the Brondell Swash 1000 is on sale this Black Friday weekend at Home Depot for $479. We have been looking at that one for weeks and it is the best price I have seen.

enduring

How do you like your Novita bidet seat? I'm ready to purchase one and I wanted to hear your feedback. Please let me know. Thanks

Linda, here is my review :) I got your email but you are not allowing email access in you GW account so I could not respond via email. I hope this isn't too tedious to read, or confusing. It took me quite a while to compose because of my description of my installation issues I mentioned. Overall I am very happy with this seat.

I love the INAX I've had in my East Bathroom for 3 years now, it was very easy to install and the spray is great. The Novita that is in my West Bathroom has a lot of bells and whistles and has been very good too; once I got it up and running. I like the visual look of the Novita better than the INAX for my West Bathroom. But I would have got the INAX if they were still available, because they are a real workhorse. Hopefully the Novita will be one too.

The Novita has been very serviceable. It has been working very well. There is a nice hand held control, that I mounted on my wall using the sticky tape from a set of "Command Hooks" I didn't want to drill, and the Command Hooks sticky tape is supposed to release without damage when wanted. There is an auto sensing lid raising mechanism that I don't use because my room is too small to get enough distance from the toilet, not to trigger it with my movement. I do use the button on the controller to raise and lower the lid. I like the continuous hot water feature that this unit has, that my INAX does not. There are multiple lengths of extensions available for the wands. And I like having 2 wands. There is a 3 year warranty on the unit too. There is varying water pressure and temps on both wands. The oscillating feature for the wands I don't find that useful. The controller is hard to read at an angle, due to the LCD readout screen. When you learn the unit it is a non issue.

Regarding the water hookup, it is not as slick with the Novita as it was with the INAX. With the Novita I was not as happy about the installation of the water or the installation of the seat itself, a bit tricky for me. Part of the problem was that I have a skirted toilet in this West Bathroom and so caused the need for a special fitting at the water intake near my floor so I could keep the original connection to the tank that the plumber put in. I have a skirted toilet and the tank connection is hard to reach, and the included connections wouldn't have fitted there anyway because of the tight fit and angle. If I remember correctly, Novita has a connection at the toilet tank that I couldn't use because of the awkward location of my tank behind the skirting. My solution was to keep the plumbers installed hose, and make the switch for the line to the seat, at the floor where my water comes into the room. There was no solution for this other than a put together, concocted, connection that I came up with by visiting multiple specialty shops and big box stores. I finally found several connections that I could put together that could connect my 3/8" water line to the 1/2" seat intake line, and the toilet tank. The filter had to fit within that space too. The skirting, if I remember correctly is what caused all the issues. On a toilet without skirting I think the filter fits near the tank intake, and is more tidy looking. On my setup, I had to have the filter near the floor and an extra copper fitting to make all my connections.

I think I had the INAX up and running within 30 minutes with my East Bathroom (nice snap on clamping system, and non skirted toilet) 3 years ago. The Novita took an hour or 2 of horsing around to get the seat all the way back and the water lines partially installed.

In addition to my fabricated solution, I asked to have the online seller send me an adapter for the water connections because my water intake was smaller than their 1/2" adapter that they did include (again, if I remember correctly). They sent me the European sized adapter which didn't fit, but finally got the correct sized adapter. In the mean time I had my toilet out of commission as I came up with my homemade fix.

The online seller was very helpful and quick in responding to me. I haven't switched out from my homemade connection to the factory made connection yet, because my homemade fitting is working.

Pictures to show my Novita (the more expensive of the 2 lines) It is an elongated seat:
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This is not installed as intended. The correct T valve packed in the carton attaches to the toilet and is 7/8" not 'European'. This way the water filter is not located on the floor but under the toilet tank. Also, you mentioned Toshiba---Novita makes the Toshiba seats.