I had never heard of a handheld bidet until two weeks ago. Most people know about the European-style bidet toilets that have been popular in many continental European countries for many many years, but have only recently become popular in the United States and Canada. Everybody likes the idea of the ultimate cleansing and hygiene experience, but not everybody has the space in the toilet to add a standalone bidet.
Bidet toilet seats like the Toto Washlet S300 are not a viable option for many people, due to the fact that they will cost you US$700 or more, plus the electrical and plumbing work required to install it. Don’t get me wrong, if you can afford one, this is a fantastic bidet toilet seat that will provide many years of service and has some of the most technologically advanced cleaning and drying technology anywhere in the world. But is there an alternative?
Well the answer is a definite yes! With minimal installation work, a handheld bidet can very quickly be installed into your existing toilet, and although it will not provide the warm water massaging wash that the Washlet toilet seat will, or drying facility, or lift and close the toilet seat automatically, it will provide you with a good quality cleaning facility for a fraction of the price. There are a couple of different models with different installation methods.
One type draws its water from the toilet tank at the top, and uses a battery-powered pump to provide the water pressure. This means you do not have to start tapping into the pressure fed water supply to your toilet tank. The manufacturers state that installation can take a matter of minutes.
The second type requires you to turn off your water supply to the toilet before installation. Most toilets will have a stopcock or tap just above the floor level which will allow you to easily turn it off here. If it does not, you may need to isolate the water supply to your house. All that is involved then is removing the copper pipe work from above the tap to where it enters the bottom of the toilet tank, and replacing it with a braided flexible hose which has a T piece that provides a feed off to the handheld bidet.
These hand held bidets are very much like a shower head and I do not need to go into detail about how one would use it. This is self-explanatory. You can pick one of these up for under $60 and they generally have a nice mounting kit for the handheld bidet handset to sit when not in use.
I bought one and have found it to be extremely adequate. You can even wash your hair with it!!