I’m new to the bidet scene, and this one has me slightly confounded. Should I install a new towel rack next to the toilet? Should my wife and I share the towel? Do you wipe first? There are so many unanswered questions in the ways of bidet-ing!

  • @[email protected]
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    111 year ago

    follow-up question. how do you deal with ice cold water in the pipes? do you have to turn on the tap every time you sit down to get the hot water going?

    • Jeena
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      51 year ago

      Mine heats the seat and the water with electricity. They are not so much more expensive but what a comfort, especially in the winter.

        • Skeezix
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          11 year ago

          I was looking at that one. But opted for the unit with cheek retraction, auto-aim, and testicle cup.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        In my experience your asshole puckering because of the winter cold water is counter productive to cleaning effectively, but If it’s the only option it’s still better than just TP. You just have to do a first dry with TP (pat don’t drag) and do a spot check at the same time. Sometimes you have to go for a second round if the spot check fails

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      we have a standalone bidet, not the toilet bowl attachment, which is basically a mini sink, and it works like a sink in that you can regulate flowrate and temperature with the handle

    • tenchiken
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      1 year ago

      An extra $10 and you can get a model that can pull from a hot water line under a nearby sink. Then you get a dial to adjust the temp.

      A little extra work putting in, but worth it for folks with scar tissue from surgery etc.

      To purge the line, most have a self clean that gets the water from the heater ready simply enough.

    • southsamurai
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      21 year ago

      It’s gonna depend on your preferences. Around here, the water can start out around 40ish(Fahrenheit) before it bumps up a little as the water that isn’t in the pipes exposed to the cold comes along. So we’re talking a bit cold, but not ice cold.

      That’s during winter. At this time of year, the water stays around 50ish, which is quite pleasant most of the time. It feels cool, but not uncomfortable.

      Obviously, the temp of the water is going to depend on what the pipes are exposed to. Around here, we have crawlspaces under houses, which means you only have a few yards of pipes exposed to the air to get cold. The rest is underground, where temps stay fairly steady. If you have more exposed piping, the duration of the cold water will be longer.

      So, I don’t even use the hot water at all, despite having it as an option. The regular water temp is nice for my preferences.

    • Evkob (they/them)
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      31 year ago

      I bought the fancier model that can connect to the sink for hot water and never bothered setting it up, you get used to the cold water fast enough.

      I honestly like it, a blast of cold water up the ass perks me up better than coffee in the mornings.

  • @[email protected]
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    1591 year ago

    Bidet wash first. Then tp to dry and to, well there is no nice way of saying this, check how the bidet wash did its job. Used appropriately, you should use significantly less tp than before.

    • @[email protected]
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      201 year ago

      This has always disturbed me. As a non-bidet user, when I have used them (a dozen or so times) an additional final sweep has definitely been required. And yet so many bidet users are adamant everything is magically 100% clean. I now just assume they’re walking around oblivious to a spot of wet mud peppered around the rim of their margherita.

      • @[email protected]
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        171 year ago

        I think of it as being (sorta) similar to spraying and wiping down a dirty countertop. The spray alone isn’t going to get it fully clean, but it makes the wipe about a thousand times more effective at finishing the job.

      • @[email protected]
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        31 year ago

        Depends on the nozzle size and whether you get one that oscillates, not all are built equally. Mine is always sparkling. Can confirm this on another person, as a corollary of dating, haha.

        My bidet has enough power to strip spraypaint off concrete, lol.

          • @[email protected]
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            11 year ago

            This is the case with many countries where toilet paper is cheap and shitty and will clog the hundred years old shared plumbing systems which probably drains into the same system as the rainwater drainage. They still have plumbing systems, though, so some form of bidet is still viable. So, wash with your left, eat with your right, as is common in india. Not too big of a problem, I’d say, so long as you have soap and water to wash your hand afterwards and you do a thorough job, and maybe also have a diet where you’re not shitting your brains out every time, and maybe also have a shaved asshole or something, but yeah.

            • MudMan
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              101 year ago

              Is it?

              Are we in one of these social media posts where we rediscover that a bunch of people have not been washing their bums in the shower for their entire lives and we have to carry on living with that knowledge?

              • Ephera
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                21 year ago

                This is not about the shower. There’s different kinds of bidets. Some just sprinkle your nether regions. Others are a full-blown sink for you to scrub yourself. And yet others are the so-called “bum guns”, where you’ve got a hose next to your toilet to sploosh it away.

                • MudMan
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                  11 year ago

                  Water on your bum is water on your bum. If the caveat is that magical built-in bidets don’t need a scrub (as much), why is your reply to my post and not the “muslim thing” guy? Wouldn’t it apply equally to both?

              • @[email protected]
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                1 year ago

                Yes. Wash your hands, wash your ass isn’t as common as you might expect in North America. It also isn’t just a “Muslim thing” as you point towards. That invalidates Muslim beliefs and customs as well as reducing the pervasive and varying global cultural etiquettes around cleaning one’s self after bodily functions. A wide swath of north americans are only taught the toilet paper wipe bit.

                • MudMan
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                  11 year ago

                  Hey, I do get that bidets aren’t culturally well established everywhere, and even in bidet areas they don’t often come with detailed instructions, so usage habits are kinda random.

                  But that’s why I went to the shower bit instead. I would hope cleaning your nethers when you shower is a universal habit, or at least as much of one as washing your hands after a trip to the toilet.

                  But hey, maybe permanently sweaty, poopy undercarriages are just… you know, “an American thing”? I don’t know.

        • Skeezix
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          11 year ago

          Which is like trying to wipe peanut butter off a counter top with just a dry paper towel.

      • @[email protected]
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        281 year ago

        People are different, some folks are hairy, some folks aren’t. I am unclear as to why this is “disturbing”.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          My hot take is that everyone should be shaving their asshole, maybe even their crack. If your ass looks like someone slammed a wig in a suitcase, you need to trim that shit before extruding play-doh though it.

          You cannot get that hair 100% clean, especially if shit dries in it.

      • Ephera
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        61 year ago

        My experience has been that it makes the perimeter squeaky-clean, but obviously with a finger, you can do some digging. And if you dig deep enough, there’s always going to be mud.

        And also in my experience, this digging doesn’t actually help. You’ve got a great gate down there. If the outside of that gate is clean, you’re clean. Digging out from behind that gate doesn’t do much, because new mud will push up against it pretty soon.

      • Jeena
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        41 year ago

        I personally can feel it if the water went everywhere and enough. I never had brown on the tp afterwards. You probably don’t wash long enough or too low preassure or no movement, etc.

        I can see that for a beginner there are things to figure out on how to use it efficiently. Sa.e as beginner of tp usage.

      • FuzzyRedPanda
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        51 year ago

        You have created a mental image that cannot be undone. I hope you’re happy.

      • Vaquedoso
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        1 year ago

        I suppose it depends if you are using it correctly or not. I’ve used a bidet all my life, and where i live bidets are a separate bowl from the toilet, made from the same materials, and virtually every household has one. I’ve never had a problem of it not cleaning enough

        EDIT: Here’s an image. You can see the bidet has a kind of jet of water coming upwards with force, exactly below where you would sit. You can regulate the intensity and if done properly you can clean yourself completely https://images.app.goo.gl/6w3EMWrAk34DBwJd7

      • @[email protected]
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        121 year ago

        If you have mud, your gi tract is not as healthy as it could be. Bidets are not designed to clean Peanut butter of carpet

      • dohpaz42
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        51 year ago

        It took me a little bit to figure out, but it’s all about the “aim” of the spray. If you’re not positioned just right, it might not be washing the area completely. But when it does, it’s so satisfying seeing a clean piece of wet tp.

    • Sabata
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      151 year ago

      Pooping solo, a roll of TP will last me a month or two. A pack of TP will last well over a year.

    • mad_asshatter
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      321 year ago

      Realise that you can spray a few minutes before you rise from the seat (especially if someone on lemmy is WRONG, and you need to thumb a reply!)

      You’ll be surprised at how little tp you’ll need!

      Also, you’re allowed to repeat, jic!

    • @[email protected]
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      621 year ago

      For anyone with a sewer system built for TP, this is an ideal workflow. Poops and poopers are not identical, and bidets are not magical. Trust but verify, friends.

      • @[email protected]
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        451 year ago

        Pet peeve. Whatever three-quarters of the world seems to believe, any sewerage system can handle TP. That is: real TP has almost zero fiber integrity, it literally turns to goop on contact with water. Goop that has no more structural consistency than an average pile of sh*t. If still in any doubt then just make sure to flush it in single sheets, each one will be a pea-sized ball of goop. This misunderstanding seems to be purely cultural. I’ve been to a ton of developing countries, all with the usual dodgy sewerage systems and narrow-bore pipes. Yet only some of them, notably Latin America, have the disgusting cultural norm of TP bins. The rest understand that there is a difference between TP and paper towels designed for the kitchen and your face. TP is always flushable, by design.

        • @[email protected]
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          61 year ago

          I thought it was natural, but it turns out TP is using PFAS so that it disintegrates as much as possible. That was kind of a bummer to learn. :/

        • @[email protected]
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          51 year ago

          The cheap toilet paper can be submerged in water for like 48 hours before breaking down. So for many who only buy the cheapest, clogging pipes is a reality. Their own fault, but still.

          • @[email protected]
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            11 year ago

            I mean you could always just wipe your ass, leave the TP in the bowl for like 48 hours, and then flush it, but then that kinda seems unsustainable unless everyone has their own toilet and only needs to poop every 48nhours which isn’t gonna be the case in a poor country I bet.

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            I try not to blame individuals for the failure of systems, especially ones as exploitative and damaging as capitalism. Why blame the people who can only afford the cheapest toilet paper when you could blame the corporation that made the cheapest toilet paper clog toilets? The people with the least money have the most negative repercussions. How are they supposed to know it clogs toilets without having to learn the hard way? Why wouldn’t you assume that toilet paper would all be equally safe to flush no matter how cheap it is?

        • FuzzyRedPanda
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          491 year ago

          And generally, baby wipes, bottom wipes and face wipes aren’t safe to flush, even if they say flushable on the package. If they were safe to flush, you wouldn’t be able to pull out a wet sheet from the package; it would be goo.

  • @[email protected]
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    301 year ago

    In Italy, where the bidet is its own “seat”, we use small towels, one for each person. The ones that usually people vacationing in Italy think are for the face, they are actually for your ass. Hard to tell the difference on American tourists sometimes.

    • thisisbutaname
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      21 year ago

      I use my “body” towel for the cheeks and toilet paper for the crack, same ad when I shower

      • @[email protected]
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        11 year ago

        My doubt about that is that, if you washed properly, it takes a lot of (usual 3 layers) toilet paper to dry the crack properly.

    • Scrubbles
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      31 year ago

      Especially because Europe doesn’t do washclothes, so as an American I had to learn VERY quickly what they were for

  • @[email protected]
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    211 year ago

    Upgrade to one with power. Never look back. Automatic flush, automatic seat raise and lower with a foot sensor, uv lights inside, foam/soap dispense into the bowl before and after, all the bidet features with constant and pulsing, articulating arm, heated seat, heated blow dry air, etc. It’s absolutely amazing.

    Assuming you’re in the US just because the question only seems to come up there, and for our house there we imported them from Asia for less than $1k to the doorstep. Adding a power outlet is usually easy as most washrooms in the US have an outlet somewhere.

    Bidet is like going to level 100 from 5. Super automatic Asian bidet is like a level 5000.

      • @[email protected]
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        51 year ago

        Yes exactly! A bidet attachment plus a cheap bowl is like half of that. So it seemed like a no brainer.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        I am not affiliated with them at all:

        http://www.dzozo.net/

        I purchased from a sales rep for the company over WhatsApp and using Alipay because it was easy. They sell their products on Alibaba as well which would give you the sales protection and all that. I’ve bought about a dozen of them so far for 3 different houses. Wonderful.

        What I didn’t understand from their catalog until I got one, is that they are very modular. Basically they have a couple bowl designs, lots of lid module designs, and then a few tank designs. Mix and match them to get all the SKUs.

        I got the extra large tanks in-wall with wall hung bowls and then the super awesome everything lids. So the final product installed is just a floating toilet, with some buttons on the wall above it. You walk up to it, the lid opens. You either sit and the seat is heated or you wave your foot and the lid opens for guy mode. When you’re done in guy mode just walk away and it will flush and close and clean. In sit mode press the little knob on the side and it starts the water and then heat dry. You can also rotate the dial to get articulating wash and dry action. It comes with a remote control (why?) and an lcd on top. The soap dispenser inside creates a foam that shoots down when the lid opens. I’ve never been so impressed by a porcelain throne.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        I am not affiliated with them at all:

        http://www.dzozo.net/

        I purchased from a sales rep for the company over WhatsApp and using Alipay because it was easy. They sell their products on Alibaba as well which would give you the sales protection and all that. I’ve bought about a dozen of them so far for 3 different houses. Wonderful.

        What I didn’t understand from their catalog until I got one, is that they are very modular. Basically they have a couple bowl designs, lots of lid module designs, and then a few tank designs. Mix and match them to get all the SKUs.

        I got the extra large tanks in-wall with wall hung bowls and then the super awesome everything lids. So the final product installed is just a floating toilet, with some buttons on the wall above it. You walk up to it, the lid opens. You either sit and the seat is heated or you wave your foot and the lid opens for guy mode. When you’re done in guy mode just walk away and it will flush and close and clean. In sit mode press the little knob on the side and it starts the water and then heat dry. You can also rotate the dial to get articulating wash and dry action. It comes with a remote control (why?) and an lcd on top. The soap dispenser inside creates a foam that shoots down when the lid opens. I’ve never been so impressed by a porcelain throne.

  • @[email protected]
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    711 year ago

    Ryobi cordless leaf blower. You have to aim for the rim because if you hit home it makes you burp.

    Actually though, just dab with TP. You’ll use much less TP and not need “flushable” wipes that still clog your main sewage line

    • MudMan
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      51 year ago

      Honestly, if you do the job right the towel is the right implement, in that you’re just patting dry any stray droplets left over.

      For insecure bidet-ers, a preemptive TP run to verify you’re ready for a towel is a bit of insurance, I suppose.

      Just… have one for each person in the household. It’s one thing to be secure in your technique, quite another to hold everybody’s destiny in your grasp.

  • @[email protected]
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    51 year ago

    Kitchen tissue is strong when wet. Tear that square sheet in half lengthwise (because of oriented fibers), fold each half once, and you’ll have reasonably sized pieces.

  • @[email protected]
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    131 year ago

    Just use TP. The manual (yes, I RTFM for my bidet) said that people in Europe have a dedicated bidet towel but that sounds gross. The bidet doesn’t always remove 100% before I first go to wipe.

      • @[email protected]
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        61 year ago

        I didn’t get the add-on for my bidet that puts an IoT camera in the nozzle so you can see how much shit is still on your ass using an android app. I guess I should have sprung for that feature.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 year ago

          Nah, just get one with a nozzle that creates a stronger jet and also just wash longer. Or you could let hackers see your butt hole if you wanted to, nothing inherently wrong with that.