August 8, 2022

It’s natural for clients to have a few – or a lot – of questions when encountering new things. And considering this new thing involves a spray of water in personal areas, that goes two-fold for bidets. To help your clients decide if a bidet is right for their bathroom, here are some responses to some of the most common misconceptions.

“Bidets are messy.”

If your clients have never experienced washing with a bidet, it makes total sense for them to wonder if they’re going to get soaked by an Old-Faithful-like geyser shooting from the toilet.

Rest assured, modern bidet seats provide an enjoyable wash while keeping people dry and the bathroom puddle-free.

Actually, bidets don’t use that much water to keep folks clean. The exact amount of water a bidet needs varies, but on average, a bidet will probably require about 20 ounces of water per use. That’s just a little more than a standard bottle of water.

Quality bidet seats are designed to emit a light, soothing spray that cleans the user—and the user only. They also make adjusting the spray nozzle positions and water pressure a breeze. A warm air dryer lets users stay comfortable and clean; there’s no need to worry about a wet bum.

“Bidets are unsanitary.”

Think about it—when your hands are dirty, do you wipe them off with a paper towel or do you wash them with water to get clean?
Why would it be any different in the bathroom?

Using a bidet instead of toilet paper provides a thorough cleansing that wiping alone cannot. Water is more sanitary than toilet paper because it gently cleans the area instead of just rubbing it with toilet paper. Maybe the misconception that bidets are unsanitary goes back to childhood, since wiping is one of the first lessons of good bathroom hygiene.

So are bidets clean? Yes. In fact, some studies have reported that using a bidet is cleaner than using toilet paper alone. One study at a nursing home in Maryland found that, after using bidets, many residents felt cleaner and had better hygiene than the control group. Around half of the residents and staff who used bidets reported experiencing a “positive effect on toileting,” while testing showed a decrease of “bacterial content of urine.”

Another concern clients might have is if bidets get dirty. This is a totally valid question – after all, we are talking about toilets here.
Bidets are intentionally designed to stay clean and hygienic. The spray nozzles are retractable and protected by a nozzle guard, only extending to wash once you’re done going. When the nozzles do come out, they sit well behind one’s bottom. Then, they emit an angled spray that sends most of the waste away from the device and safely into the toilet.

“My bathroom is too small for a bidet.”

There was a time when having a bidet meant installing a separate unit in your bathroom. But thankfully, those days are behind us.

You don’t need extra space in the bathroom or a plumber anymore to enjoy the benefits of a bidet. All you need is a toilet.
If your client is looking for a bidet that doesn’t take up much space, there are three categories of bidets that you should know about.

First, there are bidet toilet seats, which are often powered by electricity. These replace the existing seat, and generally have luxurious comforts, like a heated seat, a remote control, or an automatic deodorizer to remove unwanted scents from the bathroom.

A bidet attachment, on the other hand, takes a more minimalist approach to bathroom hygiene. They clean just as well as other kinds of bidets, though they usually carry fewer features. They install directly under the existing toilet seat – instead of replacing it – and are usually water-powered, so there’s no need for electricity.

There are also hand-held bidet sprayers (sometimes known as a Shattaf sprayer) which mount either to the wall or the side of the toilet tank.

“Using more water is bad for the environment.”

Water is one of our planet’s most valuable resources. So how could using more of it with a bidet actually be good for the environment?

It’s true that using a bidet requires a bit more water than wiping with toilet paper alone. But a bidet’s water usage is nothing compared to the environmental impact of toilet paper.

According to Business Insider, the refreshing wash of a bidet comes at a cost of about one-eighth of a gallon of water. Compare that to the 37 gallons of water it takes to produce just one roll of toilet paper, and the environmental benefits of bidets start to become clear.

Plus, using a bidet means that you’re going to be flushing fewer wipes down the drain, which is good for cities and municipal sewer systems. In some instances, toilet paper and flushable wipes have become a detriment to sewer systems by frequently clogging the pipes, filling septic systems, and causing messy problems that cost time and money to fix.

Single-use paper products like toilet paper are very bad for the environment. The environmental benefits of washing with a bidet far outweigh the small amount of water it takes to wash with one. Plus, many bidet toilet seats – like our Swash SE600 – come with a warm air dryer to keep you dry after you “go,”  reducing the need for toilet paper (and impact on the planet) even further.

—By Brondell staff