Brondell Swash Thinline T44 bidet overview: king of the throne

It is our lot in life to poop. We eat stuff, digest it, after which the waste have to be expelled. That’s simply the best way it’s, which suggests we’re destined to spend a not-insignificant portion of our time sitting on the porcelain throne. So why not make that as nice an expertise as attainable? And in case your rest room seat could make the expertise higher, cleaner, and extra comfy, then does it not deserve its personal throne?

Behold the Brondell Swash Thinline T44, one of the best bidet seat I’ve ever sat on. And for $700, it had higher be.

The Thinline T44 is a bidet rest room seat. These types of issues have been round since 1980, when the Toto Washlet debuted in Japan, they usually’re much more handy than the previous standalone bidets they’ve roughly changed. At its most elementary, the bidet rest room seat suits in your rest room bowl, connects to the water provide line, and washes your butt. They could be as low cost and easy as one thing that blasts you with chilly water while you open a valve. The Thinline T44, from San Francisco-based firm Brondell, is on the opposite finish of the spectrum.

I’m not a bidet rookie right here. I reviewed one (really from Brondell) 13 years in the past, and I’ve been a convert ever since. I additionally simply spent three weeks touring round Japan, the place practically each rest room (together with these on high-speed trains) has a bidet seat hooked up. Nearly all of them are made by Toto, they usually vary from probably the most fundamental water sprayers to full bogs with built-in bidets.

The T44 has a heated seat, immediately heated water (temperature adjustable) to scrub your bottom, a separate jet to scrub your entrance aspect (a characteristic not usually really helpful by medical professionals), and a scorching air dryer, so that you want little or no rest room paper. The jets may also be repositioned or set to oscillate, and you may regulate the extent of water stress, too. It includes a nightlight (three totally different colours), a deodorizing air filter, and self-cleaning jets. All of that is managed by way of a smooth distant management, with a cradle you’ll be able to keep on with the wall inside straightforward arm’s attain.

None of these options could sound novel if you happen to’re aware of bidet rest room seats. The distinction is that they work higher than any I’ve tried previously, together with items from Bio Bidet, Kohler, Tushy, Brondell, and, in fact, Toto.

The T44 has a variety of stress settings, from very mild to stronger than most of us would (or ought to) select. The cleansing could be very thorough. The seat heats rapidly and extra evenly, with fewer hotspots in comparison with older items I’ve tried from Brondell and others. The water temperature stays extra constant than different fashions I’ve used, too, which often hit you with a cold stream. The scorching air dryer’s fan is stronger and does a greater, focused job of drying your bum (although it’s nonetheless a far cry from a Dyson Airblade hand-dryer, and the hairy-butted amongst us will most likely want two or three dry periods and nonetheless require a little bit of TP). When I used to be touring by way of Japan, I used to be stunned to search out that the overwhelming majority of bidet seats don’t have air dryers in any respect, which I believe is an important characteristic. They have been solely included on some extraordinarily high-end items, and even on these, the dryers lacked horsepower.

The factor that basically stands out concerning the T44, although, is how little it stands out. While it nonetheless seems to be like a cyber-toilet from outer house, it’s a lot thinner than your typical bidet rest room seat at simply 3.9 inches excessive. That’s quite a bit taller than your normal rest room seat, however a lot lower-profile than most bidet seats. For instance, Toto’s best-selling Washlet C5 is sort of 6 inches tall on the again. This makes the T44 look extra like a contemporary, luxurious rest room seat than a chunk of medical gear. It’s additionally extra comfy to take a seat on.

Installing the Swash Thinline T44 is simpler than you’d anticipate. Simply take away your previous seat and shut the water provide valve. Flush the bathroom to empty the tank after which disconnect the water provide line. Install the included hose with the T-connector between the valve and the tank. Mount the seat on the bathroom, join the hose to the bidet, flip the water again on, test for drips, plug within the energy, and also you’re good to go. Actually, that’s one factor to think about: not all bogs have energy retailers, mine included. My rest room and bathe are separated from the sink and self-importance, the place the retailers are. I needed to get a really skinny extension wire and use some guides to maintain it tightly pressed to the doorjamb, in any other case my door wouldn’t shut. Even with that, I think about the set up easy and value it.

There is room for enchancment. While I really like that it has two user-preset buttons, setting these modes requires you to make use of a secret collection of button presses you’ll be able to solely discover within the handbook. Very unintuitive. You want an much more elaborate collection of button presses to vary the default drying length. This is the place a Bluetooth radio and a easy telephone app can be useful, if just for adjusting settings.

There are additionally a pair bizarre little bugs and quirks. For instance, if you choose your consumer profile, it should wash you with all your desired settings. But if you need a little bit extra washin’, and also you hit that button mixture once more, one thing will get misplaced and it’ll overlook to incorporate oscillation or one thing. I additionally had some points whereas utilizing the T44 with my toes on a Squatty Potty kind factor (sure, I do know, what number of rest room equipment can one man have? Leave me alone!) Something concerning the angle of my legs or weight distribution would generally journey up the occupancy sensor, so I couldn’t get it to clean me till I stood up for a minute or so to permit it to reset. I went forwards and backwards with Brondell’s wonderful technical assist group, however we by no means bought to the underside of it. The assist group couldn’t replicate it of their testing, so it would simply be my bizarre physique or one thing. The situation grew to become very uncommon once I moved the mounting bracket ahead so the seat was a bit extra flush with the bowl’s rim, nevertheless it’s one thing to think about.

I hope Brondell steals a few of the bidet seat options I attempted in Japan for the subsequent era. For occasion, a lid that robotically opens while you step into the toilet. Being in a position to increase or decrease the seat with a push of a button on the distant management. Some have been even linked to the flush mechanism; the bathroom would flush, and the lid would shut while you push a button on the distant. Are these necessary options? No, however they’re good to have.

These minor gripes apart, I completely love this factor. It’s a lot extra comfy to make use of than rest room paper, and you’re feeling a lot, a lot cleaner. Not to say that it’s largely a hands-free expertise, so when you push the button on the distant, you might be free to proceed doom-scrolling in your telephone. While that’s true of most bidet seats, the additional highly effective jets make this one work quite a bit higher than every other unit I’ve examined, and it’s simply the best-looking and most comfy to take a seat on. Sure, I want they might turbo-charge the air dryer to scale back my rest room paper utilization much more, however, in the end, the Swash Thinline T44 is one of the best your butt can get.