Brondell Swash Thinline T44 bidet evaluate: king of the throne

It’s our lot in life to poop. We eat stuff, digest it, after which the waste have to be expelled. That’s simply the way in which it’s, which implies 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 doable? And in case your rest room seat could make the expertise higher, cleaner, and extra snug, 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of issues have been round since 1980, when the Toto Washlet debuted in Japan, they usually’re much more handy than the outdated standalone bidets they’ve kind of changed. At its most elementary, the bidet rest room seat matches in your rest room bowl, connects to the water provide line, and washes your butt. They are often as low-cost and easy as one thing that blasts you with chilly water once 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 (truly 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 almost each rest room (together with these on high-speed trains) has a bidet seat hooked up. Almost 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 function not generally recommended by medical professionals), and a scorching air dryer, so that you want little or no rest room paper. The jets will also be repositioned or set to oscillate, and you may modify the extent of water strain, too. It contains a nightlight (three totally different colours), a deodorizing air filter, and self-cleaning jets. All of that is managed by way of a modern distant management, with a cradle you possibly can follow the wall inside simple arm’s attain.

None of these options could sound novel when you’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 strain settings, from very mild to stronger than most of us would (or ought to) select. The cleansing could be very thorough. The seat heats shortly 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 sometimes hit you with a cold stream. The recent 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). Once I was touring by means of Japan, I used to be stunned to seek out that the overwhelming majority of bidet seats don’t have air dryers in any respect, which I feel is a vital function. They have been solely included on some extraordinarily high-end items, and even on these, the dryers lacked horsepower.

The factor that actually stands out concerning the T44, although, is how little it stands out. Whereas it nonetheless seems 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 rather a lot taller than your customary 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 snug to take a seat on.

Putting in the Swash Thinline T44 is less complicated than you’d count on. Merely take away your outdated seat and shut the water provide valve. Flush the bathroom to empty the tank after which disconnect the water provide line. Set up 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. Truly, that’s one factor to contemplate: 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 twine 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 price it.

There’s room for enchancment. Whereas I like that it has two user-preset buttons, setting these modes requires you to make use of a secret sequence of button presses you possibly can solely discover within the guide. Very unintuitive. You want an much more elaborate sequence of button presses to alter the default drying length. That is the place a Bluetooth radio and a easy cellphone 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 person profile, it’ll wash you with your whole desired settings. However if you need just a little 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 ft on a Squatty Potty sort factor (sure, I do know, what number of rest room equipment can one man have? Depart me alone!) One thing concerning the angle of my legs or weight distribution would generally journey up the occupancy sensor, so I couldn’t get it to scrub me till I stood up for a minute or so to permit it to reset. I went backwards and forwards with Brondell’s glorious technical assist group, however we by no means acquired to the underside of it. The assist group couldn’t replicate it of their testing, so it’d simply be my bizarre physique or one thing. The difficulty grew to become very uncommon after I moved the mounting bracket ahead so the seat was a bit extra flush with the bowl’s rim, however it’s one thing to contemplate.

I hope Brondell steals among the bidet seat options I attempted in Japan for the following technology. As an example, a lid that mechanically opens once you step into the lavatory. Having the ability to increase or decrease the seat with a push of a button on the distant management. Some have been even related to the flush mechanism; the bathroom would flush, and the lid would shut once 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 snug to make use of than rest room paper, and you are feeling a lot, a lot cleaner. To not point out 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 cellphone. Whereas that’s true of most bidet seats, the additional highly effective jets make this one work rather a lot higher than some other unit I’ve examined, and it’s simply the best-looking and most snug to take a seat on. Positive, I want they may turbo-charge the air dryer to cut 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.