Express Plumbing Heating & Air Blog

Technology has made some amazing advancements in the past few decades. We can now store movies on a memory card, we have computers in the palm of our hand, and we can carry an entire library in our e-readers. Possibly one of the most convenient new advances for homemakers everywhere is self-cleaning toilets. So now you can clean your toilet with the push of a button. What a time to be alive!

The first time I saw a self-cleaning toilet was on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. So it was this big, green, oval-shaped structure plopped right in the sidewalk. Of course, I had to investigate. First, you go in and shut the door. So everything you need is right inside there. After you’ve finished and washed your hands, you simply leave and shut the door again. You can hear from the outside the automatic water jets spraying everything down. It is a new age for public restrooms everywhere.

As with anything, all models of self-cleaning toilets. For the public restroom type, there are different methods of cleaning. So for some, a robotic arm comes out of the wall and scrubs the surface of the fixtures. In other models, the seat actually swivels itself through a squeegee at the back that cleans it. In some of the newest models, a cover hinges over the seat and either cleans the seat with a disinfectant solution or burst of UV light!

All of that convenience awakens our little green monster. So I bet everyone who has seen one of these modern marvels has thought, “Gee, I wish I could have that in my home!” The good news is, you can! There are companies out there that have designed residential self-cleaning toilets. These come with all sorts of bells and whistles, from heated seats down to sound systems for a little ambiance of music!

The downside is the cost. One of these convenient fixtures will cost you upwards of $6,000 on the low end. Also, the home version will probably only clean the inside of the bowl. So while this is miles past what home plumbing fixtures were ten years ago. there is always room for improvement. We hope in the future this will be an affordable and sanitary option for all!

Express Plumbing Heating & Air

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