The new toilets we had installed recently were by a Japanese-American company, Toto. They came with slow-closing seats and lids. What this means, if you haven't experienced such, is that there is built into them a spring or hydraulic device or maybe an elf, that, when you tip them toward the bowl, cause the seat and lid to fall in slowmo.
The seat settles softly in silence.
We didn't ask for this, it came standard, and at first glance, I was not impressed, Really? Who cares?
But: One gets used to the things, and there is a kind of ... I dunno, something amusing about tapping the seat and watching it fall s-l-o-w-l-y ...
So at my mother's house, after finishing a whiz, I reached up and tapped the seat toward the bowl, and it slammed down really fast, BAM!
No slow-close lids there.
Oops. That was worth a laugh out loud at my own expense ...
For a country where the average public restroom is still just a hole in the floor (BYO-TP); it amazes me how far ahead of us they are with their toilet technology. After falling in love with a bidet, while on vacation there, I promptly bought one upon my return home. Sadly, mine was made in the USA, and didn't last more than a couple years (hydraulic seat was the first to go).
ReplyDeleteNow if they could only build in the telepathic ability to lift the lid and to determine whether or not to lift the seat when you approach (sit or point?).
ReplyDeleteGot a similar item, if not the same, when my son was born. We envisioned wee fingers getting slammed when the seat or lid fell, and had to replace the seat anyway... The cost was very comparable; maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Not enough to stick in memory.
ReplyDeleteOne complaint... My son is 4. The seat still doesn't slam... but it doesn't fall either. Looking into that is on my honey-do file.
Oh -- and I've had the same experience... slamming the seat/lid down somewhere that there aren't the slow-closers.
ReplyDelete...a spring or hydraulic device or maybe an elf...
ReplyDeleteIt's a dashpot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashpot
Are you sure it's not an elf?
ReplyDeleteNamed "Dash," maybe ...?