The first thing you notice arriving on a Japanese airport and go to the toilet : all the bath-rooms have electronic bidet . then even at subway stations and department stores . alike protective face-mask wearing, modern sense of hygene has settled into this culture . this came soon-after Sony Walkmans and Nintendo game consoles in an industry set-out to conquer the World which they missed on WWii . it came a couple of decades later onto the Korean Peninsula, which had to go through impoverished Korean War then through several dictatorial regimes although they did build-up the country with close coordination with local huge companies stocked-up to conglomerates, because they did get support from the Korean government and others befriended to .

un-heard of, to early elders who had gone through Japanese occupation then the Korean War : the first tier of electronic bidet came after the nation was settled in-to democracy, a good decade after the SEOUL Olympics of 1988 – which as Olympics did to neighboring Japan, it did usher-up its mighty stance to pass-by even Japan on electronics beginning with wide-screen LED Television sets .

We will say electric in-short for a fascinating machine run automatically through electronics sensors and programming, especially the first-tier which is overtly manual, while the latter tier comes with automation in various sorts . Yes to me the most amazing even than HDD hard-disk drives serving computers as it too has constantly moving parts, then to top it off by rushing water through it, not to mention fans to dry-out your bottom after-wards .

first electric bidets quietly began selling at the dawn of the second Millennium, through retail outlets in each neighborhood . this meant they were branches selling only (drinking) water dispensors and toilet bidets . the fact that both used tap-water was the common point but also that they had monthly payment plans – which in South Korea amounted to endless-maze of complicated pyramid schemes consumers had to be weary-of, as agressive sales-agents marketed via phone as well as entrance to larger super-marts . the market usually was saturated such that no consumer can differentiate merely to fall at sales-pitch .

early electrics bidets used water-pumps used to pump water-up under-ground floors thus was harsh, where one manufacturer SamHong Tech had the pizzaz of selling its machines already selling to Japan as OEM, and they were just about the only brand which had smooth water spray . this company was soon bought-up in March 2010 by i.S. DongSeo which was established in September 1975 making concrete .

initially they had two basic operation : namely spray water and blow-dry – all by pressing appropriate button . all sorts of other gimics begin to add-on as the second tier of electronic commonly built-in among differeing brands, including :

  • attach physical water-purifying filter between water-tap and bidet water pipe
  • can attach bidet with hands without utensils : meaning the two bolts connecting the top bidet with toilet basin are hand-friendly molded
  • can simply click-in bidet onto toilet basin (although this is a marketing gimmic because you still have to bolt-in the flat plastic that does the clicking)
  • select water spray nozzle location (towards front or rear)
  • can drop-in fragrance onto fan filter to cover odor
  • automatic turning-OFF after the person stands-up
  • soft-close down of toilet cover

some models now come with remote control (with only minimum-basic buttons on the bidet-side for emergency) that look like TV-remote controls, while some has a small panet you can glue onto the side of your bath-room – deluxe hotels around the Orient has a much larger panel on the side, that double as automated room control panel . and in my experience go for it if :

  1. your bathroom is so small that you will have a hard time reaching down to see and push buttons on the side of the bidet,
  2. but warned that have two different pieces means the whole won’t work if one gets to go wrong – and somehow the initial pairing stage still seem to be unstable, like it will connect if you re-attach the bidet physically onto the toilet – which does theoretically not do anything to wireless connection .
  3. buttons on the remote is sensitive to push, so will have to push harder compared to the buttons already on the side of the bidet which now are touch-sensitive

 

– Any-Thing but Novita, Korea Tech BLog