In recent times, we have seen many forms of smart technology that people use in their daily lives. This can be seen from the fact that the Singapore smart home appliances market is projected to enjoy a valuation of more than 7 billion by 2030.
This smart home technology can not only be seen in televisions, speakers, and lights, but also toilet bowls. Yes, you heard that right. Nowadays, even washrooms have smart appliances built for them, like toilet bowls, showers, and tubs.
While you might have an idea about tubs, and showers, you will doubtless want to learn all about smart toilet bowls and whether you should choose them over traditional toilet bowls. Continue reading for more information on the same below.
What Are Smart Toilet Bowls?
Simply speaking, smart toilet bowls are designed like regular toilet bowls, but are ‘smart’ or equipped with a variety of sensors. These sensors can range from motion sensors to others like automatic flush sensors.
You will also find smart panels, equipped with a variety of haptic-feedback enabled buttons for different functions. These toilets can also be controlled via their associated mobile apps.
Let’s consider some of their features below.
Popular features
Smart toilets or smart toilet bowls generally have the following features:
- Automatic seat lowering and raising
In simple terms, your smart toilet seat will use its motion-detection and heat sensors to detect the presence or absence of people. That way, it will lower the seats when not in use, and raise it when it senses your presence.
This feature allows the smart toilet to prevent unwanted contamination, since pests or other bacteria can enter through the opening. Apart from that, the toilet bowl water can spill out when the seat is raised.
The spilling of the water creates a damp atmosphere, which in turn leads to a breeding ground for various insects, like cockroaches.
- Auto flushes
Your smart toilet can also use its sensors to carry out flushing. Depending on which smart toilet bowl you buy, you will get a variety of options. You can get powerful flush, soft flush and other options.
As you might have probably guessed, these options basically refer to the intensity of the flushing operation.
- Air dry
The air drying option ensures that your smart toilet dries all the relevant parts of your body before you leave the toilet seat. This action dries all the unwanted moisture from your body, which reduces the risk of infection due to accumulation of water.
- Cleaning modes
While normal toilets come with a bidet, smart toilets come with the option of cleaning your lower body for you. Depending on which toilet bowl you buy, you will get cleaning modes, like front-wash, and rear-wash.
The smart toilet will use nozzles for that purpose.
- Self-clean mode
Most smart toilets have self-clean modes, meaning that they can clean themselves as well. This feature allows them to be dry, and not become a breeding ground for bacteria and insects.
- Night modes
This feature will depend on the toilet bowl in question. It basically refers to the night light feature, meaning that you can illuminate the space around you before you do your business. The illumination will prevent unwanted spilling or spraying of water.
Additionally, you won’t have to turn on the lights of your washroom or home, which will help you save on your electricity bills.
- Anti-odor mechanism
Smart toilets also come equipped with a de-odorizing mechanism. The de-odorizer will spray a room-freshener like fragrance, depending on what you prefer. You can fill in the de-odorizer slot with your preferred fragrance.
- Toilet seat heater
Lastly, you can also expect a seat heating feature in your toilet bowls. This feature will ensure that you can do your business without experiencing any discomfort. The seat heater will keep your seat warm as per the temperature you set through your app.
Why They’re Trending in Singapore
Smart toilets are popular in Singapore since they:
- Don’t take up much space
- Prevent infections due their minimal touch and self cleaning features
- Allow for a lot of convenience
- Are inclusive, since they consider the rights of people with movement issues
- Have an aesthetic look
Let’s now talk about conventional toilets.
Traditional Toilet Bowls: A Reliable Classic
Almost everyone is familiar with conventional toilets, since they have been in use for a long time.
In fact, they can be commonly found in old homes. However, if you’re not familiar with them, conventional toilets look like normal toilets, with a ovular shaped seat, a toilet seat cover and a overall toilet cover which normally remains raised.
So, without much ado, let’s take a look at some of the features that you can find in these toilets, if you’re not familiar with them.
Features of Traditional Toilets
Some of the features that you find in conventional toilets are:
- User-operated flushes
Unlike smart toilets, conventional toilets require the user, in this case you, to manually operate the flushes. So you will have to turn around a little to perform this action. While this might seem like a disadvantage, it will help you in case you face a power failure.
- Manual controls
All the controls of traditional toilets are manual. So if your toilet has a nozzle to perform a rear cleaning function, you will have to manually press the lever to perform that function.
- Durability
Standard toilets are built to last. Unlike smart toilets, which are built with lightweight materials or delicate materials, standard toilets are built with ceramic or concrete . This ensures that the toilets last for a long time, and do not break down due to stress.
Why Some Still Prefer Them
People prefer conventional toilets due to the following reasons:
- They are cost-effective as compared to smart toilets
- It is easy to install them, since you only have to utilise the conventional plumbing inlets and outlets to install them
- They are quite durable
- These toilets can be used even in case of power failure, since they do not operate on electricity.
Now that you’re aware of what smart and conventional toilets are, let’s take a look at the parameters you need to consider before you install them in your homes.
Smart Toilets vs Traditional Toilets in Singapore Homes: What To Consider?
You’ll need to take a look at the following parameters before you decide to install either conventional or smart toilets in your homes:
Space Constraints
You’ll need to evaluate how much space you can spare for your toilet. This will be dependent on whether you live in a condominium apartment, or one built by the Singapore Housing and Development Board.
After all, not everyone can afford a three, four or five bedroom flat in Singapore. So, a normal two-roomed HDB flat in Singapore is about 485 sq. ft. As you can imagine, your bathroom won’t be a very big space.
So you should use a smart toilet in this scenario. On the other hand, a condo is relatively bigger, having an area of between 500 to 700 sq. ft. So you can consider using a conventional toilet for such a space.
Water and Electricity Usage
As we’ve mentioned above, smart toilets have multiple sensors. This means that even the degree of water they use is less than conventional toilets.
On the other hand, smart toilets utilise a lot of electricity, since they operate sensors. That means you can expect a power usage between 100 and 800 W, per use. On the other hand, a conventional toilet will hardly use any electricity.
So, using a smart toilet will help you reduce your electricity bills.
Family Use and Elderly Accessibility
Since smart toilets have sensors, and features like touchless seat raising and multiple cleaning modes, they are useful in preventing infections. This bundle of features ensures that elderly people and children can benefit from it, since they won’t be subjected to any infections.
However, if you have people from the previous generations in your home, or those who aren’t as tech savvy, a traditional toilet can be useful.
Price vs Value: Is the Upgrade Worth It?
You will initially have to invest quite a bit of money to install a smart toilet. Apart from that, you will incur increased electricity bills along the way.
On the other hand, installing a conventional toilet will not cost you as much. Apart from that, the negligible construction of electricity will ensure that you can save on the same.
Final Verdict: Which Is Better for You?
Basically, you should consider all the factors we’ve mentioned in the preceding sections before you purchase either smart or conventional toilets. You’ll have to consider parameters like your home area, electricity usage, budget, water usage and people living in your home.
In case you experience any doubts, consider getting in touch with our experts. We’ll help you out during the consultation. Good luck!
