TUCSON, Ariz. — These days we are trying to touch as little as possible especially if there’s an extra chance it’s going to be a little bit germy. Thankfully, there’s technology to the rescue.
Watching a toilet seat lift itself can be sort of hypnotic but it’s more than a novelty. Since the virus hit and people started thinking more about what they touch, Benjamin Plumbing Supply has been selling more and more touchless technology.
Tina Roesler says people are buying toilets that do more than lift their lids, some of them clean themselves.
A lot of this combination of hygiene and high tech comes from Japan.
“It used to be something that people who travel to Japan knew about or people who followed high tech gadgets knew about but now, more and more people realize there's a big swell of sports players who like investing in the toilets that are customized to them as far as height and warmth and oscillating levels and all that.”
She says at first the high demand item was to clean yourself. When toilet paper got scarce, bidets that help you rinse off --- that area instead became hot sellers.
Now the trend to touchless has people realizing the sort of hands-free faucets they’ve seen in commercial buildings can be in their homes, but without the industrial look.
Tina Roesler says, “You can find a price point around $400 and up. And some of the toilets go in the thousands. But again, it's personalized, it's customized, it's a room you spend a lot of time in, and it leans on the side of hygiene which - that cost is incalculable. If it keeps you from getting a deadly germ then it's worth any price.”