Category — Cool Bathrooms and Technology

Really, it’s any excuse to use the term loo roll. But this time it’s UK retailer Waitrose who has decided that wiping your buttocks with toilet paper containing cashmere extract is just the ticket, for, well, I have no idea.

While I would hardly approve, I would totally understand the appeal of wiping yourself with, say, a cashmere sweater. That stuff is soft, and I bet it would feel really nice (anyone care to comment on the absorbency of cashmere?). But just slapping a little extract in there and calling it a day seems remarkably lame.

More at Consumerist (via)

Here at the ICBE we get a lot of email from people who seem to have missed the concept of the site entirely and want us to enter into a wholesaler agreement to sell bathroom fixtures. So it’s a real treat to get an email about a product that’s actually relevant to bathroom etiquette.

As you probably know, the ICBE’s official position is that the toilet seat should be left down. The one thing about this is that, especially in mixed male/female environments, this involves a lot of raising/lowering the toilet seat.

Enter the Johnie-Lift, a small handle that attaches to the seat to minimize actual contact with the (hopefully not too) germ-laden surface. Paul writes the following:

The discussion on whether to leave the toilet seat or down wages on, however I believe in leaving it down. My wife has me well trained and it makes sense to me anyway.

Back in 1963, my In-Laws made a small handle for the toilet and won approval from Sears & Roebuck to carry it, but they did not have the resources to make the injection mold.

Now, after some 46 years, my wife resurected the product, including upgrading the look to be decorative in order to blend in with today’s bathrooms. We used the same name that my In-Laws came up with way back.

Our product is the Johnie-Lift – a decorative toilet seat handle that installs instantly and provides a more sanitary way to raise and lower the seat, eliminating any direct contact. While this a small step in the overall germ prevention program, combined with other simple ideas will make a big difference. It may also reduce the incidence of arguments.

We are a small, family-owned company located in Thousand Oaks, California and we need help in getting our message out. Please let me know if you could help us.

Well, I’m not really sure about the marketing power of the ICBE, but we’re happy to try. Head on over to the Johnie-Lift site to check them out, and order a few. At $2.95 a pop they are nothing if not reasonably priced.

Dual-flush toilets are a favorite topic of ours here at the ICBE. A little flush for pee, a big flush for poo, your wallet and the environment are both happier. Thing is, these really haven’t found their way to North America – that is perhaps, until now.

The fine folks over at Home Fixated brought One2Flush to our attention today. Simply put, it’s an inexpensive kit that allows you to retrofit your current toilet with dual-flush capabilities. Awesome!

We here at the ICBE love dual-flush toilets. First brought to our attention by the land down under, the general concept is as follows. Your toilet has two buttons, one for a regular flush, and one for a light flush that uses less water. Think of it as one button for pee and another for poo if you will. It makes a lot of sense, since the standard flush is major overkill for a bit of pee, and saves a ton of water over time.

Sure you could always let the yellow mellow, but that doesn’t go over well with everyone. I’ve always wondered why dual-flush toilets weren’t mainstream in North America, but now I have a report that they are – at least in Canada. Esteemed reader Holly writes the following:

We here in Canada have quite a few of the two-button devices detailed in the Australian section.

Really? I’ve spent 21 years of my life in Canada, and have travelled there numerous times since relocating to the USA, and have never once seem a dual-flush toilet. Unfortunately my reply to Holly was ignored so I was unable to get any more specific information.

Any Canadian readers out there with stories of dual-flush toilets, proof or maybe pictures?

There’s not a whole lot of interesting toilet technology these days, but what there is tends to be centered on greening up the potty. Toilets, as you know, can use an awful lot of water for the simple act of flushing down a little bit of pee.

The latest attempt at improving the situation comes in the form of the Home Core Integrated Toilet. Aside from the funky industrial design, the key element here is that the sink and toilet are a single integrated unit. That water you used to brush your teeth and wash your face? It’s stored up to flush away the pee and poo at a later time. No need to waste perfectly good fresh clean water on that chore after all. You can even regulate the water flow from the tap for extra savings.

Right now the toilet exists only as a concept, but it’s only a matter of time before something similar hits the market, if it hasn’t already.

Home Core Integrated Toilet (via Gizmodo)

There are loos, and then there are ultimate loos. Gisborne sends us the following shot of a toilet near Heather Lake, in Sequoia National Park. This my readers, is an ultimate loo!

And in case you are wondering, the sign is warning users not to throw any trash in the toilet.

Here at the ICBE, we generally support the idea of reading in the bathroom. As long as it’s not public material (communal newspaper) or something that isn’t yours at all (George Costanza), go ahead and sit down for a few minutes and enjoy yourself.

So that’s why I was rather delighted to know that Bike Snob NYC (you do read his blog, don’t you?) made a rather special trip to the library to hunker down with his latest acquisition. Specifically, he hit up the Brooklyn Public Library to get cozy with a copy of Lance Armstrong’s latest work – Comeback 2.0.

But beyond all that awesomeness, BSNYC took pictures too!!!

I have a new hero…

the sweetest smelling public toilets

Want a piece of those toilets? Better head over to the Big Island then and check out the petroglyphs, because according to none other than Hurley (of Lost fame), that’s where they are located.

Yes, Hurley has a blog, and he’s writing about public toilets. And by writing, I mean mentioning them in passing.

via Metafiler

The Oko restaurant in Bangalore, India has what can only be described as a rather lovely bathroom. Still, it’s not exactly what I would call an ideal bathroom from the standpoint of urinal etiquette. Check out these urinals, which seem to be not only side-by-side but practically in the middle of the room. Not for the pee shy!

Watch a video taken inside the bathroom

via mhh5th and Alltop

Sometimes, there are ceramic festivals. And then there are Ceramic Festivals! Such was recently the case in Foshan, in the Guangdong province in China, where a 100 meter long wall was covered with toilets, sinks and various other bathroom fixtures in a kind of crazy toilet waterfall. Behold:

See More Pictures
via BoingBoing