Brondell Swash Ecoseat Bidet Seat

Ever since the Huddler debate of whether or not bidets are greener than toilet paper, I've been interested in the technology.  When I came across the Brondell Swash Ecoseat at West Coast Green, it gave me a chance to see the seat itself and consider the environmental impact of making toilet paper.

The Swash Ecoseat from Brondell is definitely a basic bidet seat (as bidet seats go).  That means it's quite energy efficient (it only takes something like 4 AA batteries).  Of course...energy efficiency in this case is both a pro and a con.  Yes, fabulous by "green" factor.  It doesn't use tons of energy.  But...it also means the seat doesn't have a lot of fancy features like a warm air dryer or a heated seat.  While those features certainly aren't necessary, I could imagine how they'd be nice.  They also might help save you a tad bit more toilet paper...

When it comes to the actually washing, it's pretty impressive to see how much water the "cleaning wands" put out.  As some of you may have seen, we did a little experiment at the Huddler HQ to see how much spray power the Swash Ecoseat has.  I do like that there are three spray levels (although truth be told, I can't tell the difference all that much). 

When the water actually starts spraying, it's always something of a surprise.  First, you hear some water dripping (cleaning the wands I think)...and then...there you are with some rather cool water spraying you down.  On cold days, it's a little too cold...

Okay, so when it comes to TP savings, the Swash Ecoseat is decent.  Ladies, if you want to get the full effect of toilet paper reduction, you will indeed have to drip dry (which some people may not be too keen on).  That's where the fancy features of something like the Swash 800 might come in handy.

All in all, I like the Ecoseat.  I'd certainly like to test out something with a few more bells and whistles, but as far as a basic bidet, this one certainly does the trick and toilet paper savings (and the associated decrease in carbon emissions, water consumption, etc) is decent.

I want to give this thing 5 stars, I really do. It's a very cool device, but as we're looking at products through Green colored glasses here, I need to be honest in my skepticism and say I don't know how "green" this thing really is.

To start with - a very brief intro. The Ecoseat is a retrofit kit to turn your existing toilet into a bidet/toilet, the theme being that it saves significant amounts of toilet paper.

This may be a bit too much information, but I don't really feel like there's much of a toilet paper reduction happening here. From a cleanliness perspective, I hold off on using the bathroom in other places so I can use this thing in the office. True story. It's great. But their pitch of conserving TP just isn't being borne out as true for me. There is still general clean-up needed, and you also have to use the TP to dry off.

Anyway, it was relatively easy to install (maybe 15 minutes at the most), worked immediately, and worked well, but this jury is still out on the "environmental benefits."