There is something about this video that is mesmerizing not only due to the fact that what the toilet does to clean itself can only be called marvelous, but also because the American ladies filming this remind us SO MUCH of our younger sister and her friends. Priceless. We also found another interesting version....
This one is another Swiss wonder that doesn't clean itself, it cleans YOU and dries you!
This one explained by an Aussie....
This time explained by an American with less polite verbiage....
(Top video via swissmiss)
(Re-Edited from 2006-04-11 - MGR)
(Re-Edited from 2008-03-07 - MGR)

Sprout Side Table
COOL!
That is awesome.
Oh yeah, I saw the same toilet in the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco
I love their comments:
"Why don't we have this in America?"
"Because we'd probably break it."
:)
i've never seen them here (in switzerland), just in germany at autobahn gas station rest stops where you have to pay (they cost 1 euro). I much prefer them to the free washrooms along the autobahn...
ok.. kinda gross, but what happens when you gotta courtesy flush?
I'm very afraid to hit the start button on these videos.
Let me finish my second martini and then I'll hit "play."
interesting...
the whole lid up/no lid and flush thing kinda grosses me out.... toilet mist in the air and everywhere
I dunno... I have a self cleaning oven...
but I, um... still wipe...
A general hygiene question: wouldn't you have to clean that second, non-self-cleaning toilet pretty much every time someone used it, before you used the "intimate cleanse" function? Otherwise, wouldn't you end up just having germy water spritzed over your... area... meaning that instead of being more clean, you'd end up being dirtier?
Now, I know that bidets are common in many parts of the world, and becoming more common in the U.S. -- and I would like to understand them better. The concept of washing with water after using the toilet seems more hygienic than using toilet paper, and probably more environmentally friendly, too. But if the water that you're washing with comes from the toilet that you've just pooed in, then that seems anti-hygienic.
'Splain?
jplee, the water that washes your tush is fresh water piped in from another tube, not the dirty toilet water!! There's a little water tube that extends and retracts.
We have toilet seat bidets in Korea, similar to the kind in Japan, abit different from these European ones. There are numerous options, for example you can adjust seat temp, water temp and pressure, and even adjust the angle of the squirting water depending on whether you want to clean your girl parts or your pooping parts, and also a dryer.
The seats are also sold in North America. Here is an ad for the kind used in Korea & Japan
http://www.washlet.com/
They are really wonderful! When I go back to the U.S. I'm definitely buying one for our house. Can't live without it now!
He sounds more Geordie than Aussie to me (I think he's from Newcastle in the UK).
We have the self cleaning toilets all over Switzerland. You tend to see them in rest stops, but a lot of restaurants have them too. The one downside of a self cleaning toilet seat is that it has to be flexible, so the seat itself is reminiscent of an awful vinyl toil seat (which totally freak me out)
we have some of this toilets in Budapest also in restaurants and theaters.
Another clever idea i've seen is a plastic wrap around the seat, that changes after every use.