Butts On With Toto's $10,000 Toilet The Japanese potty-maker has a luxurious new throne that cares for your nether parts.
By Sascha Segan
This story originally appeared on PCMag
What do you get with a $10,000 toilet? At CES, you get a sparkling clean fundament, thanks to Japanese loo-maker Toto.
The Neorest AC doesn't actually have a price yet, but its 2016 predecessor cost $10,200. For that amount of cash, you get a toilet whose otherwise-unsightly tank becomes invisible, built into the wall of your house. It automatically opens, closes and sanitizes itself after every use. The bowl is made of a bacteria-resistant material, and ionized water and ultraviolet light prevent anything nasty or smelly from growing. You need to scrub it about once a year, Toto reps said.
The toilet has a remote control, because of course it does. It's a short-distance remote that fits in a bracket on your wall and lets you command first the bidet function, to tidy you up, and then the gusts of warm air to dry you off. There are even two settings so different members of a family can be washed in just the right spot.
I try not to get caught at CES with my pants down, but I sat on the heated seat and used my hands to feel the spray and the dryer. It really does feel like the Dyson of toilets, rounded and futuristic, with a cuddly care taken to the engineering. The bidet arm extends shyly when you press the button, and then retracts invisibly before the warm air blower starts.
The AC lacks some of the cutesier gimmicks that you see on Toto's Japanese models. It won't play little bird sounds to cover your tinkle. And you can get Toto's core body cleaning functions in Toto's seat-only models like the $599 C100, which has a heated seat, "front cleanse" and a dryer. What the less expensive models lack is the Neorest's ability to sanitize itself.
The Neorest AC will appear later this spring. Expect it to be spectacularly expensive, but also to make you wonder if you'd poop better if you spent $700 on a toilet seat.
