Bidet Installation

[J.Kitchens]

I lived in Africa for a while. The standard in many parts is to keep a tall cup next to the toilet. You dip the cup in the toilet to fill it with water, you do your business, you then pour the water over yourself to clean up.
I was mostly in industrial facilities that had TP but the locals would use a liter bottle with the top cut off. There was at least one beside every toilet.
I guess if I want to give up TP I will need to use this system; I don't have pressurized water on board.

[Steve Bean]

A couple of years ago while doing some internet research I came across this gem: What do you do if a bird sxxxts on your head? A: Wash your hair. B: Get some dry paper and smear it around.

[a64pilot]

This is the answer I got back from the Bidet manufacturer I don’t think I’ll worry about a vacuum breaker

[misfits]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

This is the answer I got back from the Bidet manufacturer I don’t think I’ll worry about a vacuum breakerAttachment 180327

Yea, that's a wrong statement regarding the check valve cause eventually it will fail. You wouldn't be able to install that on a "permitted" project without providing a vacuum breaker. You could still install a vacuum breaker between the hose & the device connection but I wouldn't worry about it based upon how you're using it.

[a64pilot]

A vacuum break can stick closed too, all valves can / will eventually fail.

Vacuum break I have on the engine cooling system, I have a hose connected to it, so when it fails it leaks that water into the bilge as opposed to all over the engine.

[john61ct]

Like they used to say in ICT:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think, “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.*

8-)

[cj88]

I'm curious as to what amount of water is used?

[packeteer]

personally I'd prefer the Asian style, hose and an ordinary toilet bowl

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by cj88

I'm curious as to what amount of water is used?

Ive not measured it, of course and it depends on the user, it’s not an automatic thing, but it seems to be a cup or little more, depending on how much cleaning you think is necessary.
My Sea Era Head if you use the automatic flush, adds water, then flushes. Using the Bidet, we just push the manual flush button, caused the Bidet added the water already, so water use in our case is non existent.
Also as your not flushing toilet paper, it seems to require less water for a complete flush, so maybe it reduces water use slightly?
Biggest thing for us is we like to carry 6 months of supplies, and 6 months of toilet paper takes up a huge amount of room.

[chris in SG]

Originally Posted by packeteer

personally I'd prefer the Asian style, hose and an ordinary toilet bowl

Agreed, though I think "Asian style" probably means "SE Asian style" where tropical temps make it unnecessary to plumb for warm water supply. For those of us based in SE Asia, there's an endless choice of fittings on sale cheaply. We like the coiled one, though this is not so easy to source.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

This is the answer I got back from the Bidet manufacturer I don’t think I’ll worry about a vacuum breakerAttachment 180327

That is a very lame answer. One of my hats that I wore for a really long time was Plumbing engineer. My other hats were fire protection engineer, steam engineer, and hydronics engineer No plumbing code in United States considers a check valve adequate for backflow prevention. For both landside in Marine installations a vacuum breaker should be installed. The intent of course is that the vacuum breaker opens on loss of pressure. This prevents backward flow and contamination of the water system.

A check valve as we all know can fail. A single check valve for backflow prevention is completely inadequate by all building codes in United States.

By the way, landside bidet, also require a vacuum breaker on the supply line(s).

[jkleins]

But what is the danger that a vacuum breaker will solve? It appears that the water would have to be higher then the edge of the bowl to actually flow back into the fresh water supply even without pressure or check valve. Is this just an optical illusion from the pics or is there really a situation where water could flood the bowl and somehow get into the bidet nozzle and flow downhill and cause a siphon that a vacuum breaker would prevent?

[john61ct]

Water left in the hose or pipe I guess.

I too am having a hard time imagining the potential harm here.

Maybe OT but I've lived for decades with drinking supplies being rain water barrels or poured concrete tanks up the hill, life found its way in sometimes, never imagined sterility was the goal.

In our current 200+ y.o. house, spring water from up the hill in the woods flowing unfiltered through an open cistern in our back door's mudroom is the best drinking water ever too.

[a64pilot]

It’s a 1 in 100 chance thing, but the results could be so bad, it’s best to just not risk it.
Assumption is you would have Fecal Chloroform bacteria or other nasties growing in your fresh water system,and that from my limited understanding can make you very, very sick.

From my understanding the place to put a vacuum breaker is between the valve and the nozzle, the place that continually gets pressurized, then depressurized.
That is where Raritan put it on my Marine Head. Problem is that this Bidet is one piece, you can’t break into that line and install a vacuum breaker, you could only install it on the supply before the valve, which should always be pressurized.
Yes check valves fail, but so do vacuum breakers.
Seeing as how the nozzle should never be below the water line, is protected behind a shield, and has a way of flushing itself out after use, I’ll accept the risk I guess.
But I admit there is a risk, I’m surprised they can sell it for installation into a home, where theoretically you could be risking the whole Apartment complex, neighborhood etc.

[AKA-None]

Ok so once you’ve showered down there how do you dry off?