Bidet Installation

[a64pilot]

Revisiting an old thread a little if you will. TP as we all know is sometimes more expensive and may be hard to get, plus the stuff takes up a lot of room to store.
A Bidet is supposedly cleaner and more healthy etc., however the only marine one I could find was WAY more money than I was willing to spend, especially for an experiment.
Started looking and found Bidets that are installed on a regular household toilet, and didn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work on a marine head. So I bought and installed this one, for as you can see, not a whole lot of money
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So far we are very pleased with it, it works much better than I had hoped, and isn’t as objectionable as I was afraid it would be, even the Wife will use it

Anyway, there is maybe one potential issue, it’s connected directly to the drinking water supply, something that I understand is a very bad thing to do with a Marine head, that isn’t designed with a vacuum break and intended to be connected to the fresh water supply.
However it’s installed exactly like it would be in a house, connected directly to the fresh water supply.
So why isn’t it an issue in a house, and why would it be in a boat?
I suspect it’s safe in both installations, but admit that I don’t understand why it would be unsafe in a boat, and not in a house, both are subjected to times of water pressure loss.

Pic of installation

[sguerrero1971]

I believe the issue with connecting to your freshwater source is when it has a potential of back flowing from the bowl itself. For example on my electric head if I connected the raw water hose to our fresh water tank, there might be the potential of water from the bowl getting into the line since there are only a couple rubber gaskets separating the two sides of the system.

In the case of the bidet, I would think you would be fine, since the system is not connected to the discharge side in any way, and there seems to be little if no way to get the water from the bowl into the bidet nozzles.

I am interested in how you like this unit? We have talked about installing them on our boat, but haven't made the leap yet since we are still in the U.S. and TP is relatively easy to acquire.

[skipmac]

A neighbor at the yard just showed me his installation and looks like the identical model. He has used them in other applications (home or RV I forget which) and liked them a lot and installed them on the boat as well.

I think sguerrero had the answer to your safety question. Connecting fresh water directly to the head might allow water from the bowl to backflow into the system if pressure is lost (seems extremely unlikely to me but that's the concern) but the bidet sprays into open space without standing water so could not siphon sewage into the plumbing.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sguerrero1971

I am interested in how you like this unit? We have talked about installing them on our boat, but haven't made the leap yet since we are still in the U.S. and TP is relatively easy to acquire.

I like it, enough so that when we swallow the anchor I’ll likely put one in the house / condo whatever we live in. I’ll likely go with the high $$ toilet seat ones that heat the water etc., didn’t on the boat cause I assume you need continuous AC power.
To me it’s better than TP, easier on the bottom.
There are several variations of this model, including ones that tap into hot water too, but I can’t see that working without first flowing a lot of water to get the hot there.
One model, the 185 I think has two knobs, this one the 180 has a lever to modulate the water flow, I figured the handle would be easier to manipulate in tight confines, but you do have to be careful, if you catch the lever somehow, you get a real surprise, but I just put it in cleaning mode so if the handle is actuated accidentally, it just cleans the nozzles as opposed to spraying water either across the room, or on your behind when you don’t expect it.

Install is dead simple, however you’ll likely have to go to a home improvement store and get a 1/2” MIP to barb connection to connect to the water supply, I just T’d off my main water line to the 1/2 MIP fitting and that is all it took.
The Bidet unit installs between the toilet seat and the toilet, sandwiched in between. This raises the back of the toilet seat by a 1/4” and there are spacers to raise the front I bought, but found weren’t necessary, a 1/4” isn’t noticed in my opinion.
You can see how it installs here.
$40 and a 5 min install, hardest part is getting the seat / lid off. Be sure you have an extra 1/2” of studs sticking down for the hold down screws, at least an extra 1/4”.

[Singularity]

Toilet paper: I heard a joke at a conference that rolls are sold in packages of four for a reason. The first roll does the work. The other three rolls are used to deal with the irritation, itching, leaking, etc, caused by the abrasion action of the first roll.

The rear end: everyone gets hemorrhoids, the occasional tear, the occasional leak, the occasional spicy food passing over sensitive tissue. Whatever you got, toilet paper can irritate the hell out of it, causing it to effectively last longer and/or influencing the disturbance to become chronic. Simply put, people who use water have a lot less back end problems than people who scrape excrement around their sensitive confined tissue repetitively with paper.

Cleanliness: as an occupational hazard I've seen thousands of rear ends of people on several continents representing a lot of cultures. From a gross exam standpoint, there is no comparing toilet paper users from bidet users (all else equal). It's bidet for me and my intimate. Getting stuck without a bidet is sort of icky. The people who sing the praises of their composting toilet...good for them.

----------------

As for installation. I'm in the process of a major refit with much going on but am installing dual water Raritan Elegance heads. While I'm comfortable with the fresh water supply (from one of two fresh tanks) going to the Raritan head (as Raritan designed it), I will be plumbing a simple couple gallon freshwater isolated holding tank through a pump for the bidet toilet seat. My heads have cabinetry above the heads facilitating this easily, when I can get around to it.

In a pinch the shower wand of course works.

[peghall]

Raritan makes a bidet version of the Elegance. They don't advertise it, it's not on their website, and I have no idea of the price or which if any retailers carry it. Give 'em a cal to find out. 800-352-5630


--Peggie

[a64pilot]

Peggie, I was hoping you would chime in.
Do you see a safety issue with this house type Bidet?

[peghall]

No safety issues, but a possible major drawback: all the household versions seem to need 115vAC power, which makes 'em impractical except on boats that have inverters big enough or boats that are big enough to run generators full time. You might want to see if any 12v versions are available in the RV market.



--Peggie

[a64pilot]

This one requires no electrical power, of course that means it doesn’t heat water, but as we travel in the tropics that isn’t a problem.
It does require pressurized fresh water so you do have to have that, but I think most boats do.
What I see as one real advantage is it has a “Feminine” nozzle, which sprays slightly further forward, but maybe more important it’s a much less harsh spray, pressure is of course controllable.

I think it’s an easy, inexpensive way if nothing else to see if a Bidet is right for you, some may not like one.

[misfits]

As a licensed mechanical contractor I can unequivocally state that at a bare minimum the water connections should be protected with a vacuum breaker at least 6" above the flood level of the fixture to prevent a backflow situation.

If it has a handheld spray wand , long as the hose has a vacuum breaker at the spray wand connection you're all set.
Bidet on a boat. Just when you thought heard it all

[sv Stella Maris]

I was just about to search for this!

Steve on Emerald Sea put a bidet attachment on his L450 several years ago and praised it on his blog (but didn’t state the brand).

I have always used one at home and my wife/women benefit the most from them (Cocobidet electric, mmmm, warm water). On my residential unit the very small inline filter also doubles as check valve to reduce the contamination issue and the filter keeps the fine spray nozzle clear.

Thanks a64!

[sailorchic34]

Misfits is correct..

Bidets require a atmospheric vacuum breaker to be installed on the water line serving it. A check valve is not adequate. That is a landslide plumbing code requirement by the way.

Installing an atmospheric breaker on the pressure water on a boat would also be adequate.

[Bill_B]

My wife and I love our bidet in our house, so much that I definitely want to figure out a way to have one on our future cruising boat. So I'm very interested in this post.

Upfront, I'll say that I have very little knowledge of marine heads and plumbing (just what I've picked up from lurking here - no actual hands-on experience with it yet). Though I'm sure what I'm about to ask will make that obvious enough.

Rather than needing to connect to pressurized fresh water (in case a boat doesn't have pressurized water, or in case it has small freshwater tankage so fresh water is precious), I wonder what would be necessary to make it work off of raw water.

Would a manual pump provide enough pressure to work the bidet? If not, would it be feasible to add a small (maybe quart-sized) pressure tank that could be charged with a manual pump? Similar to head function- pump to fill the pressure thank, then pump to pressurize. Then the spray control on the bidet could control delivery.

I feel like this could be rigged up (at least for prototyping) with an inline valve and a small garden sprayer.

Thoughts?

[Mariano]

Lagoon offers them as an option, and I think Fountaine Pajot too, but hadn't checked

[john61ct]

Bum gun as standard around the world.

Like the sink sprayer you find in western kitchens.


Mounted next to the toilet, long enough hose.

Cheap, reliable, easy.

https://www.finditangeles.com/images...280b674fa7.jpg