Do You Need a High-Tech Toilet?

Cleaning and health-monitoring systems come to your bathroom

Michael Frank,

AARP

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Published February 05, 2025

The toilets of today come with cleaning capabilities and technology that can warm you up.

Paul Spella (Shutterstock 2)

Fresh off a 14-hour flight from New York, I arrived in Tokyo in a jet-lagged brain fog.

I found a pleasant surprise in my hotel room that night — a toilet that illuminated itself and had a warm seat. But then came the hard part: flushing. It wasn’t as easy as pressing a lever.

Instead, the toilet was outfitted with buttons next to the seat, offering myriad functions. Luckily, pictographs, like tiny cartoons, helped me along. I managed to find the warm-water bidet spray and eventually the flush button.

I lived in Japan for a while in my younger days, and even in the 1990s most restrooms were outfitted with “smart” toilets like this, so I wasn’t shocked to find one in my hotel room. And while they take a bit of adjustment, I have come to appreciate the, er, upside.

Upon returning to the U.S., I not only hankered for miso soup and grilled mackerel but also a warm throne with cleaning capabilities.

Finally, a toilet that cleans itself

Many Americans agree. According to experts at Kohler and Toto, two leaders in bathroom fixtures, a demand for convenience and cleanliness is rising, not just for the user but for the toilet itself. A 2024 National Kitchen and Bath Association trend report says buyers are interested in toilets that clean themselves after every flush, warm the seat, and open and close the lid automatically.

Warm-water bidet systems and air drying are also catching on in the U.S., says Bill Strang, president of corporate strategy at Toto USA. A 2024 report from home remodeling website Houzz shows that 41 percent of bathroom renovations feature tech toilets with particular interest in bidet function, heated seats, night lights and self-cleaning.

Part of this trend can be attributed to the aging of America. Andrew Van Gorden, a Kohler senior product manager, says such functions can be beneficial in a household with aging family members dealing with mobility issues.

But how much are technological advancements in toileting worth?

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A seat with bidet functions from Kohler or Toto can go for about $285 to $350. Adding automated open-and-close features raises the price to around $700 to more than $1,800.

And those are just the seats. You can buy high-tech toilet “systems” — seat, bowl and tank.

Kohler has a toilet and bidet seat bundle starting close to $1,500, but the models that the company labels smart can get even more pricey, ranging from almost $2,000 to nearly $10,000. And Toto’s Neorest NX2 costs an astonishing $23,000 with, among many functions, personalization for different users, much like a luxury car’s preset seat positions.

In development: Your toilet could check your health

All this advanced technology is moving beyond pampering. A company called Casana expects to bring a toilet seat to market next year that will monitor your blood pressure.

Olivia Lew, Casana’s chief operating officer, says this data could be shared with your health care provider, so your chart would be automatically updated and feature a richer health history. (Full disclosure: Casana is a participant in the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, which works with start-up companies.)

I wasn’t thinking about anything that tech forward, either during my trip to Japan or more recently when the gas furnace went out in our home overnight. Nature called at 2 a.m.

Groggy and shivering on a cold seat, I wondered why I’d put off this simple, pleasant upgrade. There in the dark, I decided that life’s too short not to have a warm bum and a self-cleaning toilet.

I ordered a new perch the next morning.

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Michael Frank is an adjunct professor of journalism at SUNY New Paltz and a contributor to national publications including Consumer Reports, Men's Journal, and websites like Gear Patrol and Coolhunting.

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