Hot Take: Smart Toilets Are Totally Worth The Splurge

Engineers and product experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Improvement & Outdoor Lab have evaluated smart home devices for more than two decades, including before smart toilets became mainstream in the early to mid-2010s. As the smart toilet market grew during the pandemic, we expanded our testing of the category. To date, we have evaluated more than 20 smart toilets from leading brands among Lab experts and consumers.

Most of our testing takes place in our testers' homes, allowing us to assess smart toilets in real-world conditions. In the last five years, we have conducted comprehensive categorical tests and at-home reviews of toilets from Duravit, Kohler, Toto, Bio Bidet, and American Standard.

Because smart toilets have more features and installation considerations than traditional toilets, testers first evaluate installation and ease of use. They then assess performance over several months of use, with a focus on cleansing and drying. Finally, testers evaluate the toilet’s features, including heated seats, night lights, automatic lid opening and closing, and UV sterilization.

Though smart toilets are fairly new to the U.S. market, they’ve been around long enough that you’ll find a wide range of options as you shop. Here are the key factors to consider:

✔️ Smart toilet vs. smart bidet seat: If you’re tackling a bathroom remodel or willing to replace your existing commode, a smart toilet makes sense, since it will tie directly into the plumbing and deliver the cleanest look. But full-size toilets are expensive, often costing between $2,000 and $5,000. A smart bidet seat can be retrofitted to almost any toilet for fast, easy installation; some even offer manual operation and don’t require a power hook-up. Bidet seats are less expensive, ranging from $500 to $2,000, but they don’t deliver the fully integrated look and feel of a smart toilet.

✔️ Size and shape: As with traditional toilets, smart toilets come in all shapes and sizes. The two main shapes are rounded and elongated. If you’re retrofitting a bidet seat, make sure it matches your existing toilet bowl's shape. Our engineers also caution that if you have a one-piece toilet with little to no space between the bowl and tank, some bidet seats won’t fit; measure the gap and confirm it meets your bidet’s minimum requirements. If you’re starting from scratch, our testers have found elongated bowls to be more comfortable, while rounded bowls are the most space-efficient.

✔️ Height: Many models come in “comfort height,” whereby the seat is 17 to 19 inches off the ground, versus the 15 inches of traditional toilets. Those extra few inches make it easier to get on and off, which is great for older homeowners or those with knee issues who may have wanted a toilet riser.

✔️ Feature set: If this is your first smart toilet, you won’t believe how far the humble commode has come. Here are the features that our experts say are worth it:

• Adjustable temperature and pressure settings: These let you choose the perfect water temperature and pressure for hygienic cleansing; some models allow two or more users to program their preferred settings into the remote. "Most testers really appreciate the warm-water cleansing, so it's a feature that's well worth the splurge," said DiClerico.
• Heated seat: You'll also appreciate this added comfort, especially on cold mornings.
• Air-drying: Besides feeling good, this feature further reduces toilet paper use. “If you sit there for a few minutes, it will dry your bum completely, but most testers tell us they want to get on with their day,” said DiClerico.
• Self-cleaning: For maximum hygiene, many smart toilets sanitize the cleansing wand after every use; others also clean the bowl itself by, for example, pre-misting the surface before each use to keep waste from sticking. Our tests find that this reduces how often the toilet bowl needs to be manually cleaned.
• Touchless flush: Hands-free flushing is a worthwhile convenience that can also help reduce the spread of germs. Some models have a setting that automatically flushes when you move away from the toilet. Others have a sensor on the top of the tank that you wave your hand over to activate flushing. "Some testers who have small bathrooms say the auto-flushing is a nuisance, since it can happen even when the toilet hasn't been used," said DiClerico. "So this feature is lower down on the list of must-haves."
• Night light: This motion-activated feature illuminates the way at night for added safety and convenience.

A smart toilet works like a standard toilet for its primary function: flushing away liquid and solid waste. The key difference is the built-in bidet, which replaces toilet paper for both rear and front cleansing. "While most smart toilet users still use a bit of toilet paper at the end for a spot check or to pat dry their private areas, the experience is very different from what they're used to with a traditional toilet," said DiClerico.

Beyond the bidet, smart toilets offer a range of features that expand as you move up in price. The highest-end smart toilets offer adjustable water and air-drying temperatures, automatic flushing, lids that lift when you enter and leave the bathroom, motion-sense lighting to illuminate the way at night, and self-cleansing features that cut down on how often you'll need to scrub the bowl by hand. Some toilets even have built-in smart speakers, so you can play music or check the weather while you tend to your morning routine.

Of course, the answer is relative. When you can spend under $200 on a perfectly capable toilet from our roundup of the best standard toilets, dropping $1,000 or more on a smart toilet is a massive leap. But if a smart toilet is in the budget, our experts say it is worth the investment, since it delivers a better cleansing experience. The bidet feature also reduces the need for toilet paper, saving you a few extra bucks a month.

Many smart toilets are also low-flow models, using as little as 1 gallon per flush, compared with the legal maximum of 1.6 gallons. That helps offset the extra water they use during cleansing. Some smart toilets also include self-sanitizing features, so you don't have to clean the bowl as often.

Another big difference between smart toilets and traditional models is that they need to be plugged in. "If you don't already have an electrical outlet behind the toilet, you'll need to pay an electrician a few hundred dollars to put one in," said DiClerico. And, of course, extra power consumption, especially on models with heated seats and water, will show up as higher electricity bills.

Bottom line: Smart toilets cost more to buy and operate, but most people who make the investment are happy they did.

Senior Reviews Writer & Analyst Olivia Lipski covers everything from consumer electronics to appliances, parenting, home, auto, and more. Olivia brings years of product-review experience to the Good Housekeeping Institute and stays on top of the industry's latest innovations to help readers make better buying decisions. While she doesn't own a smart toilet (yet), she has two bidets installed in her home and says she will never go back to having standard toilets.

For this round-up, Olivia worked closely with Dan DiClerico, director of the Institute's Home Improvement & Outdoor Lab. Dan has written about home improvement for 25 years, including thousands of product reviews and articles on home maintenance for Good Housekeeping, as well as magazines like This Old House, Martha Stewart Living, and Consumer Reports.