The 10 Best Handheld Bidets
Special Honors
Grohe A leading brand in high-quality bathroom fixtures and fittings, Grohe supplies a range of bathroom suite collections, meaning you can match the style and finish of your shower valve, bath and basin faucets, trigger spray bidets, and accessories. grohe.us
How To Use A Bidet If it's something you're not familiar with, using a bidet of any description for the first time can be a daunting experience. This simple guide describes the various types, and gives advice on their functions and hygienic use. healthline.com
Editor's Notes
April 15, 2021:
Often referred to as a bidet sprayer or a bidet shower, these handheld sprayers comprise a small, angled nozzle and a trigger for regulating the water flow. Not only great for freshening up after using the lavatory, they are also useful for a variety of cleaning applications within the bathroom. Many offer a simple installation that can be tackled by most DIY enthusiasts and have mounting brackets that affix to the toilet tank, meaning you don't need to drill holes in your tiles, either. During this update, we decided to remove most of the portable bidets as this is a separate category. However, we did elect to keep the BioBidet Palm, the Uyicoo Portable, and the battery-powered Gustyle GS002, as not everyone desires a permanent fixture, and these models offer versatility when traveling.
Those with a contemporary styled bathroom will appreciate the newly added Faeemirs Toilet Sprayer Set, as it has a stainless steel, square body, and a pressure-sensitive handle with two spray modes. If you just want to replace the head, the Purrfectzone Hygiene is a high-quality option made from corrosion-resistant materials. It has an ergonomic design and a removable nozzle assembly for easy cleaning and maintenance. For ease of installation, the Hibbent HB2F comes with a T-adapter that connects directly to the toilet inlet, and has a simple knob that lets you adjust the flow to accommodate your home's water pressure. On the other hand, although the TrustMi 196 has a very streamlined look, the supply lines and valve need to be concealed in the wall, making it rather difficult to install in an existing bathroom. The simplest option by far is the SmarterFresh W60, which has a special adapter to connect to the sink faucet, thus allowing the temperature to be adjusted to your own comfort level.
December 25, 2019:
One thing that many people notice when traveling abroad is how different the toilet experience can be in other countries, and of all the differences between US and foreign facilities, the bidet probably stands out the most. Traditional, standalone ceramic bidets aren't a feasible upgrade to most USA bathrooms, and high-tech toilet seats are nice -- very nice, in fact, which is why they are in literally almost every single bathroom in Japan -- but they're also pretty expensive. So while it might be somewhat awkward to give as a gift, a good handheld bidet sprayer is a classy and comfortable addition to many stateside commodes.
If you are looking to upgrade your bathroom, the RinseWorks Aquaus 360 offers a great way to do so. It's a bit pricey, but not too much so, and has 3 different nozzle lengths as well as variable stream control using the thumb-operated knob. The Brondell CleanSpa Advanced is pretty similar, although it doesn't include the same extensions. The TrustMi 196 is even fancier, as it combines hot and cold water at your discretion, which makes it considerably more comfortable than getting a sudden blast of cold water. The drawback, as you might imagine, is that you'll have to tap into the hot and cold water supplies to install it, and that may not be a task that everyone's up for. Alternately, the SmarterFresh W60 attaches to a faucet to provide a variable water temperature, although it works only with certain faucets.
If you're not looking to install anything on your toilet or in the bathroom, there are still plenty of options; these portable bidets are also great for carrying on a regular basis to help stay clean when you're not at home. The BioBidet Palm is incredibly popular and quite straightforward, as it's a simple squeeze bottle with a durable nozzle. The Uyicoo Portable is similar but it's also even simpler; it doesn't come with a bottle, but requires you to supply one -- it works with a wide variety of disposable bottles, though, so that won't be difficult. The Hibbent Handy Toilette, Gustyle GS002, and Toto Mobile Toilet Shower are all battery-powered, and the Hibbent stands out due its rechargeable battery. However, given the small amount of time these things are used for, battery life isn't a huge concern for any of them.
Next To Godliness
What remains is a passing visit with our old friend the toilet paper, more for drying purposes than anything else at this point.
The problem with toilet paper is one of Goldilocks proportions. For most, it's not soft enough, leaving an already sensitive area vulnerable to scrapes and discomfort. For others it's too soft, tearing into tiny particles before ever doing its job. If you're among the lucky few, then after years of searching, you've found a happy medium. Still, the task of using the paper is itself an unsanitary one.
The handheld bidet, by contrast is a simple nozzle and hose combination that hooks up to your the faucet in either your sink or your shower, or it hooks directly into your water line, depending on which model you select. You can make adjustments to the water pressure either by adjusting the flow from your chosen water source or by manipulation of the nozzle itself.
The result is a highly controllable stream of water that does the vast majority of cleanup after you've relieved yourself. What remains is a passing visit with our old friend the toilet paper, more for drying purposes than anything else at this point.
Some folks think this is a waste of water, but by using a bidet, you'll drastically cut down on your consumption of toilet paper, which utilizes pulp from virgin wood and a tremendous amount of water in its production. What's more, less TP means fewer toilet clogs, reducing water consumption and saving you money on visits from the plumber.
Where The Hose Goes
I'm a patient man when I'm at the fair. I position myself a healthy distance from those games that rely on a line of players shooting streams of water at targets. Each target, when depressed by the water, pushes a button that causes a corresponding item–usually a stuffed animal–to climb up a pole. If your animal reaches the top of its pole first, you win. The more players playing at a time, the bigger the prize.
Each target, when depressed by the water, pushes a button that causes a corresponding item–usually a stuffed animal–to climb up a pole.
These games aren't rigged, per se, but some of the animals start ever so slightly higher up than the others. I watch a few games from a distance and clock the animals that seem to win the most. Then, I move in behind the winningest water gun and watch a few players work at it, examining the angle at which the water shoots out, which is never quite straight. After that, I sit at the gun and wait. I don't give the gamekeeper my money until there's a crowd big enough for the top prize. I take aim, and I win every time.
All of this is to say that no two handheld bidets shoot quite the same, but you can maximize your chances at winning by taking the time to investigate the differences from one to the next.
You want a bidet that's easy to install, and easy to use. Fortunately, all the bidets on our list meet these criteria, or they wouldn't be listed in the first place. How they install is a different story, however, and that will tell us the most about which belongs in your bathroom.
For example, if your bathroom is rather large, or if the toilet is detached in its own little water closet, then running a bidet line from your sink faucet is going to prove more problematic than anything else. Such a configuration would do best with a model that hooks right into the toilet's incoming water line.
If you're more concerned with getting clean in the shower and you don't have a removeable shower head–or you just don't want to use the same head down there that you use to wash your hair–you can install a bidet that hangs in the shower stall with you.
Finally, there's the consideration of appearance. It might not be the most important part of your decision, but if people are going to come into your house and see, or even use, your bidet, you'll want it to fit the decor of your bathroom as much as possible, so do keep that in mind.
Trickledown Bathroom Design
For some reason, no one seems to want to take credit for the bidet. Searching back through the annals, you'll find plenty of reference to the bidet itself starting at around 1710 in Italy. Many believe them to have been invented by French furniture makers much earlier than that, but the specifics elude us.
The bidets of those days weren't the hose-and-nozzle type we recognize in our own time.
The bidets of those days weren't the hose-and-nozzle type we recognize in our own time. Those didn't come along until after 1900, when more significant improvements to indoor plumbing made them possible. These were more like a second chamber pot than anything else.
In the first chamber pot went, well, you know. The second pot was shallower and filled with fresh water for users to delightfully splash against their nether regions until they were satisfactorily clean, which, in those years, was a rather subjective term.
After those plumbing advances, the hosed bidet moved from the palaces of the aristocracy to the homes of everyday French and Italian citizens. Presumably because the Italians were late-comers to American shores when compared to the English, Germans, and Spanish, the bidet never quite caught on in the US. We can change that, though, one toilet at a time.