How to Use a Bidet

Chances are, if you're traveling to another country, you will come across a Bidet. You may also come across one within the United States, especially at higher end Hotel Chains or even at Bed and Breakfasts.

Some countries are especially known for having bidets: South Korea, Japan, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Lebanon, and India.

A bidet (pronounced "be-day") looks like a toilet but has warm-water jets for personal hygiene after you use the toilet. Bidets are normally situated near the toilet and are especially helpful to: people who are recovering from surgery; people who have physical disabilities; people with dexterity or other problems that limit their range of motion; people who have various medical conditions, such as hemorrhoids, diarrhea, dysentery, difficult bowel movements, or other ailments that involve the rectal or genital areas; people who have developmental disabilities, such as Down's Syndrome, mental retardation, autism, or cerebral palsy; men and women who want better hygiene before or after sexual activities; and women who want more effective feminine hygiene during monthly menstrual periods.

While your first encounter with a bidet can be a little daunting, they are actually very simple (and hygienic) to use. Here are a few easy steps to using a bidet.

Note: The last step (step:6)has a few videos on Bidet Usage along with helpful notes and tips.

Step 1: Using the Toilet.

This step is self explanatory. To use a Bidet, one must first use the toilet. The purpose of the bidet is to help clean off after toilet use.

Step 2: Finishing Up

When you are finished using the toilet, wipe your anus one time in the usual manner, throwing the toilet tissue in the toilet. This prevents excessive feces from being washed off into the bidet.

Dry wipe at least once after having a bowel movement and before using the bidet. Excess fecal matter may clog the bidet drain. This can be quite disgusting for someone who uses the bidet after you.

Step 3: Using the Bidet

On most standalone bidets you can either face the bidet's water controls or you can face away from them, as you would on a toilet. It is easier to control the flow and temperature of the water if you face the controls, but if you are wearing pants you will generally need to remove them in order to straddle the bidet in this manner. There are a variety of bidet designs, so the configuration of the jets and the part of your body that you wish to clean may dictate which way you need to face.

If the bidet has both hot and cold water controls, start by turning on the hot water. Open the spray valve until the water is spraying about six to eight inches high. When the water feels hot to the hand, adjust the cold water valve until the spray is comfortable, being careful not to let the spray column exceed over a foot in height.
(In normally hot climates, such as the middle east, you should start with the cold water. The water will not need time to heat up and you may end up burning sensitive areas if you turn the hot water on first.)

Be very careful when turning on the water, as many bidets can produce a very high jet of water with only a slight turn of the control.

Be sure that you know where the water will be coming from ahead of time, or you could end up with a surprise shower.

You may find that you need to hold the control to keep the jets on.

In the picture below, the young woman is showing one of the many ways to use a Bidet, though you dont want to use one with shorts still on.

Step 4: Cleaning With the Bidet

Straddle the bidet, sitting on the rim and align the anus with the column of spray water. Note that most bidets don't have seats, but are still meant to be sat upon; you just sit directly on the rim.

Gradually open the spray valve until adequate pressure is achieved to flush the remaining feces from the anus.

Some bidets do not have jets, but instead simply have a faucet that fills the basin, as you would fill a sink basin. If you find yourself confronting one of these types, you use your hands and soap to clean yourself off, much like you would in the shower.

Step 5: Drying Yourself

Once you have cleaned your genital and anal areas, you dry yourself off. Some Bidets have a cloth towel nearby, DO NOT USE! This towel is for drying off your hands only. Most Bidets have a built in air dryer for you to use. If the one you are facing does not, use toilet paper or other paper towels to dry yourself off.

Do not throw any toilet paper into the Bidet. This can clog the Bidet and be unsightly.

Step 6: Videos and Notes

Note 1: For females only: The bidet is an excellent utility for cleaning up the female genitalia after intercourse. The procedure is the same, except no toilet tissue is needed.

Note 2: The steps for using a modern bidet that is built into the toilet are essentially the same as those described except that you simply remain seated on the toilet to use the bidet. These may be electronically controlled, or they may have controls positioned next to the user. Some of these include two nozzles, a short one for washing the anus, and a longer one that women can use to wash their genitals; others have one nozzle with two settings.

Note 3: There are also Bidets that are for the use of washing babies. Do not use one that is for babies, ask a housekeeper or the owner of the home you are in if you are unsure of which one is for you to use.

Note 4: Many people use public Bidets to also wash off their feet. Do not be alarmed at this.

Note 5: Do not drink from the Bidet. it may shoot out water much like a drinking faucet, but the water supply is not for drinking. Besides, water can bounce off of unsanitary areas and/or fecal matter.

Note 6: If you are unsure of the safety of the water, do not use a Bidet on broken and irritated skin. This can cause you to get sick from the water.

Video 1 on Bidet Usage

This commercial gives a good idea on how a Bidet works.

Comments

[DoItOrDie]

Geeze! Bidets, wet wipes. Women are way too pampered. I had to put TP the women's restroom in this place I worked once, and found they had a friggin' couch in there in a little entrance way! There was a nice table and lamp and everything. Quite homey. I found out later some of them took naps on it during their lunch breaks. Must be nice. You can wet down toilet paper in the sink a bit ya know if you must have that "moist" sensation. Surely your innards aren't so, shall we say, "not so fresh," that you need to flush it out with a hose every time you go?

[autumnsky76]

Comments like these from men crack me up. The couch in the women's restroom that men on here are making assumptions about is for breastfeeding mothers. Now that part is all cleared up :)

[OCCostaMesa]

Hi. first time poster here. I asked the question many years ago when I was a child why women had couches in their restrooms. Every department store I went to with my mother had a little room before the actual bathroom. I was told, and this makes sense to me, especially for back in the day, before Motrin lol, they had couches so women had a place to lay down when experiencing menstrual cramps during their period. Sound logical to me

[JennaA17]

DotorDie - Where in the world did you get the idea that bidets are specifically for women?? Or, worse, that they are meant to "hose out" women's "innards"??

They clean poop.
Off your arse.
Men's and women's.

Whats wrong with you?
You find a couch in one ladies restroom and now there's some secret female plumbing conspiracy?
I suspect these women were all crammed in the restroom on their breaks hiding from you, and needed a place to sit. You sound like a creep. I'd hide in the bathroom too.

[DoItOrDie]

Wow! Exaggerate much? Chill, Carrie Nation. I never tied the couch to bidets. You did that. I merely mentioned the couch as something I found in the women's restroom and was surprised about the discovery. And they even "rested" on it. How you got I was angry about it from what I said is really stretching things. Nor did I say bidets were specifically for women. Another conclusion to which you leapt. If you actually read what I wrote, you would realize it was the couch which seemed to be exclusive to the women's restroom as I had never seen one in the men's anywhere. Ever. Perhaps you might brush off those chips resting your shoulder as they seem to be affecting your vision.

The fact is, I have been informed by some of the users of bidets that they used it for both openings in that area of their anatomy. Your experience cannot be extrapolated to all females (and neither can mine) but that does not mean mine is wrong and yours is the only truth. I suppose the women who told me that could be lying, but why would they? Just because you are a female does not mean you know all the hygiene (and other) habits of all those in your gender. I am the child of a hard core lesbian, and she had more "friends" coming into and out of my life than I could possibly keep track of. I could relate things I've overheard and been told (and actually experienced as a small child) that would further curl your pubic hair. Suffice it to say, bidets get used for more than cleaning the butt of stray fecal remnants. Finally, a quote from the above Instructable "The bidet is an excellent utility for cleaning up the female genitalia after intercourse."

[JennaA17]

Just to be clear, bidets are not used to flush out a woman's innards with a hose. I don't know how you even got that from this. Or how a couch in a restroom led you to believe that and be so angry about it.

[paulo500]

In North America, we use hygiene wipes! Saves water, space, and tp!

[swintle]

Are those toilet wipes biodegradable? Any thing we put in the toilet here in Australia can end up in the ocean.

[paulo500]

All biodegradable. Breaks up like TP after flushed. Cottenelle brand had a funny ad on youtube. Not sure if you have this brand in Aus, though.
http://www.cottonelle.com/product_wipes.aspx

[LilyH5]

They are not biodegradable. They're notorious for destroying plumbing in Paris, France, where I currently live. And in Vancouver, Canada, (where I grew up) a bidet is not all that uncommon. Not everyone in North America is on the wet-wipe bandwagon. :)

[ukfaninmemphis]

wet wipes and flushable wipes are different. wet wipes have some kind of plastic inside. flushable wipes do not. and are totally biodegradable.

[erwinfj]

Flushable wipes cannot go down the drain!!!! They don't break down nearly enough, the marketing is a flat out lie. Put one flushable and one tp in a jar for an hour and see which one breaks up when you touch it and which one doesn't. If you do use flushable wipes then toss them in a trash can, while flushing away the tp.

[Thebumgun]

Wet wipes certainly are not flushable and are causing thousands of blockages in our sewers, costing millions of pounds a year, water companies have warned. Thames Water in London are having to deal with 3,500 blockages a month caused by wet wipes and flushed food fat at a cost of £12 million a year.

[imajeff]

Yes many wipes say they are flushable

[MiaDia]

In North America the flushable wipes can and do create problems by clogging up sewer lines.

We recently put in a Bidet (Biobidet brand), and we absolutely love it. We can control it with a remote.

I never quite understood how the European type worked, so I found the article above helpful. We do see those type here as well, but only in expensive newer homes.

[Thebumgun]

The preservatives used in wet wipes are not safe by
any means. They are Methylparaben and Methylisothiazolinone which may cause
allergic skin reactions.

Studies carried out in laboratories
also suggest that methylisothiazolinone can also cause serious damage to your
brain cells and the nervous system.

[DavidD1]

I used those wipes for quite a while, until I saw all of the chemical ingredients in them. This is a very sensitive part of your skin, and people can develop allergies to some of these ingredients.

[Lauramore87]

uhm...hi there, i'm italian and i usually use bidet! that's not the right way at all! female use "ride" bidet in the opposite way and we don't use the paper! XD bidet is fundamental for a proper hygiene! in europe we ask to our-selves how can americans survives without it!

[johnnereardon]

I agree, We need more of these in America. I have seen them here and there but certainly not nearly in enough residences and especially not in apartments.

[imajeff]

In history I ask myself how did everyone survive without toilet paper and without a bidet or even toilets!