Crazy Bathroom Tech To Love!

Preparing for the unexpected is now expected.

At first glance, I thought Ampere’s new shower speaker aspired to be a disco ball. And if boogie moves in the shower are your thing, note that the LED lights on the Shower Power Pro can be set to “party” mode using an app. But a second look reveals some useful features. Who amongst us hasn’t stuck their hand into the shower and snatched it back when the water was too cold or too hot? The LED lights can be programmed to visually check water temperature with a cold blue transiting to a hot red. The exact temperature is displayed on the app. You also can shame yourself or a family member into watching their water usage. The app displays the amount of water used per shower and there is even an alarm that goes off if you exceed your water usage goals. The very clever technical feature of the Shower Power Pro is that it runs on hydropower instead of batteries. The flow of water spins an internal impeller connected to a mini-generator that charges up the battery to such an extent that you can keep playing music even after the shower. ($149 ampere.shop) Green electric hydropower may be the coming thing. Toto’s new touchless faucets use hydropower in a similar fashion—the faucets use a sensor to turn the water on or off with a wave of the hand. (www.totousa.com) Similarly, water usage monitoring in new builds also looks to become widespread as exemplified by the new wifi-enabled RainStick circular shower ($3500 rainstickshower.com) By the way, if you’re looking for a baseline number for shower duration, the CDC recommends 8 minutes while most dermatologists suggest 5 to 15 minutes.

Mirror, mirror on thee wall, who is the fairest of them all? You might get an answer from the new Sound Mirror as it can link to an Alexa digital assistant via Bluetooth, with the verdict coming from speakers in the bottom third of the mirror. You also can stream music in lieu of a Snow White review (price TBD, soundmirror.com). Closer to the horizon as it launches the end of January is the new Zuvi Halo hairdryer. The futuristic-looking Halo ditches traditional power-hungry heating coils in favor of a technique that uses wind and light. The idea is to reduce your carbon footprint but Zuvi says Halo is better for your hair and scalp (price TBD. zuvi.us).

I’ll bet you did a double-take looking at the photo of the Y-Brush toothbrush. The pioneering French-American industrial designer Raymond Massey titled his autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone and it looks like the folks at a French company called Y-Brush read it from cover to cover. The electric Y-Brush cleans all your teeth at once so there is no missing a spot. It also handles whitening and polishing chores as well as vibrating to stimulate your gums. The Y-Brush is still in the prototype stage so no price yet. (y-brush.com) However, a company called SonicBrush offers a similar product ($120, sonic-brush.net) It’s pretty much like sticking in a mouth guard and wearing it for a couple of minutes.

A bidet still sounds crazy to a lot of Americans despite its popularity elsewhere in the world. But don’t worry. The toilet techies haven’t given up hope. Brondell turns a toilet seat into a bidet with its new Swash Thinline Electric Luxury Bidet. Pitched as an eco-friendly alternative to toilet paper (no panicking about toilet paper shortages , during the next pandemic!), the Swash Slimline uses a stainless steel nozzle, has a multi-colored night light, a warm air dryer, and an instantaneous ceramic water heater. The Swash Slimline uses a side-arm control panel or a wireless remote for operation. ($600, brondell.com) Toto also offers toilet seat bidets called Washlet at various prices according to its features set. The bidet function also is part of a new line of Toto toilets called Neorest. Keep an eye on Toto as its ambition is to develop a wellness toilet that uses skin sensors and waste analysis to monitor your health and even suggest changes to your diet for display on a smart phone app. That’s several years away, says the Japanese company. Let’s just hope it doesn’t include a voice that chastises you about that extra piece of pie.

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