I had never had a bidet before and loved this sleek model. It's beautiful to look at. However, the spout where water comes out of is made of poor quality plastic that is now stained. I know that sounds gross, but unfortunately it has happened. Further, at the top of the toilet seat, there is a large plastic box which you can sort of see in the photos. That is the undercarriage piece, I believe it is called. It is there bc this is a bidet unit. Well, you cannot clean under this, because it is completely screwed in! So moisture collects, etc. and you can NEVER CLEAN it, period, because it's all one enclosed unit! It's like a no-man's land literally on top of your toilet seat, so gross. Do they not expect people will want to clean that area or just leave it like that forever and ever?
Even w/out moisture, you will want to clean it. I live in CA, and it's not that moist but my bidet is next to my shower. So this became a major issue on top of other issues, but main problem is this **Puretide seat and design**. Awful!
So the electronics and engineering of the water for example *is* top-notch, I will admit. BUT the mechanics of the **actual** toilet seat are what is bad, for reasons described herein. The toilet is great but Puretide seats are cheap plastic. It think they scored with the water coming out but failed with the design of the plastic, the seat, the undercarriage, keep reading and you will see why.
If Puretide, Kohler? can fix this, it would be a ten star system and toilet seat.
SO: Due to the way the seat is screwed in, you cannot clean under this plastic "box"/undercarriage, if you look at the photo you can sort of see it but it's this huge, cheap plastic box thing.
Moisture collects under this and even urine, I am sure as I live with two males. After having this unit for less than one year, the moisture made it so that the screws rusted and the seat became undone when I was cleaning it one day.
I was able to clean it finally since the seat had come undone, and it was not pretty.
**Even prior to this happening, I thought the actual toilet seat was difficult to maintain and clean, there are way too many weird nooks and crannies and the design is poor. The plastic of the entire seat could also be better quality. This type of plastic doesn't seem to be easy to clean, it's too cheap, if that makes sense.
Kohler needs to redesign the Puretide seat and redesign that area that can easily collect moisture.
Even without the staining and living with males (one who is a child and is only here every other weekend), I believe moisture would still collect.
And even w/out moisture collecting (from let's say the shower), due to the design, you cannot clean under that box as I said.
I find this gross and again, beautiful toilet aesthetically, price is good, handle is nice, the amount and power of the water coming out is excellent, there can be many improvements.
Wanted to love it, but many issues from the get go, re keeping it clean, etc. Whomever is designing toilets and bidets, think about less nook and crannies to keep clean, it's just not ideal.
Good news is that it came with a 2nd, non-bidet toilet seat and so we put that on. I kept the original seat, will disinfect it completely and see if I want to reinstall. If i live alone, as a woman, I think it may be easier, but as I said, poor design all around. Still think Kohler is a great company, but go back to the drawing board.
That said, I see you can buy a Puretide seat so maybe I can find one without this weird undercarriage, please fix this Kohler!
Buy Kohler but AVOID PURETIDE bidet toilet seats bc impossible to clean them or clean under them. Bad design, not functional at all. Cheap plastic, and it's too bad. Again, less than one year and that bad design led to the two screws rusting out. Not sure they provided necessary parts, like maybe rubber washers, but even then, moisture will collect and it's grody bc you cannot clean it, you can't even get a wipe under there, it's too hard to get in there, you just can't do that level of detailed cleaning. Bad, bad, bad!
