If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of bidets. This passion for bidets stems from living in Italy and traveling to countries like France, Turkey, and Japan, where the bidet is a common bathroom fixture. I’ve written about the best bidets to buy, so when I had the opportunity to review the Tushy Ace Bidet, I jumped at the chance.
During my travels, I’ve found a variety of bidets. Some bidets look like a child’s sink and others have an attachment (a device that replaces your toilet seat or installs between the seat and toilet). And I found them everywhere I went, including gas stations in rural, roadside towns. After getting in the habit of regularly rinsing my nether regions post-poo, and learning about the benefits of using bidets, it was a rude awakening to return to the States and its boring, bidet-free toilets.
During the 2020 pandemic surge, however, bidet attachments started to catch on due to toilet paper shortage. Maybe people were attracted to reducing toilet paper usage, or maybe with so much time stuck at home, they started savoring the smaller pleasures. There are a multitude of bidet models out there, including simple mechanical attachments with nozzles that clean your bum with cold water.
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That’s what I started with my own toilette: a basic but beautiful Tushy Classic bidet attachment (coincidentally, a SELF Favorite). But then, last fall, Tushy released its first-ever luxury electric bidet model: the Tushy Ace. After months of using it, my god, what a quality-of-life upgrade it’s been. If you’re wondering whether or not buying an electrical bidet is worth it, here’s what you need to know before taking the plunge.
How the Tushy Ace Works
The Tushy Ace replaces your entire toilet seat, which is actually quite easy to screw off—something I didn’t know pre-bidet-ownership. It plugs into a wall outlet, and operates via a remote control with a magnetic dock that you can mount onto your wall. The seat itself is far sleeker than my old seat, with a toilet lid that silently closes instead of slapping shut (a subtle touch that’s especially appreciated when I’m half asleep).
Using the Ace’s remote, I can control many features via buttons; main features give me the ability to adjust between five levels from gentle to intense, using plus and minus buttons (similar to volume control on a TV remote). I appreciate the remote’s button backlight and subtle haptic feedback, which is a satisfying little pulse that responds when a button is touched to let me know it received my direction.
Installing the Tushy Ace
In terms of installation, full disclosure: I was lucky enough to have a kindly engineer from Tushy come to my house and do the dirty work. However, I did install the very first mechanical Tushy Classic I owned, and one of the things I like most about Tushy is its clearly illustrated, easy-to-follow and thorough directions (down to recommending you keep clean-up towels on hand). And the Ace’s installation instructions are very similar. The main difference is having to unscrew the whole seat itself and ensure it connects to an outlet. Tushy’s site (which, for your reference, is HelloTushy.com, and I do not advise attempting to visit any variation of those words) includes helpful video tutorials and even offers on-demand support from their expert “Poo-Rus.” As someone who struggles to unscrew a jar of jelly, if I can install a bidet attachment, I have faith that you can too.
Tushy Ace’s Best Features
What makes the Tushy Ace special are its features. When it’s below freezing outside (and even when it’s not), I sink onto my toilet seat, which is already lightly warmed to my precise preference; it’s as comforting as pulling on a sweatshirt fresh out the dryer. I can then adjust the temperature of the water that washes my undercarriage. Warm water is welcome on winter days, and in sweaty summer, cool water feels like a stroll through a sprinkler.
Source: SELF
