OMG, the Omigo Toilet Seat Cleans Butts While Saving the Environment – Review [10% Discount Updated – 7/2/20]

Ok, it’s time for some potty talk. No, I’m not going to be complaining about my kids or my work or my bills. I’ll save that for another time. Instead, I’m going to talk about butts (or bums, depending on where you’re from). And toilets. And toilet seats. And toilet paper. And conservation. And being sanitary.  And technology. And about the Omigo toilet seat. Note: new 10% DISCOUNT CODE below! (*Disclosure below.)

Toilets, in one form or another, have been around for centuries. And they have evolved considerably from being just behind a bush to a hole in the ground. Many toilets have seats and covers (and I must say that I have encountered “toilets” that are still just holes in the ground). Some cultures, due to lack of infrastructure or other barriers, have not had huge advances the way other cultures have.

We have conservation-focused toilets that save water and are more low flow. Some toilets have options to change how they flush depending on if you go “number one” or “number two.” But one thing is for sure, you need to keep your rear clean and sanitary (and if you are female, the front as well).

As parents, we always try to teach our kids about good hygiene “down there.” We always talk about wiping from front to back and not to reuse when wiping. And we hope and pray that is the teaching our kids will follow.

Since I’m talking about conservation here, there is another side to the story, that of toilet paper. A majority of toilet users use toilet paper (TP). But did you know that using TP is actually pretty darn bad for the environment? According to Omigo, in the United States alone, we use 36 billion (yes BILLION) rolls of TP each and every year. That’s a lot of paper. So why is that a bad thing? We all want clean butts (and fronts), right?

Let’s take that 36 billion number and break it out a bit. That means that 15 million trees are used to produce TP rolls. Where do those trees come from? Tree farms in South America and the U.S. or from old second-growth forests. And it’s not only the trees that are concerning. You also need to think of the actual production of TP. That takes both water and electricity…huge amounts of it. Omigo supplied some equivalents here to contextualize things a bit. That’s 473 billion gallons of water a year (more than New York City uses in a year) and 17.3 terawatts of electricity (that could power 53,000 homes for an entire year). Umm, isn’t there a better way?

But now there is potentially a new “weapon” for those cleanliness and environmental tasks. The Omigo toilet seat! (Oh, and I have a 10% Discount Code at the end of my review!)

The Omigo Features

For adults or kids, the Omigo has a lot of great benefits, and I’ll go into these in greater detail shortly. But at a high level:

• It’s super easy to install (and remove but why would you?)
• There’s a night light
• A heated seat is so much better
• The deodorizer is better than lighting a match
• A warm water wash does the job
• You can personalize the experience
• No more wiping involved
• Air drying ends the reliance on TP
• The soft closing lid prevents slams
• The remote control guides your experience
• It’s self-cleaning to make life a bit easier

That’s quite a bit of tech in the bathroom! And yes, while talking about toilets, wiping, and bathrooms is a bit weird, sometimes being weird can be a good thing!

Ok, so let me step through the Omigo features I listed above in a bit more detail.

Installing the Omigo Toilet Seat

Installing the Omigo Toilet Seat is a snap, literally. It took me just under an hour (which would have been less were I not stopping to take photos along the way). Pretty much everything that you need comes in the box. But before you start taking apart your bathroom (actually, there isn’t that much to take apart other than removing your old, out-of-date, boring toilet seat), you really need to be sure you read through the instructions completely. Also, Omigo has a pre-installation checklist that I highly recommend you follow (even before you purchase an Omigo).

Briefly, you need to check to be sure you can access the old seat’s bolts. Then you need to be sure you can access the fill valve (where the water comes to the toilet). Then check the water supply hose (note: I actually had to replace my existing water supply hose a bit later as it had a small leak – that is easy enough to do).

Also, you need to be sure that you have an electrical outlet somewhere near the toilet. Remember, water and electricity don’t play well together, especially with humans involved. You MUST have a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) type of plug in the bathroom and use that. I believe those are required by building code. If you don’t, you really should install one (either yourself if you know what you are doing – you can pick one up at your local hardware store or online for less than $20) or by a certified electrician.

My GFCI plug was not close enough for the Omigo’s electrical cord to reach, so I bought a 3-prong extension cord rated for a minimum of 15 amps. A quick note here as I did some additional research about cords for bathroom use. Do NOT get a surge protector! The GFCI plug is all that you need to shut off power instantly. If you use a surge protector, you may actually NOT be protecting the environment. Just get a plain old medium-rated extension cord.

I found that the Omigo parts included in the shipment were exactly correct for my installation. The installation kit includes:

• 2 mounting bolts
• 2 rubber cone washers
• 2 flat washers
• 2 barrel nuts
• 2 adjustable brackets
• 1 mounting plate
• 1 T-valve connector with rubber washer
• 1 bidet hose
• 2 cable clips
• 1 remote control wall mount
• 2 remote screws
• 2 remote anchors
• 4 CR2032 batteries (for the remote)

This is obviously in addition to the Omigo toilet seat itself and the remote control. The only additional things I had to purchase was some plumber’s tape for the valve connections and a new water supply hose (as I mentioned).

Here is my abridged installation process (the Omigo site and included detailed documentation has much more information). First, I started by removing the old seat (and I cleaned the bowl and surroundings).

Next, I turned off the water supply. My valve was old, so it did drip a bit. Be sure to put something under the valve to catch the water.

Then you will want to get all of the water out of the bowl, just flush it, and that will get rid of most (not all) of the water. Here’s a little tip for you. Get a really big sponge. Use that to soak up all of the remaining water!

Next, you connect the T-valve to the toilet tank. This essentially splits the incoming water from your water supply to the Omigo and to the toilet tank itself.

Be sure you connect the T-valve to the tank and NOT to the wall and check to be sure the rubber washer is installed.

Then, connect the water supply line to the T-valve. Again, I had to replace my old water supply line with a new one because the old one was leaking.

Next, you connect the bidet hose to the T-valve. Use the straight (not elbow) side to connect to the T-valve. Be sure to hand-tighten and not use a wrench or anything. You don’t want to strip the threads.

Now comes the mounting plate. The mounting plate is designed to fit a majority of toilets. I do recommend NOT tightening the bolts down right away.

Only do that once you have attached the Omigo seat. You will have to adjust the brackets a bit once the seat is snapped on to get proper alignment.

Next, snap on the Omigo seat. You will know that it is properly attached when the seat clicks in. Be sure to look in the back to see how the seat aligns up with the plate.

Then, you will need to move the seat around as it is attached to the plate to be sure that it is aligned properly with the bowl. Once it is, you can tighten up the bolts.

After that, you can attach the other end of the bidet hose to the seat. I actually attached the hose to the seat before putting the seat on the plate. And I connected the bidet hose to the T-valve after that.

Finally, it’s the moment of truth. Slowly turn on the water valve and check for leaks. I found it helpful to put a few paper towels underneath the valve and hoses to see if any drops came out. You should also wipe the hoses and valves before turning on the water and THEN check for water with your hands.

Assuming you don’t have any leaks, you can then plug the Omigo into the wall for power. And you can then install the batteries into the remote.

That’s it. If you don’t have any issues along the way, the process takes about 20 minutes. It really is quite painless, and it’s always fun to do DIY projects! And if you do get stuck or have questions, the Omigo Help Center is a great resource to make you an Omigo DIY expert.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the other great features of the Omigo seat.

The Blue Nightlight

If you have kids, you probably have a nightlight in the bathroom to prevent stubbed toes or, gasp, misses when aiming for the toilet bowl (and I’m not talking about the rim).

Luckily, the Omigo has a blue nightlight. It’s an LED light, so it doesn’t consume much energy at all. And if you don’t like the light, you can easily program the Omigo not to have it on. It is on, by the way, all of the time unless you turn it off. See the manual for how to turn it on or off permanently.

A Warm Butt

I’m pretty sure you have experienced the “joy” of sitting down on a cold toilet seat. Honestly, it’s not that fun. And if you are making a middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom, a cold toilet seat can pretty much wake you up.

Well, the Omigo set has a warmer built into it. And there are three levels of heat available. You can customize it to your liking. And, if you aren’t using the Eco Mode (which turns off the heating of water and the seat during periods of inactivity), any time you sit down, your bum will be greeted with a warmed seat.

No More Matches

If you’ve ever wondered why some people keep a book of matches in the bathroom, it’s usually not for lighting candles (unless they are scented). The sulfur smell of a lighting match does a pretty good job at masking the odors of your “business.”

Now you can hide away those matches and just press “deodorize” on the Omigo’s remote control. When you do this, the air in the toilet bowl is sucked out of the bowl and through a carbon filter, eliminating the smells.

Warm Water Wash

The Omigo has a tankless heater that warms up the water that washes your undersides. Using the remote control, you can change the temperature to the level that you find most comfortable. Some like it hot, others not!

The wash will run about 2 minutes (or less if you stop it either by pressing the Stop button or by getting up off of the seat – it will automatically stop any time you do that). There are four water temps available: off (incoming water temp), low (~90 degrees), Medium (~95), and High (~100). Oh, and there is an Oscillation (move) button that you can press that will move the washing nozzle back and forth.

Making the Toilet Personal

People come in all shapes and sizes. And everyone has their own likes and dislikes. The Omigo seat can be individually customized to a person’s liking. From seat temperature to water temperature, you can adjust the settings on the Omigo. But, you can also adjust the position of the nozzle and where it hits your bottom (or front). And you can adjust the water pressure from low to medium to high pressure. And you can change the width of the water stream from concentrated to medium to a wide stream.

And if you find that personalized setting that you like the best, up to two people can save those settings so that you don’t have to always change the settings each time you sit down. But just like musical chairs, the third person is out of luck if the settings have been programmed. (Yes, you can change the two user settings later if you want.)

Wiping is a Thing of the Past

With all of the washing and cleansing that the Omigo provides, you pretty much don’t need to use toilet paper again. Think about all of those trees you are saving. And the electricity and water as well. And this is actually a big thing in our household as our home is pretty old and our waste pipes, which are clay, have cracked due to roots invading them. What does that mean? Well, toilet paper tended to get caught in those waste pipe cracks and block the pipe (with disaster ensuing shortly thereafter). Now we have minimized the amount of TP that enters our pipes!

I have to be honest here though. While the Omigo does a great job at cleaning your butt, sometimes a quick wipe helps guarantee things are “extra clean.” So, while we haven’t eliminated TP completely, we have dramatically reduced the consumption.

Is There a Breeze in Here?

Yes, with the Omigo you can not only wash your bottom side, but you can also dry it as well (and further eliminate the need for TP). Once you finish or stop the wash cycle, just press the Dry button, and a warm air dryer will turn on for up to two minutes. (You can extend the drying session if you want in much the same way you can with the washing session.)

There are four settings for the drying fan: off, low, medium, or high so you can choose what type of breeze you want to dry your undersides off.

No More Slamming Lids

One of the first things that I changed when I moved into our current home was to remove the slamming toilet seats and replace them with soft-closing ones. Why? Because with little kids, there is nothing worse than hearing a toilet seat drop down hard, over and over and over and over and over again.

I was pleasantly surprised to see (and not hear) the Omigo’s soft closing toilet seat in action. You start to close the lid and simply let go, and it slowly descends to the toilet bowl rim without any noise.

One Remote that Won’t Get Lost

I can pretty much guarantee that the Omigo toilet seat remote is NOT going to get lost (it might get dropped into the toilet though – that hasn’t happened, yet). The remote itself is very nicely laid out. Buttons are clearly marked, and you can control each and every function direction from it.

Using easy to understand icons makes using the Omigo’s functions extremely easy. There is even a super handy “Let’s Go” button for those people who aren’t really familiar with a magical toilet seat like this. The Let’s Go button. Press the Let’s Go button, and it starts a rear wash cycle and a dry cycle after that. Press and hold the Let’s Go button for 5 seconds, and it will do a front wash and dry cycle. All temperatures for these are set at medium.

Cleaning Up After Yourself

Other than the standard seat cleaning you usually do. Use a soft, damp cloth with a mild cleanser to wipe the seat. And if you need to clean the nozzles, on the side of the Omigo seat itself are some additional buttons, one of them being Nozzle Cleaning. This will extend the nozzles out individually (there are two), and you can clean them with a soft brush or old toothbrush. You don’t normally need to do this much.

There is also a nozzle sterilization function. Just press the Sterilize button on the remote and a silver oxide nano-particle water treatment will start. This takes about 60 seconds while the nozzles extend, are cleaned, and retract. The nice thing is, this sterilization process keeps the nozzles clean and bacteria-free. And the nano-particles don’t need to be replaced.

Ending the Potty Talk

It’s hard to believe so much can be written about a toilet seat. But this obviously isn’t your average toilet seat. The Omigo toilet seat takes potty talk into the modern era with an amazing number of personalized features to keep your underside clean. And, while it does use a tiny bit of electricity and water as part of the cleansing process, it is a minimal amount compared to what goes into producing a roll of toilet paper.

The OMIGO Full Featured Luxury Bidet Toilet Seat retails for $649, but you can get 10% off by using this special (updated) code: HTDx010 on the Omigo site. (Note: it should auto-populated with the discount.)When ordering, be sure that you know which type of toilet seat size you need: round or elongated. Currently, it only comes in white.

Updated 02.26.19: there is also a new version of the Omigo called the Omigo SL. This is a slightly less expensive version that does not have the silver ion sterilization, massaging nozzle oscillation, warm air dryer, nor activated carbon deodorizer. But, it does come at a slightly lower price of$499! You can read more about it here.

Updated 07.02.20: Omigo has updated many of their products as well as reduced their prices (if you use my code/links – code: HTDx010). Below are links to all of these products.

• OMIGO SL: Advanced Bidet Toilet Seat  – $404 (discounted)
• OMIGO: Full Featured Luxury Bidet Toilet Seat– $584 (discounted)
• NEW PRODUCT: OMIGO Element+: Non-Electric Dual Temperature Bidet Attachment – $89 (disounted)
• NEW PRODUCT: OMIGO Element: Non-Electric Bidet Attachment – $71 (discounted)

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Lastly, the Omigo is great for families. Once you train your kids on how to use the Omigo properly, as a parent, you can relax a bit because your children’s bottom side will be potentially cleaner than if they were to wipe themselves the “old fashioned way.”

So, weird as it may seem to talk about bathrooms, toilets, and wiping your butt, the Omigo is taking this weirdness away with a flush to the future.

Disclosure: I have a material connection because I received a sample of a product for consideration in preparing to review the product and write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item after my review period. All opinions within this article are my own and are typically not subject to editorial review from any 3rd party. Also, some of the links in the post above may be “affiliate” or “advertising” links. These may be automatically created or placed by me manually. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item (sometimes but not necessarily the product or service being reviewed), I will receive a small affiliate or advertising commission. More information can be found on my About page.

HTD says: Talking about toilets really isn’t that weird, especially if there is an evolution taking place. The Omigo heated toiled seat cleans your undersides using heated, sprayed water, all controlled based on your personal preferences. And you minimize the use of non-environmentally friendly toilet paper.