How to Use a Bidet
Use a standalone bidet, a bidet seat, a handheld sprayer, or a travel bottle. Sit in position, start on low pressure, wash for up to a minute, pat dry, and keep the nozzle clean.
You will end up able to use any kind of bidet: a standalone basin, a seat or attachment on your toilet, a handheld sprayer, a built-in bidet toilet, or a travel bottle. The method is the same on all of them. Sit in position, start the water on its lowest pressure, wash for up to a minute, and pat dry. The last step covers keeping the nozzle clean.
In Japan, about 82 percent of households of two or more people had a warm-water washing toilet seat in March 2026, according to the Cabinet Office's consumer confidence survey. In Italy, the law requires one in every home.
Know your bidet type
Bidets come in five forms, and each one works a little differently. Standalone bidets are separate porcelain basins next to the toilet, the kind Italian homes have. Bidet seats and attachments add a retractable spray nozzle to the toilet you already own. A bidet seat replaces your toilet seat, and an attachment mounts under the seat you have. Electric seats, such as TOTO's Washlet seats, heat the water and add a dryer. Handheld sprayers mount to the side of your toilet and work like a small showerhead. Built-in bidet toilets combine the toilet and bidet into one unit with electronic controls. Portable travel bidets are squeeze bottles with angled nozzles you can take anywhere. Each type does the same job, which is cleaning with water instead of, or alongside, toilet paper.
Use the toilet first
With a standalone bidet, you use the toilet as normal and then move over to the bidet basin beside it. With every other type (seat, attachment, handheld sprayer, built-in, or portable), you stay seated on the toilet after you go. There is no need to get up or transfer anywhere.
Position yourself correctly
For a standalone bidet, straddle the basin facing the taps, or sit with your back to them, whichever gives you better aim. For a bidet seat, attachment, or built-in toilet, sit all the way back on the seat. TOTO's manual for its Washlet seat says sitting back makes it easier to adjust the wand position and reduces splashing. For a handheld sprayer, hold the sprayer with your dominant hand and angle it from behind or between your legs, aiming upward. For a portable bidet, hold the bottle with the nozzle pointing upward toward the area you want to clean.
Good to know: With a standalone bidet, a handheld sprayer, or a travel bottle, you choose which way the water runs. If you are a woman, aim it so the water runs from front to back. That is the direction the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases gives women for wiping, to keep bacteria from getting into the urethra. On a seat or a built-in toilet the nozzle sets the direction, and step 5 covers its front wash mode.
Start the water on low pressure
If the water is heated, test its temperature on your hand before it touches you, and keep it warm, not hot. Then start at the lowest pressure setting. For a standalone bidet, turn the taps slowly. For a seat or attachment, turn the dial to the first notch or press the lowest wash setting. For a handheld sprayer, open the shutoff valve on its T-valve, then squeeze the trigger gently. For a portable bidet, give the bottle a light squeeze. Stay at low to medium pressure once you are used to it. The systematic review linked in FAQ 8 below describes a study of 20 healthy volunteers in which 1 minute of warm water at low to medium pressure lowered the pressure in the anal canal, and a high-pressure jet raised it even with warm water.
Heads up: If you have reduced sensation in that area, from diabetes, a neurological condition such as multiple sclerosis, or chemotherapy, use lukewarm water and keep the wash short. The systematic review linked in FAQ 8 below includes a case report of a third-degree burn in a woman with multiple sclerosis who used a hot-water bidet, and it says people with altered sensation should avoid prolonged use of hot water.
Adjust the temperature and nozzle position
Non-electric attachments spray water at the temperature it arrives from the supply line. Brondell, for example, describes the wash on its SimpleSpa attachment as ambient temperature. Electric bidet seats and built-in toilets heat the water and let you set how warm it is. TOTO's C5 Washlet seat has three warm-water levels plus an off setting, covering about 95 to 104°F (35 to 40°C), and its manual notes that the water runs cooler if you keep the wash going. If your seat has a wand position control, move the wand forward or back until the stream reaches the right spot. If it has a front wash mode, that is a separate button. On the C5 it is labeled Front cleansing and described as a bidet for ladies.
Wash for 30 to 60 seconds
Wash for 30 to 60 seconds, then stop the water. That is our figure. The manuals we read set no wash time, and the pressure study in step 4 measured 1 minute of use. With a standalone bidet, you can use your hand to help wash the area, the same way you would in the shower, and wash your hands with soap afterward. Some seats have an oscillating mode that moves the wand back and forth to cover a wider area. You do not need soap on the area you are washing. MedlinePlus's self-care advice for an itchy anus is to clean gently with water, without scrubbing, and to avoid soaps with dyes or fragrances. When you finish with a handheld sprayer, close the shutoff valve on its T-valve. Brondell's instructions for its CleanSpa sprayer say to do this after each use, because a valve left open may weaken the hose or sprayer head or cause flooding.
Dry off
Pat dry with a few squares of toilet paper. Pat, and do not rub, which is also MedlinePlus's advice for irritated skin there. A clean, soft towel kept only for this does the same job with no paper, as long as you wash it regularly. If your seat has a warm air dryer, press its button and stay seated until you are dry. It is slower than patting dry, and it leaves your hands free.
Clean and maintain the bidet
Follow your own manual, because makers differ. The schedule here is TOTO's for its C5 Washlet seat. The seat rinses its own wand whenever you use a wash function, and Brondell's non-electric SimpleSpa has a nozzle-cleaning position on its control. About once a day, wipe the seat and the outside of the unit with a soft cloth wrung out in water. About once a month, press the wand cleaning button to extend the wand and wipe it with a soft, wet cloth, without pulling or pushing on it. About every 6 months, or when the spray weakens, clean the water filter. Unplug the seat and close the shutoff valve before you take the filter out, because the manual warns that removing it with the valve open makes water spurt out. For cleaning, use a mild detergent diluted in water. The manual rules out toilet cleaner, household cleaner, benzene, paint thinner, powdered cleanser, and nylon scrubbing brushes, which can damage or crack the plastic, and Brondell says not to use harsh, abrasive products.
If the spray misses, sit farther back on the seat and move the wand position, or on a standalone bidet shift forward or back over the stream. If the water feels too strong, turn the pressure down before you change anything else. If the spray on a seat weakens over the months, clean the water filter (step 8). If you notice itching or soreness after you start using a bidet every day, lower the pressure and the temperature and wash less often, and see a doctor if it continues. FAQ 8 below covers what the research found about itching in frequent users. FAQ 4 covers how much water a wash uses, FAQ 3 what the studies say about infections, and FAQ 6 the forest figures behind the environmental case.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
For the hand that wipes afterward, yes. The one study we found measured exactly that. A 2022 study in the Journal of Water and Health had 32 nursing students wipe with toilet paper while wearing a glove that was then tested, once after using the bidet and once without it. The average count was about 39,500 microbes on the glove without the bidet and about 4,100 with it, roughly a tenth. It was a small study, the counts varied widely between people, and it measured the glove, not the skin.
Yes. A bidet connects to the bathroom's fresh water supply before that water reaches the toilet tank or bowl. Brondell's attachment, for example, connects through a T-valve at the fill valve under the tank, and TOTO's manual says to use only drinking water, never seawater or recycled water. A seat also rinses its own nozzle (step 8).
The evidence is mixed. A 2010 study of 268 women in Japan who had come to a clinic with increased vaginal discharge found normal lactobacillus missing in 42.9 percent of habitual bidet users against 8.8 percent of non-users. Of the 50 women in whom it found fecal bacteria, 46 were bidet users. Those women already had symptoms when they were tested, so the study cannot show which came first. A 2013 study in Obstetrics and Gynecology surveyed 1,293 women who had given birth in Tokyo and found no association between bidet use and either bacterial vaginosis or preterm birth. If you are a woman and you aim the water yourself, run it from front to back (step 3).
It depends on the pressure and on how long you run it. TOTO's manual for its C5 Washlet seat lists the rear spray at about 0.07 to 0.11 gallons a minute, so a 1-minute wash on that seat uses about 9 to 14 fluid ounces (0.27 to 0.42 liters). For comparison, the EPA's WaterSense program says efficient toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush or less, and the federal standard allows 1.6. One 1.28-gallon flush is about 12 to 18 times a 1-minute wash. The figure usually quoted for bidets, one-eighth of a gallon per use, traces to a bidet manufacturer quoted in a 2009 Scientific American column, so treat it as a rough number.
Only for drying, if you use it at all. Patting dry takes a few squares (step 7). With a towel or the seat's air dryer, you use none.
The paper side of the case is documented. The NRDC reports that clearcutting for tissue products is destroying more than a million acres of boreal forest a year. Its 2025 tissue scorecard says bidets and bidet seat attachments significantly cut down on the use of toilet paper, and it gives no figure. We could not find a study that measured how much toilet paper a bidet saves. A bidet does not end paper use unless you dry with a towel or an air dryer (step 7), and FAQ 4 gives the water a wash uses.
Handheld sprayers and non-electric attachments are the cheap end. Electric bidet seats cost more, and built-in bidet toilets more again. Prices change too often for a figure here to stay true, so compare current listings. Before you buy an electric seat, check for a grounded outlet near the toilet. TOTO's C5 manual requires one, and the seat's power cord is about 4 feet long. To work out whether a bidet pays for itself, estimate your monthly toilet paper saving (what you spend each month times the share you expect to cut), then divide the bidet's price by that saving. The answer is the number of months until it pays for itself.
A bidet spares the area the rubbing of dry paper, but studies have not shown that it treats these conditions. A systematic review of bidet use in benign perianal disease found 6 studies and concluded that the evidence does not establish bidets as a treatment. Its one randomized trial, of 75 patients recovering from hemorrhoid surgery, found pain scores with an electronic bidet similar to those with a warm sitz bath. Two surveys that followed the same 7,637 people found that using a bidet every day did not significantly change the odds of developing hemorrhoids. The same surveys found itching around the anus more common in men who used a bidet daily, with 1.36 times the odds after 3 years, although the reviewers note that people who already itch may wash more. A case series in the review describes 10 patients with fissures at the front of the anus after bidet use, and the reviewers say it cannot show that the bidet caused them. For skin conditions around the anus such as eczema and psoriasis, a 2023 editorial by three dermatologists argues that washing gently with water avoids the irritation of dry paper and wet wipes. One of its authors disclosed receiving sample products from a bidet company. If you have hemorrhoids, a fissure, or an itch that will not clear, ask your doctor before you rely on a bidet, and keep the water warm and the pressure low (step 4).