What sort of new appliance is so hip, so cool, so stylish, so sophisticated, so much a work of art…that you’d put it in your glass penthouse living room, so that you could impress your hot model girlfriend? Don’t look just yet. I’ll give you a hint. It has an iPod dock, speakers, a light, motion sensor activation, motorized access, and a touch screen remote. It only costs $6400. Make your best guess now.
Here’s what it looks like after dark, after you and hot model chick have knocked back a bottle of Opus One and you let the gadget’s soft glow set the mood for what comes next.
What could such a home appliance be? Answer below.
Yes that’s right, the new NUMI super toilet from Kohler flushes green dreams and your cash!
We’ve been told time and again the importance of using a single sheet of toilet paper so as to not stress Gaia’s natural state, that we should put bricks in our toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used, and even that we should all be like eco saint Ed Begley Jr., who doesn’t use any water at all, but composts his, er, crap.
Some greenists say we should be “…radically abandoning the flush toilet – one of the world’s most destructive habits, absorbing 40% of water available for domestic consumption and contaminating everything in its way”.
So imagine the howling that will now ensue with the worlds largest indoor plumbing fixture company tossing all those ideas down the toilet, and reincarnating it as a must have hipster item that is marketed in a way like a Ferrari is marketed to a guy with only one thing on his mind. Of course if that doesn’t work out, you can always compost your girlfriend.
Truly, it is the Poop de Grace of toilets.
Here’s the remote:

Here’s the feature list:
- Motion Activated Lid and Seat – Front sensors react to your movement when
you enter the room for hands-free opening and closing of the cover. Motion at the floor-level engages sensors to raise and lower seat.
- Advanced Bidet Functionality – Self-cleaning wand features multiple options for
water spray pattern. Adjust wand position, water pressure and temperature to your preferences
- Integrated Air Dryer – Located in the wand for more efficient drying.
- Deodorizer – Air is pulled through a powerful deodorizing charcoal filter.
- Heated Seat – Warms the seat to your comfort level.
- Feet Warming – Warm air from floor-level vents, heats the floor surface and warms your feet.
- Illuminated Panels – Ambient lighting illuminates your space with a soft, inviting glow.
- Music – Built-in speakers allow you to play a selection from the Numi toilet’s pre-programmed audio, FM radio or to connect your MP3 player through the audio input jack in the remote docking station.
- Touch Screen Remote Fine tune every option to your personal preference. Magnetic Docking Station Charges and stores the remote.
- User Presets – Easily customize and recall your saved preferences.
- Numi Flush Technology – A sophisticated, automatic flush system delivers unprecedented water savings and power.
- Auxiliary Controls – Allows you to control basic functionality without use of the remote.
What, no self cleaning bowl? Personally if I was given one, I’d program the “Numi toilet’s pre-programmed audio” to play a “A Time for Tony” so I could “Think”.
Now the real question is: how many will Al Gore, Sheryl Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio buy? I can see this as the new green cred question asked on the red carpet – “is it true that you own a Numi?”
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.


There is a restaurant in Darwin, Australia, where the gents wahsroom is separated from the restautant by a one-way mirror. It’s very disconcerting watching the customers while peeing. Imagine using that toilet in that glass room.
Gosh, that’s exactly like the loos in Azimov’s Robots of Dawn, on Aurora. Maybe the designer is a Sci-Fi fan.
I was sure it would be an iToilet.
REPLY: Well no, it doesn’t look anything at all like it. – Anthony
I don’t know what weirdness is going to happen next.
Some people have more money than sense.
OMG, you can wave at your neighbors while reading LOL
The public toilets at the 7-11’s here in Tokyo have many of the same features and they’re free to use. They’re probably a lot more durable too. Some of them even play a special flushing sound when you sit so that if you’re shy you don’t have to worry about anyone hearing you fart.
Solar powered? Hmmmm. Probably not. Maybe in the next model. 😉 It should also have Facebook/Twitter hook up so you can share your squats with other ecofreaks.
It’s an iPOOP….
Last time i checked my toilet used NO electricity.
The flushing of $6400.
Did the army not pay astronomical amounts for toilet seats?
This is obviously not for real.
REPLY: That was the first thing I thought of, that maybe this was an April fools joke done by the company, but sadly, no. It is quite real – Anthony
It’s not nearly as green as an old telephone diretory and a spade. Why am I reminded of NASA spending $millions developing a pen which would work in freefall while the Russians used a lead pencil on a bit of string?
Crap
Robert of Ottawa says: April 23, 2011 at 5:35 am
Which restaurant in Darwin?
Jeeze, you lot are soooo last century. Our dunnies (in my home) have auto lid lift and a button for seat lift. Heated seats, of course. A choice of buttons to wash the bum or the muff. Bog roll is reduced to a drying, rather than a wiping function. Stand up, the auto-flush operation happens and the lids close.
Whenever I travel from Japan, the thing I miss most is being able to wash my arse after I’ve had a s[..]t.
[had a seat? Robt]
I guessed a $6400 styrofoam cooler before I read the article.
That’s greenthink. For every $1 spent on the greenification of the universe, the universe benefits to the tune of $.01.
That means that for every 1 job created by redirecting wealth to the green sector, 5 people in other sectors lose their job (get flushed). Of course the green elite will only tell you about all the green jobs created, and hide the fact that greenification destroys more jobs than it creates.
So when the power goes out, where does one ‘go’?
Thinking this product is not a ‘family’ model.
The suites of Ladera Resort on St Lucia are completely open to the leeward side of the building. One could sit on the “throne” with a fantastic view of the Pitons on either side, with no-one able to view your activities (unless they were climbing the Pitons) .
I recognize that house! That was the home of Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) in Galaxy Quest!
oh, and Sheryl Crow obviously never had a bowl of Texas Chili.
I have my own recycling system; it’s called a septic tank and I can use all the water I want…goes right back into the ground water supply.
Thomas Crapper is turning over in his grave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper
Why is it in the middle of an all-glass walled livingroom???
Idd. When the power went out after our recent earthquake (you may have read about it) I collected snowmelt, and we flushed the dunnie with that. Coming to you from Yamagata, Tohoku, Japan.
I guess now we know where some of the Fed’s bailout money is going…
And just looking at the photo, this toilet doesn’t appear to be hooked up to any plumbing; just a pipe through the floor. The penthouse is probably perched over an unemployment office. 😉
Robert of Ottawa, there is a toilet with one way mirror in the Palmwoods Hotel, Sunshine Coast Qld. You pee while watching people eat in the bistro and hope they can not see you.
The Japanese have been mentioning the bidet idea for a while. Which company is it- Sony maybe, they are into movies and might get some of the naive Hollywood AGW believer filmstars to buy one?
Never mind family model, that home looks like it was designed for future Darwin Awards winners. Pool next to polished decking next to long drop and no safety rails. The loo placement does allow the time honoured tradition of allowing the wealthy urban greens to bare their posteriors at the peasents beneath them. The images are a little creepy though. Is the woman thinking “I really need the loo, but he’s just sitting there, watching”?
The data sheet is lacking some green credentials. It says “Dedicated circuit required, protected with Class A Ground-Fault Circuit-Interrupter (GFCI) or Residual Current Device (RCD)” which is good advice to avoid it becoming an electric throne. It doesn’t seem to mention power consumption but I’m sure the owners micro wind turbine or solar panels will be fine.