In My Experience, This $460 Bidet Is Worth Every Single Penny

Since I returned from a trip to Japan in 2019, I have been using a bidet. Japan takes its hygiene and bidet game seriously. Their bidets were amazing, with features and technology I never imagined people used in their toilets. But I decided to start simple, with a basic $56 bidet that did the job. But as winter arrived, the water and toilet seats in our uninsulated bathroom became intolerable. So we decided it was time to improve them. THE Coway Bidetmega 500S has impressed my wife and I so much that we sometimes save our necessities until we get home just to use our brand new bidet.

The Coway 500S is available in extended and smaller round sizes, both of which are easy to install. But I urge anyone spending more than $400 on a luxury bidet to first upgrade to an elongated toilet, which you can find for $100 at Home Depot. Installation isn’t difficult: I did it myself by watching YouTube videos, but you can always have a plumber do it for you for around $150. Experience on an elongated toilet makes a big difference. Bidet toilet seats are already smaller than regular seats, so a smaller round seat makes things rather cramped (I tried the round version first and didn’t like it). An important thing to keep in mind is that you will need a grounded outlet near the toilet to plug in the bidet.

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

As I mentioned earlier, my bathroom is not insulated, so mornings are freezing. This made us really appreciate the seat and water heating functions. There are three levels you can use to adjust the temperature levels with the remote: green, orange and red, each getting progressively warmer. There’s also a neat user profile on the remote that saves settings under that user, that way my wife and I don’t have to keep fighting over settings.

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

While I appreciate the heating features, there is another aspect that makes this bidet worth every penny: the self-cleaning nozzle. With my old bidets, the self-cleans weren’t great, meaning that every now and then I had to put a little elbow grease on the bidet to get it decent again (I hated that). The Coway 500S self-cleans automatically and keeps it looking new using three methods: a UV light, a nozzle cleaning spray, and a water shield that traps particles that come up and out of the bowl. So far I have been very impressed with this feature.

There are other features as well, including an air dryer (I personally don’t find this particularly effective), a touch button on the remote to open the lid (works about 80% of the time), a night light, and an air freshener. If you are a bidet lover, the Coway 500S is an amazing bidet that takes me back to Japan. It improved my quality of life and, for me, it was worth every penny.