This headline almost speaks for itself: “Free repairs to flammable toilets.” It seems in Japan there’s been a rash of toilets catching on fire. From the article’s lead:
Japan’s leading toilet manufacturer Toto is offering free repairs to 180,000 toilets after some of them caught fire. There have been three incidents of the electric bidet accessory in Toto’s Z series catching fire.”
I don’t know what to think.
On the one hand, the Japanese love their gadgets.
On the other hand, there’s a reason low-tech solutions–like toiletries–work and haven’t been improved upon since, oh, the invention of indoor plumbing.
It’s like Windows. Sure, you can add all sorts of bells and whistles in the rush to take advantage of the latest technologies, but then you cripple your product with bloat and introduce new, and painful, failure modes.
This is how Toto–and to be completely nerdish, I’m hearing “Africa” in my head right now–ended up with toilets that catch on fire.
“Toilets that catch on fire.” It’s not every day you get to write those wonderful words. 😆