Everkare Smart Bidet Toilet Seat

I bought the Evekare Smart Bidet Toilet Seat from Bunnings about a month ago, and had it professionally installed by a plumber. So far, my experience with the seat has been fantastic, despite a few minor shortcomings. This is a living review and will be updated as my experience with the product changes. The Good Stuff: The seat is surprisingly… Read more

sturdy and feels quite well built for its price. While it's too early to tell if it'll stand the test of time, the product's 3 year warranty is comforting, and I trust that Bunnings will be helpful if I need to use it.

A few reviews were saying that the spray pressure is weak, which has not been my experience. Even the default middle flow setting consistently does it's job adequately and cleanly. As someone who's travelled to Japan many times, the pressure is roughly similar to that of washlet bidets in Japanese toilets. The temperature settings are easy to adjust and respond instantly.

The seat warmer is a fantastic addition and pleasantly surprised me the first few times, especially after years of sitting on cold toilet seats. You can adjust the level of heat or turn it off altogether via the remote, and thankfully the remote remembers the seat warmer setting, unlike some other functions (more on that later).

The seat has a deodorising function that activates as soon as someone sits down. It makes a faint sound, like an air conditioner, and pulls air from the bowl through an activated carbon filter to prevent odours from spreading into the room, which is a nice touch. I can’t say for certain how well it works, but it seems to do a decent job.

The seat has a blue LED lighting that illuminates inside the bowl (see photos) when a sensor on the seat senses the room is dark. The blue light permeates the room too, but isn't overly bright, which I quite like. One review I read claimed the light couldn’t be turned off, but that’s not correct. According to the user manual, you can toggle the LED light on or off by holding the posterior cleaning button on the side panel of the seat for five seconds.

The Minor Shortcomings:

The remote control lets you adjust four settings: spray temperature, spray position, spray flow, and seat warmer level. Unfortunately, only the seat warmer setting is saved permanently; the spray settings all reset to default after a short time (possibly around 10-15 minutes). This seems intentional, and I can see the reasoning - most seats are shared, so people probably don’t want the previous user’s settings. I live alone, though, and it would be nice not to have to adjust the spray position every time. It’s a minor inconvenience (literally just a couple of extra button presses) but having the option to save a default would be a nice compromise for both scenarios.

The seat has a dry function, which you can use after spraying to dry your bum. It might just be that my expectations are too high, but running the dry function at any temperature (even the hottest) for the full two minutes (it switches off automatically after 2 mins to prevent bum burn) doesn't seem to make a lot of difference for how much water remains. The dry function also produces a faint plasticky smell, which is probably just because the unit is still new. I expect the smell to fade with use, but in any case, the dry function doesn’t feel very effective. As I said, I may just be expecting too much.

I had to return this full featured Evekare Smart toilet seat after barely 1 year of quite dysfunctional use, ending in its complete malfunction. From the start, this seat did not afford enough water pressure even on its highest flow setting alone. We actually have another bidet seat, just cold water and simple manual forward and back lever, which… Read more

gives so much flow pressure it is painful to use on the full flow lever position. So, our household water pressure was never the issue. The only way reasonable jet cleaning took place was when the massage button was pressed. This seemed to add a pulse like action that made for stronger jet bursts for cleaning. Without using massage, the stream was not a jet, even at the highest flow setting. So, we always had to use the massage setting.

The next cause for concern was when certain combinations of pressed buttons would strangely cause operations to seize up, requiring a total power-off shutdown and reset button press. Many times it would not recall settings between resets, such as the same flow and water temperature settings. This usually required having to re-press a previously applied flow and/or water temperature setting each and every time it was used!

Without knowing from the start, resetting caused the seat heater to always reactivate and stay on without choosing it at all, something that cost us dearly when a member of the family used the toilet exclusively after a bowel operation. The toilet seat stayed on for weeks. User thought it activated when it sensed human approach, such as when the light would go on. Not so. Every time it acted up, needing a full unplugging and reset button press, we had to ensure the seat heater was manually forced off. It seemed to me that the programmers of this top model did a very poor job testing its features out fully and ensuring all feature combinations would work reliably. Otherwise, we got a lemon. More times than not, if the drying button was pressed, buttons returning to the jet cleaning usually caused dysfunction and that always required unplugging and reset.

The final death-knell came when pressing the massage button almost every time caused the water jet to stay out and not turn off, accompanied by the heated blow dryer to also stay on no matter how many times the remote or seat off buttons were pressed. The only way to get it to stop was to turn the power off, unplug and then press reset and test buttons all over again. Being denied the massage option meant the flow was unusable. So, I returned it.

When I attempted to return this $399 purchase to Bunnings, I spent around 30 minutes having to talk to more than 3 people whilst the store manager would only talk to floor staff on the phone. My wife was at Coles and she said I was gone for half an hour. I had to repeatedly ask for a full refund. The actual store manager would only talk to floor staff via phone and refused to talk to me, the customer. Bunnings staff 1 and 2 were interested in why it was being returned. Person 3 showed up and became instantly recalcitrant when I asked for a refund, in full. Firstly, I was told I didn't have the plastic bag it came in, thus it couldn’t be returned. I already showed persons 1, 2 and 3 the original receipt. I had it for about 12 months. Secondly, person 3 said it wasn't under warranty, so I had to point out the 3 year warranty clearly printed on the box. Thirdly, I didn't have the connecting flexible hose but it did have the rigid pipe it replaced in the box, along with everything else. I offered to buy a $10 replacement hose which Bunnings also sold. Fourthly, I had to recount all the problems to person 3, who I thought was the manager, given I had asked for the store manager and no one exactly knew who that actually was. By this time, I counted about 7 staff behind the counter, whilst another floor person interacted with 1 and then with the actual store manager surfaced on the phone and wouldn't come down, just giving orders to staff over the phone. I was told I wouldn’t get a refund if I didn’t have the same credit card it was purchased with. I’m guessing at the time I had a replacement card in between but luckily I had enough card evidence in my iPhone wallet of past cards. Whilst I continued to ask for a refund, I was told I could have a replacement. I refused a replacement. Why would I contemplate going through a similar nightmare? Why were they not listening to my request for refund? Then person 1 kept typing on the computer at the counter with phone to his ear to the store manager. When I asked again for a refund, he said the manager was telling him to word the in-house notes correctly. By this stage, I told them to document my details and have someone contact me if their own testing found no issues. Finally, I got a refund processed after all this blocking and frustration.

Terrible, terrible experience with other customers wondering what the heck was going on and you wonder why this multi-billion dollar corporate concern can't refund a mere $399 failed product. In addition, the product is quite a personal and confronting product in front of others, where Bunnings didn't have the decency to refund as quickly as they sold it to me after I first explained its many problems. After having a young member of my family undergoing major bowel surgery and then myself in and out of hospital undergoing bowel cancer surgery this year, this was the last thing I needed. It was embarrassing, combative and confronting. Never again would I ever buy this EveKare Smart Bidet Seat and I will always think twice before ever buying anything from Bunnings again around this value. BEWARE!!!!!!