I made fun of smart toilets for years. Then I used a Neorest at a hotel in Tokyo, came home, and spent four months quietly resenting my regular toilet before finally caving and having one installed. This is the review of someone who went in as a skeptic and came out as an evangelist, which is a more useful perspective than you'd think.
It's Not One Feature, It's the Integration
Cheaper bidet-seat add-ons give you a wash function bolted onto a normal toilet, and that's a fine, much less expensive option if that's all you want. The Neorest NX2 is a different category entirely: the bowl, seat, lid, and washlet functions are engineered as a single integrated unit, with a fully skirted design that eliminates the usual gaps and crevices where a bolt-on seat traps grime. The first thing you notice isn't any single feature — it's that the whole object looks and feels like one clean piece of ceramic and glass rather than an appliance strapped to a toilet.
The lid opens automatically as you approach (a proximity sensor handles this, not a wave gesture you have to learn), the seat is heated to a temperature you set once and forget, and the whole thing closes and, on the auto-flush models, flushes itself when you walk away. None of this reads as necessary on paper. In practice, after a few weeks, a cold toilet seat and a manual flush handle both start to feel like small daily inconveniences you didn't know you were tolerating.
Tornado Flush and Cleaning
TOTO's Tornado Flush uses two nozzles to create a centrifugal water action around the bowl rather than the straight-down dump most toilets use, which means better coverage with meaningfully less water per flush. Combined with CeFiONtect, TOTO's glazing that keeps waste from adhering to the ceramic in the first place, the bowl genuinely stays cleaner between cleanings than any toilet I've owned. This isn't marketing fluff I'm repeating — it's the single most noticeable practical benefit of ownership, and the one that made my spouse stop rolling her eyes at the whole project.
The Washlet Functions
Adjustable water temperature, pressure, and nozzle position (front and rear wash, oscillating and pulsating modes) are controlled through a wireless remote mounted on the wall, and the settings are genuinely worth spending ten minutes dialing in when you first install it. The warm-air dryer at the end eliminates the need for toilet paper for most uses, which sounds like a novelty until you've actually adopted the habit and realize how much paper you were buying before.
An automatic deodorizer runs continuously while the seat is occupied, pulling air through a carbon filter rather than masking odor with fragrance, and it's the reason a Neorest bathroom doesn't smell like a Neorest bathroom the way you'd expect.
Installation Reality Check
This is not a DIY weekend project. The NX2 requires a nearby electrical outlet (GFCI-protected, per code) for the heated seat, washlet, and auto-open/close motors, and most installations benefit from a licensed plumber given the precision required for the skirted base and integrated water supply. Budget for professional installation on top of the unit price, and check your bathroom's outlet situation before you order rather than after it arrives.
Who This Is Actually For
If you're renovating a primary bathroom and have the budget, the Neorest NX2 is one of those upgrades — like a great mattress or a great mattress topper — where the daily-use value genuinely compounds in a way that's hard to appreciate until you've lived with it. It doesn't make sense as an impulse purchase for a rental or a bathroom you're not planning to keep long-term, given the installation investment involved.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Fully integrated, skirted design is dramatically easier to keep clean than a bolt-on bidet seat
- Tornado Flush plus CeFiONtect glazing meaningfully reduces staining and buildup
- Heated seat, auto lid, and warm-air dryer genuinely change the daily experience
- Continuous carbon-filter deodorizing actually works, not just fragrance masking
- Remote-adjustable washlet settings let every household member dial in their own preference
Cons:
- Five-figure price before professional installation costs
- Requires a dedicated GFCI outlet near the toilet, which older bathrooms may lack
- Professional installation is strongly recommended, not optional in practice
- Replacement parts and service are TOTO-specific, not universally available like standard toilet parts
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Neorest NX2 work during a power outage?
The toilet still flushes manually during an outage, though the washlet, heated seat, and auto-open/close functions require power and won't work until it's restored.
Is professional installation required?
TOTO doesn't strictly require it, but given the electrical connection, precise water supply fitting, and the cost of the unit itself, a licensed plumber is strongly recommended over a DIY install.
Final Verdict
The Neorest NX2 isn't trying to be a novelty gadget, and after months of daily use, it doesn't feel like one. It's a genuinely well-engineered fixture that improves something you interact with every single day, which is a rarer thing to say about a five-figure purchase than you'd expect.
Rating: 9.1/10 — An absurd amount of engineering aimed at your bathroom, and it mostly delivers on the promise.