The Silent Revolution

The highly secured VitrA Innovation Campus in Bozüyük, Turkey – the frontline of sanitary technology.

A vast, white, pristine building sits on a dusty main road, about 250km south of Istanbul. Deep inside its briskly air-conditioned interior, past several rounds of security gates, is a soundproof chamber where a lone toilet sits on a raised platform.

On either side are a pair of ultra-sensitive microphones mounted on adjustable stands. The toilet looks like it is under interrogation.

Suddenly, it erupts in a flush. Scientists study computer screens. One declares the noise level to be about a seventh of a standard flushing mechanism. We are witnessing "one of the quietest toilets in the world." His colleagues nod sagely.

Welcome to the VitrA Innovation Campus in the town of Bozüyük, home to the Turkish sanitary-ware manufacturer’s laboratories, where experts strive to gain an advantage in the fast-paced global high-tech loo market. The tight security, together with the centre’s strict no-photos-in-the-labs policy, are stark evidence of just what a fiercely competitive business this is.

Today the team is demonstrating VitrA’s latest "powerful-yet-silent" technology, the Quantum Flush. Launched in the UK this year, the R&D team are keen to point out that it is the only one on the market with a Quiet Mark—the independent global certification. VitrA joins elite brands including Switzerland’s Laufen, Belgium’s Ideal Standard, and Germany’s Grohe in the race to persuade consumers to enter a new world of whisper-quiet toilets.

VitrA’s experts work not only on flush acoustics but also on a dizzying array of novelties: ceramics with advanced hygiene surfaces, remote-control lids, heated seats, inbuilt bidet functions, water efficiency, and more. The latest models come with separate, programmable water-jet settings for male and female bodies.

Irem Turkucu, VitrA’s product manager, explains that the VitrA model’s quietness was achieved by directing flush water in a smooth circular motion, rather than allowing it to splash about randomly generating noisy turbulence, "so the molecules are not clashing with each other." The team conducted 70 "computational fluid dynamic analyses" lasting four days each, and built about 16 different physical prototypes to achieve perfection.

But can more westerners be persuaded to spend $2,000 or more on a souped-up loo, when a luxury "standard" version costs about a quarter of the price?

Kazuki Osugi, general manager in Europe for TOTO—one of the biggest and most venerable names in Japanese toilet tech, whose NEOREST WX1 retails for in excess of £10,000—thinks so. He points out that the UK is the spiritual home of toilet innovation (rudimentary flushing versions first appeared 430 years ago, and commercial models were widely sold by the late 19th century).

"Our founder [Kazuchika Okura in 1917] came to Europe and was impressed, so our Japanese toilet really started in Europe," he says. "The toilet was invented in the UK, so we think the country that invented it might like to use our products."

TOTO’s revolutionary Tornado Flush system actively manipulates water dynamics to ensure a quiet, comprehensive clean.

TOTO says its "WASHLET"—a lavatory with a built-in bidet, first manufactured in 1980 but only released to the European market in 2009—"disrupted the industry."

"When we joined [the European market] there was no demand, or even awareness," says Osugi. Today, Washlet iterations come with all sorts of innovations, from adjustable bidet-spray cleansing patterns (oscillating, pulsating) to advanced self-cleaning photocatalytic technology. TOTO’s global smart toilet sales climbed to nearly 60 million units a year by August 2022, up from about 17 million just 20 years earlier.

Back at VitrA’s innovation centre, an ominous sign outside a side-laboratory reads "Simulated Observation Room." Here, volunteers test trial models for everything from sizing to convenience before being quizzed by behavioural scientists. No cameras, I’m assured—instead, the guinea pigs "describe their toilet experiences."

What sort of customer wants a whisper-quiet loo? The team tells me the Quantum Flush was developed partly in response to rising numbers of affluent young professionals working from home in the post-pandemic world.

I wonder if the real purpose of all this research is to allow remote workers to take calls in the bathroom, but the researchers (looking faintly horrified) explain their intention is to prevent tell-tale sloshing sounds in adjacent rooms from seeping into video meetings. No one on a Zoom call wants to hear a colleague’s loud, turbulent loo gurgling in the background, they explain.

It looks like sales of smart loos will not be going down the pan anytime soon.