Best Products for Your Toilet
Liberate yourself from thin, rough toilet paper and an uncomfortable seat with our best products for the loo
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We’ve covered a fair number of toilet-related product categories here at Consumer Reports, because let’s be real: Quite a bit goes into making toilet-sitting a more comfortable experience. From the toilet itself to various accessories, like washlet bidets, toilet stools, and essentials like toilet paper, here are our best-rated bathroom accoutrements, as determined by CR experts and the extensive battery of tests we put every product through before recommending it to you.
Best Toilets
Our experts put toilets through an extensive array of tests to determine the quietest, strongest toilets that use as little water as possible. To test how well they handle solids, we flush a variety of products, including marbles, water-filled condoms, and more. We paint the interior of each toilet with water-based red paint to find out how well the flush mechanism cleans the bowl. We repeat this test with a water-soluble marker. We measure the interior of the bowl to determine how well the toilet captures odor. (The wider and deeper the bowl, the better the waste will be covered by odor-tamping water.) Finally, we test how much force the toilet uses when flushing to ensure that solid waste will actually disappear down the pipes rather than getting stuck.
The toilet that landed on top after this testing boot camp? The Gerber Viper GWS31502S. It received top scores in each evaluation, though its round shape might make it less comfortable than an oval one for some people. (The company does have an elongated version, though.) And at only about $222, it’s not a bad price, either.
If you want a toilet for less than $200, consider the Glacier Bay N2428RB/N2428T. This model, starting at $99, is exceptional at water conservation. It’s round and has a large water surface, which helps it resist stains and smells.
Best Toilet Paper
When it comes to TP, trust that we have comprehensive tests in place to separate the wheat from the chaff. We suspend a piece of paper between clamps, then press a ball through it to assess its strength. We rub toilet paper against sandpaper to determine abrasion resistance (aka how well it’ll hold up while wiping). To test how easily each TP disintegrates (which is essential for septic systems and old, sensitive plumbing), we measure how long it takes for a square of paper to disintegrate in a beaker full of swirling water. We also test each toilet paper by rubbing it against our skin to assess softness and scraping it against velvet squares to see how much lint is left behind.
Who Gives A Crap 100% Bamboo Toilet Paper
We ended up loving this bamboo option best. It’s triple-ply, nearly lint-free, and comes in cute packaging—not something you hear much about TP. It’s midrange in price. The downside (so to speak): It isn’t the softest toilet paper we’ve tried, so if that’s your primary concern, you might want to reconsider.
Charmin Ultra Soft Forever Roll
This absurdly large roll won’t last forever, but it will last an impressive length of time (even longer if you have a bidet, the best of which we’ll get into below). And it’s soft enough for the most sensitive of butts. It’s linty, though, and comes in a roll so large it needs its own specially designed TP holder.
Amazon Aware 100% Bamboo Toilet Paper
If you want a more budget-friendly toilet paper that doesn’t require its own industrial-sized holder, consider Amazon’s bamboo TP. It’s quite soft for a bamboo toilet paper, produces next to no lint, and disintegrates quickly, making it a great option for septic tanks.
Best Bidet Attachments
If you really want to keep clean, might we recommend a bidet? We got creative in the development of our tests to find the best bidet attachments. To uncover each model’s ability to clean effectively, we spread Nutella on clear plexiglass, then sprayed this simulated solid waste with water from a bidet for 30 seconds before analyzing each with a computer program that let us know how much Nutella was removed. We assessed each bidet for easy-to-use controls and quick, simple installation, too.
This bidet aced our Nutella test, confirming it’s the bidet that’ll get you the cleanest. It’s preassembled, so those lacking plumbing experience will still be able to install it without frustration. Two drawbacks: It has a heated-water function, which, while luxurious, means you need a hot-water hookup near your toilet. And it doesn’t offer the ability to adjust the spray angle.
Tushy Travel Bidet
In her review of this product, CR’s Jodhaira Rodriguez wrote that she wouldn’t leave home for the corner store without a Tushy Travel Bidet anymore. It is, for anyone who’s ever given birth before, essentially a collapsible silicone peri bottle, which you aim at your butt and squeeze for a more thorough cleaning than what you can get from TP alone.
She says it’s discrete, easy to pack, and—after a bit of practice—easy to use. But it doesn’t provide a steady stream that’s as strong as she’s used to with the traditional bidet attachment she has at home.
Best Flushable Wipes
First thing you should know about flushable wipes is that they’re not actually flushable. If you’re prepared to bin them instead of flush them, and you’re not ready for a bidet, a “flushable” wipe may be a good option. We conducted multiple tests to determine the best wipe. We used a force gauge to assess a wipe’s resistance to ripping, and we opened and closed wipe packets repeatedly to determine how well packaged and easy to dispense each wipe was. And we used each wipe to clean up a smear of honey to see how well it cleaned.
Amazon Basics Flushable Wipes
These wipes were the second-strongest in our tests (after Kirkland Signature), but they cleaned better. They were relatively easy to pull from the package but occasionally bundled up. They’re technically fragrance-free, but our testers noticed a very faint pleasant scent. Their flushability was about average.
Best Toilet Bowl Cleaners
Your butt isn’t the only thing you need to keep clean; the toilet bowl needs a good scrubbing, too. We applied a sticky mixture to porcelain plates and let it dry, then sprayed it with a toilet bowl cleaner before scrubbing with a toilet brush.
This product removed more mixture from a porcelain plate than any other in our tests, and it’s safe to use in buildings that use septic systems.
Best Toilet Stools
Maybe you’re constipated, or maybe you just want to sit more comfortably on a toilet. In either case, a toilet stool, which elevates your knees above your hips as you sit, may be an excellent addition to your regimen. We tested each stool by using them in our homes, evaluating them according to several criteria: ease of storage, ease of cleaning, how comfortable it felt under our feet, how well it fit around the toilet, and aesthetics (an admittedly subjective measure).
Squatty Potty Oslo Bamboo Folding Toilet Stool
This sleek bamboo stool looks like it belongs in a spa. It can be folded and easily hidden when not in use, and it didn’t attract pet hair the way several stools in our test did. It proved easy to clean with a microfiber cloth and a multipurpose spray, and it comes with a dust cover, perhaps an extraneous luxury, but a luxury nonetheless.
