Our bathroom is an important place we spend a significant amount of time in at home: some estimate a cumulative time of over 2 years of our entire lives in that one room!
It’s almost a sacred place if you think about it. It’s where we ready ourselves for the world and the day ahead of us, make sure we look just right, and the bathroom even serves as a place of respite where we can escape from the world (or others in the house) for a few moments, whether just on the toilet, or having a relaxing bath or shower.
So, it only makes sense to do what we can to make our time there more enjoyable. And with how technology has worked its way into all aspects of our lives, it’s no surprise there are now a wide range of innovative bathroom gadgets intended for the bathroom that can do just that.
Let’s take a look at some new tech that can enhance our daily bathroom time. From fancy scales to luxury shower controls, these gadgets will have you looking forward to your next bathroom escape!
1. Bathroom Speakers
Music in the bathroom can be peaceful and help you relax in the bath or shower after a long, stressful day. It can be upbeat and help you get awake and motivated while you’re getting ready in the morning. Or it could even be a time you get to be alone to listen to , talk radio, podcasts, or audiobooks if that’s your thing.
While you could try to listen to it from your phone’s speaker or with some earbuds, imagine how much more enjoyable and satisfying it would be to have your favorite music filling the entire bathroom, even in the shower, from high-quality speakers.
Homewerks Bath Fan with Bluetooth Speaker
This bathroom exhaust fan from Homewerks will connect to your phone or computer via bluetooth and features a high-quality speaker that will fill your bathroom with clear, crisp stereo sound. It also includes an LED white light & a blue night light.
With a 4.3 out of 5 rating and many five star reviews from buyers saying it’s fantastic, and that they love it, this looks like it could a great addition to your bathroom for less than $200.
Kohler Moxie
…or you can have a speaker dedicated solely to your shower. This product from Kohler integrates the bluetooth speaker directly into their showerhead.
With the Kohler Moxie showerhead, you can sync your smart device via Bluetooth with its wireless speaker. And you device can stay connected up to 32 feet away. A magnet docks the speaker securely in place in the middle of the showerhead, and you can pop the speaker in and out of the showerhead for easy recharging of its built-in lithium-ion battery. Once charged, you can expect about 7 hours of play time, and it will play wirelessly wherever you set it, whether it’s docked in the showerhead or not.
As you can see below, it has three finishes to choose from; oil-rubbed bronze, polished chrome, and brushed nickel…
iFox Bluetooth Shower Speaker
This bluetooth shower speaker is much like the Kohler Moxie, but the more small-budget-friendly version. At less than $50, this can make a nice addition to your bathroom, bringing music into your shower time. It has great reviews and a 4.5 out of 5 rating from previous buyers, and boasts a 1-year money-back guarantee. It’s 100% waterproof, submersible, connects with your phone or tablet via 4.1v Bluetooth, and lasts up to 10 hours of playing time between charges.
2. Fancy Toilets
Let’s talk about the potty…you may think, “What could really be done to enhance one’s time on toilet?!”
…Surprisingly, quite a lot!
From night lights to bluetooth speakers, from heated seats to remote controls, or bidets to automated flushing, the modern toilet can have quite a number of features that make it stand apart from the traditional porcelain throne.
Bidets & Super Toilets
At the time of writing this, with the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the world, Americans have strangely found store shelves empty where the toilet paper normally should be. In a case like this, it makes the idea of a bidet a lot more enticing. What has mostly been a European and Asian “thing”, is now finally catching momentum and acceptance in the USA, mostly thanks to this deadly virus and the “Great TP Shortage of 2020.”
But we needn’t a catastrophe like that to make us want to use a toilet with a built-in personal hygiene tool of water jets and air drying. Many long-time bidet users claim each use leaves them feeling cleaner and happier than when they used old-fashioned TP.
Searching for bidets, you’ll find an entire spectrum of options, depending on your budget, from bidet seats that attach to your existing toilet…
…to standard bidet porcelain fixtures…
…all the way up to “super toilets” that have built-in bidet function along with a whole list of other bells & whistles. This model from Woodbridge boasts features like remote control, heated seat, bidet washing hygiene with multiple wash & pressure choices, heated water, automatic deodorizer, automatic flushing, and automated seat opening & closing…
3. Bring on the Heat
If you live in a northern climate and have ever entered the bathroom on a frigid winter morning, you know first-hand the shock that can come from walking on a cold tile floor, or sitting on the toilet seat!
Thanks to quite a few heated products available today, those feelings of discomfort can be a distant memory!
Towel warmers
Electric towel warmers are fantastic fixtures to consider adding to your bathroom. They not only keep your towels warm for that “fresh out of the dryer” feeling that is so comforting after a shower, but also help dry out your towels in between uses. If this is something you want to get even more options on, we have an article here reviewing many of the best towel warmers on the market.
Heated floors
Products such as this “Ditra Heat Kit” from Schluter give you all the pieces you need to heat your floors and eliminate freezing your feet as you walk barefoot into the bathroom. Included is an electric cable you weave back and forth through a plastic grid/honeycombed mat, attached to a thermostat. The cable heats up beneath the flooring material and the heat radiates up through to the surface you walk on.
Heated toilet seats
We mentioned fancy toilets above, but it’s worth repeating, you can buy seats that fit onto your existing toilet that heat up, saving your bum from that initial shock of a cold seat.
4. Vanity Mirrors
You can make that clunky, outdated, boring old medicine cabinet a thing of the past and bring yourself squarely into the 21st century with one of several great “smart mirrors” on the market today.
With features like built-in TV, Bluetooth connection to smart devices, high-quality speakers, and LED backlighting, these pieces of technology can really improve your time in front of the mirror each morning.
Kohler Verdera Voice Activated Mirrors
Available in various size combinations of 30″ or 33″ High, by 20″, 24″, 34″, & 40″ Wide, and constructed of anodized aluminum, these smart mirrors by Kohler offer voice activated lighting & sound controls. Powered by Amazon’s Alexa, you can speak to the mirror to have lights turned on/off, brightness adjusted, listen to daily weather, news, or your favorite music while getting ready for the day.
They have a sleek, minimalist design, and bright LED lighting (but also dimmable) that will coordinate with a wide variety of design styles. Inside the mirrored medicine cabinets, they offer ample storage space with adjustable shelves, and even have a built in magnifying mirror that pulls out and adjusts up and down. Kohler has really thought of everything with their Verdera model, including other cool features:
- Soft-close hinges to keep the mirror doors from slamming
- An optional exposed shelf for storing items you want to access quickly & regularly
- Mirrored or custom wood color/type variations for the sides of the cabinet – if you’re surface mounting the cabinet – to match any room & design (can also be installed recessed)
- Built-in electrical outlet for running your small bathroom appliances
Philips Hue Adore
Another smart lighted mirror available on the market today, this model by Philips integrates with the rest of their “Hue” line of smart lighting products for all throughout your home. You can control the lighting with your voice, and it coordinates with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant.
5. Digital Shower Controls
Why have a boring, simple knob or lever to turn on your shower, when you could make a shower experience fun with digital smart controls? Here is another area where you can go basic or go absolutely nuts with a high-tech shower experience, depending on your budget, taste, and preference…
Kohler DTV Custom Shower Interface
Starting at the lower end of what’s available in digital controls for showers, this model brings together four elements – water, steam, lighting, and music. With the interface, you can design your shower however you like, customizing your dream shower with components including rainheads, body sprays, and spa-like hydrotherapy, or speakers, steam, and chromatherapy.
It has a digital interface with easy-to-read configurable color touchscreen, and can control shower outlets, audio input, chromatherapy, steam, and lighting. It’s got six user-definable presets for saving your favorite settings, so each person who showers can simply choose their preset option to have the shower just the way they like it.
This control kit includes pre-programmed temperature and hydrotherapy programs for spa-like showering experiences, taking your showering experience to a whole new level of relaxation and rejuvenation.
Moen ioDigital
This product from Moen has many of the same features as the last one from Kohler, but a few more bells and whistles, better reviews, and perhaps better styling to fit your preference.
Hansgrohe Rainbrain Thermostatic Electronic Shower Trim Set
Another step up yet, this electronic shower “Rainbrain” control set from Hansgrohe, will deliver a luxury shower experience. Again, it has many of the same bells & whistles as before, but Hansgrohe is a brand known for high quality and innovation in the industry, so you’re getting quality for the added money.
6. Shower Heads
Forget a boring, simple, cookie-cutter shower head. Today, shower head manufacturers offer models with various water flows, designs, colors, styles, and fancy features to make your options truly endless.
For the most luxurious showering experience, you may want to consider rainfall shower heads that drench you with a soothing & soft, yet voluminous flow of water from overhead. There are so many options here, that we have several entire articles dedicated to helping you pick out a great rainfall shower head for your bathroom, whether you want the basic kind of rain shower head, a ceiling mounted model, or a rainfall head and handheld wand combo,
WaterHawk Smart Rain Shower Head with Water Usage and Temperature LED Display
Forget stepping into a too cold or too hot shower, with this showerhead you’ll know what the temperature of the shower stream is before getting wet, from the built-in thermometer and digital display. It has a water-powered LED display, which means no batteries are required to operate. After the water is off for 10 minutes, the display clears for the next shower usage. The digital display of real-time water usage and temperature alternates back and forth during shower use, and different colors indicate different temperatures.
7. Premium Smart Scales
With the way we track just about everything from Apps on our smart phones these days, why not track your weight & overall health too? There are tons of quite popular health & fitness Apps today, and these Smart Scales integrate with many of the most common ones, helping you stay on track with your weight & fitness goals.
Fitbit Aria
Fitbit is, of course, already very well-known for their wristbands that track steps, heartbeat, and other health & fitness metrics. Now they have a smart scale that connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth, and integrates with their Fitbit App, and automatically connects to help you track & log your weight, lean mass, BMI, and body fat percentage.
Withings Smart Body Analyzer
The #1 selling smart scale in the U.S., this model integrates with Apple Watch plus more than 100 of the top health and fitness Apps, including Apple Health, Fitbit, and Google Fit. It automatically synchronizes data from every weigh-in, via WiFi, to your smart device.
GreaterGoods Smart Scale
This smart scale from Greater Goods is much like the last two, but the most budget-friendly model, coming in at about $50.
You may also be interested in…
We’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg reviewing these fun tech gadgets that can improve your bathroom time. Here at Tile Shower DIY, we’ve reviewed many of the best products available on the market, and we urge you to check those out as well:
- All About Delta In2Ition Shower Heads
- Buyer’s Guide to the Best Folding Shower Seats
- Your Guide to the Best Teak Shower Benches
- A Buyer’s Guide to the Best Wall-Mounted Electric & Hydronic Towel Warmers
- The Best Luxury Shower Heads
- The Best Tile-Ready Shower Pans
- Your Guide to the Best Combination Rain Shower Heads & Handheld Wands
- Choosing the Best Shower Panel System to Create a Spa-Like Shower
