Brondell Swash Thinline CL2200 review: A slender bidet seat

Like the concept of a bidet bathroom seat however postpone by the clunky look of most fashions? Among the many slimmest bidet seats to hit the market, the Brondell Swash Thinline CL2200 may be your ticket to rest room paradise.

A potent performer from Brondell, a Mark Cuban-backed producer of family home equipment, the CL2200 boasts high-end options at a middle-of-the-pack value level. 

Usually talking, most bidets have a thicker-than-normal seat, often because of the obligatory heating parts and weight sensors (to forestall water from spritzing when nobody’s sitting on them) to not point out the stepped-up field construction on the rear (which generally hides a number of extending/retracting spray nozzle). Then there are the water heater and heat air-drying mechanisms, plus the side-mount management panel and/or a wi-fi distant. 

How slim is the Brondell Thinline CL2200?

In distinction, the CL2200 ($699.99 on Brondell’s web site, or $499.99 for Costco members) is simply 3.9 inches tall at its highest (rear) spot, whereas on the entrance lip (with the lid down) it’s a mere one-inch tall. Each symbolize a half-inch discount from what used to be the thinnest heating/washing/drying bidet seats round: the now discontinued and far-pricier Toto Washlet s300e/s350e sequence seats.

This Brondell additionally affords a thinner profile than a brand new “extremely slim” rival–the Alpha UX Pearl–which measures 4.5-inches on the rear and 1.5-inches on the entrance with the lid down. I haven’t on condition that mannequin a glance, however I’m accustomed to the bulkier Alpha JX (now itemizing at $399) that lives in my basement powder room.

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

Shut comparability of the Swash Thinline CL2200 with my Toto and Alpha seats reveals how Brondell pulled off the downsizing. 

The curved again part of the CL2200 seat is way shorter and shallower than the entrance of the seat. This foreshortening opens up extra horizontal house throughout the identical general (spherical or elongated) seat size to then flatten and prolong the washing/drying/management parts inside a again compartment, which seems virtually flush with the rear lip of the seat. 

This re-allocation of house makes for a sleeker, extra built-in look, whereas permitting customers to extra readily shift their hindquarters backwards to straddle each platform zones.

On the draw back, the Brondell’s less-defined seat form isn’t as useful on the subject of guiding customers to an optimized candy spot for the wash and dry mechanisms to focus on. With the extra curvaceous and barely extra comfy bucket-seats present in my Toto and Alpha bidets, a consumer extra readily lands and locks into correct place. However with observe, correct sitting on the Brondell seat turns into (virtually) second nature.

How is the Swash Thinline CL2200’s distant?

A wider than regular vary of devoted perform buttons on the entrance face of the distant management is one other distinction I’ve loved with this Brondell in comparison with my Toto. 

Water stress, nozzle place and drying temperature might be shifted up/down in 5 settings with both “Rear” or “Entrance” washing modes engaged. Water and seat temperature buttons supply three warmth stage choices, plus “off.” A separate “Light” management, which triggers an automated two-minute wash and two-minute dry cycle, affords a straightforward (however possibly a tad too lengthy) introduction for cautious first-time customers. 

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

There’s additionally a separate “Sturdy” water spewing button choice–with spray or pulse modes–that narrows and intensifies the stream.

Don’t need to cope with the distant? A touch-sensitive panel on the facet of the seat enables you to begin and cease water move with a swipe and faucet. However there’s no triggering air drying right here.

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

How do you put in the Brondell Thinline CL2200?

Whereas some house restore jobs confound me, putting in the Brondell bidet is a relative snap, as long as you’ve a GFCI (floor fault circuit interrupting) energy outlet put in inside vary of the unit’s three-foot energy line. 

First, you flip off the water on the valve behind the bathroom and unbolt/take away the outdated seat. You then unscrew the water flex line that’s linked to your bathroom tank consumption and exchange it with the equipped two-way “T” valve. Doing so will will let you reinstall the incoming water line plus a second bypass line that diverts water to the Brondell seat for heating and squirting.

Jonathan Takiff/Foundry

Virtually as straightforward, a base meeting plate will get affixed to the seat holes in the bathroom bowl rim and adjusted ahead/backward as wanted. Slide on the bidet seat till it clicks into locked place, screw on the bidet’s versatile water pipe to the T-connection, and re-open the water valve. Lastly, plug within the AC energy line and also you’re good to go. 

One final phrase of warning: Be sure that to have batteries already put in within the distant once you energy up the seat for the primary time, because the Brondell Swash Thinline CL2200 is pre-programmed to search for and hyperlink with the distant management when first energized.  

Is the Brondell Thinline CL2200 definitely worth the money?

Whereas most bidet seats are massive, cumbersome, and intimidating for first-time customers, the slim, trim, and easy-to-use Brondell Thinline CL2200 is a unique animal.

So discreet in styling and funky in performance you received’t need to maintain it to your self, the CL2200 is a bidet seat that has transformed a number of of my guests to the trigger. It simply earns our suggestion, and it’s a strong worth, significantly for fortunate Costco members.