MORROW, Ga., Jan. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TOTO, the world's largest plumbing manufacturer with more than $5.47 billion in annual sales, announced today that after closely monitoring the rise of the Omicron variant and increased COVID cases, the company made the difficult decision to forego its in-person presence at CES 2022. TOTO believes this is the best course of action to protect the health and safety of its employees, partners, customers, and communities.
As a result, TOTO will participate virtually in CES 2022 and has created a new dynamic digital experience to demonstrate its technologically advanced products and cutting-edge bathroom technologies that make consumers' daily lives cleaner and healthier. TOTO will also spotlight its entry into the wellness sector by showcasing its WELLNESS TOILET concept. To see and experience all the innovative ways TOTO supports people throughout their everyday lives, visit TOTO's new immersive microsite.
"An in-person presence at the Consumer Electronics Show is always TOTO's top priority," said Hidemi Ishikawa, CEO of TOTO USA. "However, after reviewing the latest data on the rapidly evolving COVID situation, we made a tough choice and moved a digital presence to protect the health and safety of our teams and larger communities." He continued, "Our new immersive interactive experience will enable people to explore and experience all the ways TOTO's revolutionary products and technologies provide clean, comfortable, healthy living and protect the planet. Visitors will also see the future with TOTO's innovative IoT technology and artificial intelligence that will enable them to monitor their wellness with every bathroom break."
CLEANOVATION®: Revolutionary Cleanliness Technologies that Ensure a Better Quality of Life
CLEANOVATION, which combines the words "clean" and "innovation," articulates TOTO's commitment to the kind of refreshing cleanliness that promotes peace of mind, beauty, and wellness through its technological innovations that provide consumers with a cleaner, better quality of life as they help protect the planet.
WASHLET®: People across the U.S. have shifted their daily ritual from wiping to washing with TOTO's WASHLET bidet seat. They have come to appreciate the many benefits of personal cleansing with water. Far superior to the paper alternative, Americans now experience a new kind of clean with WASHLET that leaves them more refreshed and confident than they have ever felt after a bathroom break.
WASHLET uses pure, clean water – and myriad technological innovations – to make consumers cleaner and more refreshed than they have ever felt. When the cleansing cycle is activated, a streamlined wand with AIR-IN WONDER-WAVE® technology extends from beneath the seat to provide a soothing warm flow of aerated water for complete cleansing. Because the water is drawn directly from the home's freshwater supply, WASHLET delivers warm, aerated water that is always clean and pure. Once the cleansing cycle is completed, users may engage the drying cycle, which uses warm air to gently dry the area, protecting the environment by reducing the need for toilet tissue.
TOTO's WASHLET bidet seats will fit most standard North American toilets. Installing WASHLET is as easy as changing the toilet seat. Consumers may refresh their bathroom with WASHLET in less than an hour and begin enjoying the cleanliness and comfort of personal cleansing with warm water.
Since its launch in 1980, TOTO has sold more than 50,000,000 WASHLET units worldwide, sparking a global revolution from wiping to washing.
WASHLET+: TOTO's innovative WASHLET+ models harmoniously connect a high-performance TOTO toilet and WASHLET+ personal cleansing unit with no visible hoses or cords. Designed for every home, WASHLET+ is the smart way to introduce the comfort and cleanliness of TOTO technology to homeowners' lives. TOTO offers a wide range of WASHLET+ models for every bathroom's décor, enabling homeowners to receive the maximum benefit of clean innovation and seamless design.
NEOREST: TOTO's NEOREST Smart Toilets offer the most innovative, design-forward array of smart toilets available with integrated WASHLET personal cleansing technology. NEOREST Smart Toilets respond to consumers' needs intuitively and luxuriously. NEOREST offers elegant designs drawn from nature, cutting-edge technology, flawless performance, and extraordinary comfort, providing an unparalleled sense of relaxation in the most comfortable and refreshing way possible.
TOTO believes that the bath space should be a relaxing, restorative place where homeowners escape daily life's stresses and their everyday bathroom rituals are transformed into enriching experiences. With NEOREST Smart Toilets, TOTO has brought its design, innovation, and exceptional performance philosophy to its most beautiful and welcoming expression.
CLEAN SYNERGY
With the need for cleanliness and hygiene at the forefront of consumers' minds, TOTO NEOREST Smart Toilets and WASHLET+ models offer advanced cleaning technologies that work synergistically to keep the toilet bowl fresh and clean at all times:
ACTILIGHT® ADVANCED CLEANING TECHNOLOGY: Available on TOTO's NEOREST NX2, NEOREST 750H, and wall-hung NEOREST AC, ACTILIGHT synergizes TOTO's CLEAN LIGHT and revolutionary titanium dioxide and zirconium bowl glaze. CLEAN LIGHT activates TOTO's proprietary glaze, generating super hydrophilic, photocatalytic power to decompose waste, dirt, and grime on the toilet bowl's surface and easily wash it away. As a result, even microscopic particles and debris are removed.
TOUCHLESS PRODUCTS: Today, more than ever before, consumers want to decrease public restroom touchpoints in airports, shopping centers, schools, offices, and other facilities where they might come into contact with infectious diseases like the coronavirus, influenza virus, or norovirus, to name but a few. With hands-free faucets, flush valves, and soap dispensers, TOTO's TOUCHLESS technology provides consumers with the confidence that their restroom experience will be clean, comfortable, and convenient.
ECOPOWER® TECHNOLOGY: TOTO's TOUCHLESS smart-sensor faucets and flush valves for toilet and urinal harness its ECOPOWER technology, which generates electricity each time water spins a small internal turbine. This electrical energy is stored in a series of capacitors to power the TOUCHLESS faucet or flush valve. There is no minimum usage requirement. TOTO's self-powered ECOPOWER hydroelectric technology generates power during use. No need for hard wiring to the building's electrical system or routine battery replacement, which is costly and hazardous to the environment.
IOT-ENABLED PRODUCTS: To provide consumers with a consistently clean, comfortable public restroom experience no matter where they travel for work or play, TOTO has launched an array of IoT-enabled products for smart, fully-connected public restrooms, which include: IoT-Enabled ECOPOWER Smart-Sensor Flush Valves for Toilets and Urinals, IoT-Enabled ECOPOWER Smart-Sensor Faucets, and IoT-Enabled Auto Soap Smart-Sensor Dispensers.
TOTO's IoT-enabled, smart-sensor products connect seamlessly with the KOLO™ Smart Monitoring System by GP PRO, a division of Georgia-Pacific, to deliver reliable, customizable, and secure monitoring and analysis of connected restroom fixtures to a dashboard that facility managers monitor via phone, tablet, or computer. For example, facility managers and their custodial staff will receive real-time updates or alerts on:
Facility managers harness this information to dramatically increase consumers' satisfaction with their public restroom experience and solve real-world business issues to manage their workforce better and make substantial cost savings in their restrooms' operation.
WELLNESS TOILET Concept
In the era of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, TOTO continues to lead the way by innovating products that harness these technologies bring consumers a better way to live. Through accelerated digital innovation and partnerships with experts worldwide, TOTO is developing a brand-new residential bathroom experience in the field of wellness – the WELLNESS TOILET concept.
TOTO's WELLNESS TOILET concept will use multiple cutting-edge sensing technologies to support consumers' wellness by tracking and analyzing their mental and physical status. Each time the individual sits on the WELLNESS TOILET, it will scan their body and key outputs, then provide recommendations to improve their wellness. No additional action is needed, so people can easily check their wellness throughout their daily routine. Every time they take a bathroom break, they will see their current wellness status and receive wellness-improvement recommendations on a dashboard in an app on their smartphones.
The residential bathroom is the perfect place to support people's wellness. While other products that track consumers' wellness (e.g., wearable devices), it is more convenient to monitor and analyze the body as a part of the everyday routine act of using the WELLNESS TOILET, to which individuals are accustomed. Second, toilets and people have two unique touchpoints that cannot be found elsewhere – the skin and human waste. The WELLNESS TOILET is in direct contact with individuals' skin when they are sitting on it, and it analyzes the waste they deposit, from which a wealth of wellness data can be collected.
TOTO anticipates launching the WELLNESS TOILET to the residential market in the next several years. The company's ongoing innovation in artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things will continue to bring consumers a better way of life.
About TOTO
TOTO USA is headquarters for the Americas Division of the TOTO Global Group, which was established in 1917 with the founding of TOTO, Ltd., in Kitakyushu, Japan. TOTO is the world's largest manufacturer of bathroom fixtures and fittings, with $5.45 billion in annual sales (as of March 2021 and its exchange rate). For more than 100 years, TOTO has been the recognized leader in innovation, technology, performance, and design with products that enhance the luxury bathroom experience. Today, the company maintains 33,800 employees in 19 countries and owns manufacturing facilities around the world in countries as diverse as Japan, Mexico, Germany, the USA, India, and China. Guided by its corporate philosophy, the TOTO Global Group strives to create a great company, trusted by people worldwide, which contributes to the betterment of society. Dedicated to engineering products that respect the environment while meeting people's needs for comfort, beauty, and performance, TOTO is the sole plumbing manufacturer to maintain a research and development center devoted to universal design, advanced science, and technology. Consumers enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing they purchased a brand that innovates to improve people's quality of life. Winner of numerous domestic and international awards and recognitions, TOTO is the only plumbing manufacturer honored as Water Efficiency Leader by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The company continues to raise industry standards and consumer expectations about what is possible in the bath space, as TOTO believes a high-quality bathroom is an experience and an everyday luxury people value and appreciate.
For more information, consumers may visit www.totousa.com or call 1.888.295.8134, Option 5. Follow TOTO on Twitter (@TOTOUSA) and Instagram (@TOTOUSA) and become a TOTO fan on Facebook.
SOURCE TOTO
