Custom Home Plumbing for Irrigation

[Majorkahuna]

Hello folks.

I am now a 16 year Anal Cancer survivor. I was on this site frequently in my first few years. I learned a lot and contributed what I could as well. I am about to do a total remodel of my house. The master bath is going upscale big time, giant steam shower, high end Toto toilet, etc. I have a bidet which of course no one uses. I am converting it to a toilet, but given that hot and cold water is already plumbed, I was thinking about installing some sort of irrigation fitting. I can only visualize a spigot with a water flow volume measuring device and a hose and cone.
Has anyone done anything like this? I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas.

[markstan]

I put a "tee" piece between the cold water supply and the toilet. The tee has a manual shutoff valve which goes to a stainless steel braid covered hose terminated with a garden hose type fitting. It is a simple set-up that works very well. Been using it for the past 5 yrs. The benefit of just using cold water is that it stimulates the colon to produce returns.

Mark

[Mikem]

I would recommend not ever using a direct connection to a pressurized water system. The standard water pressure for most location far exceeds the pressure generated by hanging the irrigation bag at 5-6 feet height.

I would recommend a cabinet with a hanger for the irrigation bag with permanent 1/8" hot and cold feeds with shut off valves. A mounted thermostat with remote water temp sensor. A kitchen sink spray attachment, and a high pressure water pick type attachment for help with difficult to wash out residue.

Some where is the archives are photos of what I set up and still use.

[markstan]

Apparently my last post needs clarification. When I referred to "teeing" to the toilet cold water inlet, this is for the rinsing the irrigation sleeve only. For the irrigation itself, I simply hang the bag from a coat rack with the top of the bag at 5ft from the floor. I fill the bag manually from the bathtub with body temperature water. Of course one could autofill the irrigation bag as Mike has done but the manual fill at the tub takes about 30 secs so I'm not really motivated to automate that. If you are building a new bath you could save space by putting in an irrigation bag cabinet with simply a hangar for the bag that could be filled manually elsewhere (e.g. Tub).

[ot dave]

I recently built a custom home myself. In our last house, the master bath only had one toilet. Our new house, we made 2 separate potty rooms in the master bath. Both potty rooms have their own toilet and a cabinet above the toilet for storage. This was great, because in our previous home, the wife would have to go to the kids restroom to use the toilet in the mornings when I was in there...and we all know how long we are in there when we are irrigating! The cabinet above the toilet is literally large enough to hold 6 months of ostomy supplies, so that helps keep thing organized and out of the way, and my wife has own too for her feminine needs. I kicked around the idea of installing a rinsing spigot, but decided that wasn't the way I wanted to go. It's a great idea, just not how I wanted to proceed. Also, go try out the toilet you are wanting to install. Some toilets are shorter than others, some are circular, some are oval. I wanted one that didn't make my legs "fall asleep" after sitting on it for an extended time. Plus, I wanted a tall one for when I get older and getting up off of things becomes more difficult. We also made the master bath walker and wheelchair accessible for possible future needs as well.
As far as hanging the irrigation bag....I simply installed a hook that matched the rest of the hardware in the bathroom. I was able to set it to the perfect height for my needs. I also had a window installed in my potty room, one for the ability to open it for odor reasons, and two, the ledge provides me with a shelf to place my extra water and my iPod when I put it down to refill the irrigation bag.
Who would think so much thought would ever have been needed for a potty room! Good luck with the remodel.

David

[steiconi]

Before I got ostomized, I did nightly enemas (scar tissue made my rectum too stiff to do its job). I invested in an enema kit that attaches to the shower head pipe. Stainless steel flexible hose, choice of clysters, valve thingie that lets you direct the water to the enema hose or to the shower head. It is exactly like the adapters for hand-held shower heads (it's a standard size fitting; if you already have the hand-held shower, you just need the clyster).
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002 ... detailpage is the one I have from Amazon.

I've considered using it for irrigation, but have a few reservations:
1) not sure where I would get a cone to fit. It's a screw end, maybe 3/4" across. Have to find an adapter of some sort...
2) no way to measure the volume of water infused. Would have to go by feeling of fullness.
3) no shutoff valve at the working end, would have to turn the water off at the faucet or all the way up at the shower head
4) it cuts down on water pressure in the shower. I was pretty glad to take it off and get full pressure showers again!
If I could change the tub filler spout thing to fit the hose, problems 3 & 4 would be solved; #1 is my biggest stumbling block.

I would think that some of those would also be a problem with a permanent installation. Please let us know if you find a solution!