[Handy Geng] lives in Baoding, China, where average winter temperatures can get as low as −7.7 °C (18.1 °F). Rather than simply freezing in the cold when using the bathroom, he decided he could do better. Thus came about his rather unique toilet paper heating system.
The build uses a gas burner heating up a wok. Toilet paper is fed into the wok body via motorized rollers salvaged from what appears to be an old counterfeit money detector. The wok is then shaken by a second motor in order to more evenly heat the toilet paper within. The burner can then be turned off, and the lid of the wok opened in order to gain access to the toasty toilet paper.
The system heats the toilet paper to a scorching 75 °C (167 °F); a little too warm to comfortably touch, but thankfully toilet paper doesn’t have a lot of thermal mass so cools off relatively quickly. It’s also thankfully well below the auto-ignition temperature of paper of 451 °F.
It’s a noisy, clanging machine that nonetheless provides the same warmth and comfort that you’re probably more familiar with from the office photocopier. It’s not [Handy Geng]’s first bathroom hack, either. Video after the break.
Thanks to [Adam Quantrill] for the tip!
When I was a kid, in winter the toilet paper hung with the toilet seat on the wall next to the door, right beside the woodstove. You’d grab both on your way out to the outhouse. (Yes, back then we were civilized enough to have toilet paper, and nobody hoarded it.)
Has he considered installing indoor plumbing? That way when he heats his house, the toilet paper is heated as well. ;D
All kidding aside, it’s a unique solution to the problem.
Another of his recent videos has a toilet with an air compressor that would blast the toilet bowl clean.
Make you wonder where he does most of his thinking, maybe he doesn’t have a smartphone.
PS: that wasn’t in any way meant to be derogatory. I have shown my son some of his videos as he has both a great skill with metal work and quite artistic abilities. I do however have concerns for his eyesight later in life.
His mech thing really worried me tbh. It was very unstable under acceleration & braking. If/when it tips you can’t even get your hands up to protect your skull at all.
Not trying to hate on his projects! I just cringe imagining it tipping backwards and tragically whipping his wonderfully creative brain onto the concrete. I wanted to jump into the screen and strap a helmet on him.
He is definitely doing much more than I will ever do, but that mech.
It has tracks, but he put on “training wheels” to stabilize it which basically defeats the purpose of having that tracks.
And yes, the center of mass is much too high.
I understand maybe he mounted the motor high for clearance maybe, but it didn’t matter any ways since he have those training wheels.
Just use a bidet. No need for TP.
When its 7 degrees out… In an outhouse
At -8C a bidet is an ice machine.
Your bidet doesn’t use warm water? Crazy.
In Australia we just have one of our many pet kangaroos carry the toilet paper around in its pouch, this has the additional benefit of making it much harder to steal.
How do you get the roo to give it up when you need it though? Do you have to wrestle/box them for it?
Exactly, why to you think we are all so lithe and manly, even our men?
Next up: automating the use of TP.
It’s been done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1n5r4CSKIk
I remember an old German joke about a device like this, the punchline was “Papier bleibt Papier”.
Just store it in the heated part of the residence. Or inside the overalls.
Wise man uses paper for writing his thoughts. Fool uses paper for wiping his arse.
So the moral of that story is that wise men have dirty bottoms but fools don’t?
A truly wise man uses a word-processor to process his thoughts and wipes his bottom with the failed prints… but beware of the edges… they can be sharp.
When I saw the name of the article I was going to ask if it could also heat a toilet seat, after I saw he uses a gas burner I don’t want to know.
A more important problem: warming the seat.
What about warming the room…
More useful, but less fun to make or even watch a video about unfortunately. He does have the energy to make most things interesting however lol
I bet the revenue from this video will go towards something he needs though.
Pressure wash and blow dry?
That would interesting. Even more interesting would be a hi pressure body washer followed by heated body dryer. That would great!
Hack a toner fuser from a printer and have the paper fed to the roller heated in a flash. Push button, just seconds of power and warm wipe. Everything else is as cold as…
Obviously made for Youtube, like so many other Chinese ‘hacks’.
I’ve enjoyed [Handy Geng]’s exploits previously on HaD. But this one didn’t inspire me to watch the video.
Oh, decades ago, I rented a drafty farmhouse during a colder than usual Winter.
When I rented it in Spring, I noticed the pink padded toilet seat and thought it was something intended for fat women. But, later, on those cold mornings, it warmed up quickly when I sat on it.
Uh, why would that be specifically for women? Men can’t want a comfy pink toilet seat?
nRen it’s worth watching, if only for the last 15 seconds.
I always wanted toilet paper lubricator, too dry for my liking.