Detailed with a recent press release on the Kohler site, the Kohler Numi toilet received a smattering of technology upgrades that will make current Numi owners unhappy that they have to upgrade their $6,000 bathroom throne. Originally release during 2011, the Numi ‘smart toilet’ sported advanced features such as illumination for dark bathrooms, vents to heat your feet, automatic lid and seat height adjustment, built-in rear speakers, a FM radio, a MP3 player connection, a retractable bidet and a touchscreen remote to control all of these fancy features.
However, the 2013 version of Kohler’s Numi toilet includes all the previously mentioned features in addition to a Bluetooth receiver to stream audio from a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, a SD card slot to listen to a specific music playlist or utilize a custom greeting when sitting down on the Numi and a USB port to allow for additional software upgrades in the future. Hypothetically, a user could stream the audio of a television show or movie through the speakers within the toilet while they were watching the video on their mobile device.
Kohler has also modified the lighting options to include seven different colors. Users can program the colors to appear on each day of the week or simply choose one of the colors to stay on all the time. Finally, Kohler added a battery back-up with this model specifically to allow users to continue using all the fancy features on the toilet after the power goes out.
When asked about the added features, Kohler senior product manager Brian Hedlund said “Consumer feedback on the Numi toilet allowed us to identify which additional upgrades were most important to users. The new enhancements will allow for better enjoyment of the functionalities.” The Numi toilet is currently listed on Kohler’s site for $6653.30 and comes in a single color; white.