Seattle’s automatic toilets have found a new home in Lewis County. Butch Behn, who owns a race track between Tenino and Grand Mound, paid $12,549 for the toilets, which cost Seattle $5 million.
Here he is (photo from the Lewis County Chronicle). Doesn’t he look happy?
From the Lewis County Chronicle:
At the press of a button, the 100-square-foot room cleans itself, flushes and opens for the user. A pre-recorded voice chimes on when the doors close, telling the user they have 10 minutes to use the facility, at which point the doors will open automatically and the toilet will flush again.
The voice still welcomes the user to the city of Seattle, a minor problem Behn wants to fix.
… Behn’s son Nick said the 6.5-ton facilities may even be worth more in scrap metal than what they paid on eBay. Regardless, he said, there’s something luxurious about them.
“Everybody’s gotta take a dump in a million dollar toilet,” Nick said.
Did I mention there’s video?
Why did Seattle get rid of the toilets originally?
Hmmn, he looks like he is feeling one pixel high…
So Seattle’s vision was that if you’re having major gastronomic imprudence and you use one of these things, after 10 minutes the door just opens and you’re sitting there holding onto the toilet seat for dear life?
There was no way of giving the machine $5 to keep the door closed for another 5 – 10 minutes?
Wow. I’m glad I didn’t have to welcome these robot overlords.
@3 If your BMs are taking more than 10 minutes to complete, you probably should know better than to leave the house.
Paris has these and I think they give you less time to do your business.
I think these things should be outfitted with ejector seats. That shoot a volley of toilet paper rolls at anyone left sitting after the time limit expires.
shelby@1: they turned out to be junkie/crack-whore magnets. More proof, basically, that Americans can never have nice things.
Good investment.
The South Sound Speedway is in southern Thurston County.
Seeing “The Comical” cited on Slog was unnerving. I grew up in the awfulness of Centralia, delivering that damned paper for many years.
@4 – I have to assume that you have never had an out-of-nowhere diarrhea attack, in which case you should consider yourself a very, very lucky person.
I also remember the automatic toilets in Paris being slimmer, but of course everything in this country is double-wide.
@9 I will be looking out for that, Ekey.
When the city council was debating the purchase of these extravagant toilets, people warned them they would be misused by druggies and prostitutes. This was ignored. Enormous sums of tax money was spent anyway. Every time I hear about these things I imagine hundred dollar bills getting flushed.
Proof that Americans will buy anything if it’s a bargain.
Further proof that the government will buy anything no matter the price.
The toilets in Paris aren’t free. I bet a nominal fee (25 cents) for using these would’ve cut down on the drug activity, but Nickels and the City Council are too big of dumbasses to figure that out.
@4
Either your stomach is made of iron or you are unadventurous in your culinary selections.
Anyone who’s ever had a gastro-intestinal implosion out in public can at least be glad it didn’t happen to you on the freeway while stuck in rush hour traffic.
@14 Not shitting you here (ha!), but I actually have IBS. But who doesn’t, right?
Still.. never had a situation where I had to sit on a toilet for more than 10 minutes. Now, hovering over a toilet to vomit.. maybe.
@13 I didn’t know the ones in Seattle were free! Congrats to the tards who made that decision.
The toilets in Paris are more like 1 Euro 50.
It’s too bad Seattle got rid of these. I used to live in Switzerland, and these free automatic toilets were abundant in my city. They got around the drug user-magnetism effect by having blue lights installed, which help make it harder for intravenous drug users to shoot up. I can’t believe this option wasn’t considered by Seattle….
Lewis County is an appropriate place for toilets to come to rest. It’s bizarrely infested with the majority of the flaming knuckle-dragging right-wingers in western Washington. It’s one of the reddest counties in the state (and ironically enough, has been one of the largest users of public monies over the last few years, owing to flooding).
Of course he’s happy – he’s got two super-bitchin’ high-tech outhouses to make up for the one rundown shitter he used to have.
Dude, Shelby… I would so trade my IBS for your IBS. I would be terrified to use one of these if I was having an episode.
Also, some people have disabilities that make them take longer to use the restroom. It seems horribly cruel to open the doors automatically based on some idea of normative pooping times that doesn’t really apply to everyone. Not that it really matters, though- just another thing that makes this a huge waste of money for the city.
They’re all over San Francisco. I used one. They’re pretty great if you have no alternative.
I never got a chance to use one of those. The one time I was down on the waterfront and needed to go, there was a homeless guy camped out in there with his backpack and bicycle. When I pushed the button to open the door he said, “Hey!” and stood there glaring at me as though I was trespassing on his property. I left rather than start a fight about who gets dominion of the automatic toilet.
The Paris ones were originally 40 cents but are now free. I dunno why they changed it.
a haiku
inscribed in a Paris outhouse:
Here I sit,
all brokenhearted.
Paid 1 Euro 50 to shit,
but only farted.
Actually the Seattle winos would ride out the self cleaning session and get a free shower out of the deal.
@13 & 16 State law makes it illegal to charge for restroom use. Mayor Schell tried to offset the costs by selling advertising in/on them but the council didn’t think we should subject dopers and hookers to the ads. Trojan probably would have covered the entire bill!
@ ECB … the toilets didn’t cost $1M each, that’s what the purchase and maintenance/service contracts worked out to…. given that they were maintained 3+ times per day and had serious service issues that’s not a huge surprise. I’m guessing that within a few races the new owners are going to figure out why the city was paying a premium.