Hi all,
I'm new here and just had to fix our CoCo bidet seat that we have had for 2 years. I wasn't sure where to get parts so I took it apart and repaired it myself.
The upper half of the housing where the hinge dampers mount had broken where the seat hinge damper mounts. The damper had completely broken away from the housing with the screws still in it with the plastic bosses still on the screws.
I cleaned the plastic good with acetone and put some cross hatching in it for the epoxy to grip and super glued the bosses back in place. Then I applied epoxy around all the broken area and also to the cover hinge mounting bosses to reinforce all the places the hinges are screwed to.
I didn't want this to happen again and the original screws seemed a little short plus I wanted the new screws to go deeper than where the bosses had cracked. The strength of screws in plastic is derived mostly by the depth / length vs. the diameter anyway, so I wanted the longest screws possible in the repair. I couldn't locate the plastic thread cutting screws of the correct size locally. I measured them and purchased the next size larger and longer sheet metal screw (#8 x 1"). I used a dremel cut off tool to notch the threads at the end of the screws to give them a thread cutting ability like the plastic screws. Since the #8 screw was .015" larger than the original screws, I measured the minor diameter (inner) of the screws and found the #8 screws to be only .007" larger than the original screws minor diameter. So I drilled the holes out to .140" so the slightly larger diameter wouldn't stress the screw bosses internally.
I have re-assembled the bidet and put it back in service. We have been using it now for a week since the repair and it seems to be holding up just fine. Investigating the failure to see if I can keep it from repeating, I noticed that the pad closest to the failed hinge is not contacting the toilet bowl. The gap is the thickness of a penny. The rear pad on the other side is in contact with the bowl. This is allowing the weight of my fat butt to stress the hinge instead of being supported by the bowl at the seat pad. I put a shim on the bottom of that pad to take the stress off the hinge. I think this should eliminate this failure from reoccurring.
I recommend that when installing a bidet seat, that you verify the seat pads all contact the toilet bowl rim so no undue stress is placed on the hinge causing a failure like we had. I will know better on the next install. I cannot fault the design of the bidet seat, but I wish I had know to look at the pad touch points and understood the implications of a gap there. Not all toilet bowls are perfectly shaped.
I did notice that some of the damper goo was leaking out and I will need to locate a source for the dampers in time, but they are still working fine at this time. I was hoping to find parts more easily on the internet, but was unable to locate repair parts other than filters, seats, and covers. I did see a couple places offering parts but you have to call in with model numbers to see what they have. I do better with pictures and web sites...
I would think as bidet seats become more and more popular, there will be more sites offering a better selection of parts in the future.
We had been exposed to the bidet seats while on a trip to Japan. Almost ALL public toilets (hotels included) there have bidet seats, with the majority being TOTO brand, with Panasonic being a distant second. This isn't a very comprehensive survey, but just our experience.
After coming home, we searched for a bidet seat and settled on the CoCo 9500 for the feature set vs. price. These aren't common in our area, although there was one on diplay at our local Menards store. None of our friends or family had ever heard of these prior to us sharing our "bathroom humor" on the subject. Some of our sports fan friends now want them, but are holding out till the Lebron James version is marketed (this one would also toss powder up on to your tush after the blow dry is done).
Now I see that there are some other brands that are essentially the same unit with another brand name on them. I'm curious as to how many companies actually manufacture these or if several just share components, especially the plastic molded parts. I'm sure many of the internal parts are "off the shelf".
I'm new here and just had to fix our CoCo bidet seat that we have had for 2 years. I wasn't sure where to get parts so I took it apart and repaired it myself.
The upper half of the housing where the hinge dampers mount had broken where the seat hinge damper mounts. The damper had completely broken away from the housing with the screws still in it with the plastic bosses still on the screws.
I cleaned the plastic good with acetone and put some cross hatching in it for the epoxy to grip and super glued the bosses back in place. Then I applied epoxy around all the broken area and also to the cover hinge mounting bosses to reinforce all the places the hinges are screwed to.
I didn't want this to happen again and the original screws seemed a little short plus I wanted the new screws to go deeper than where the bosses had cracked. The strength of screws in plastic is derived mostly by the depth / length vs. the diameter anyway, so I wanted the longest screws possible in the repair. I couldn't locate the plastic thread cutting screws of the correct size locally. I measured them and purchased the next size larger and longer sheet metal screw (#8 x 1"). I used a dremel cut off tool to notch the threads at the end of the screws to give them a thread cutting ability like the plastic screws. Since the #8 screw was .015" larger than the original screws, I measured the minor diameter (inner) of the screws and found the #8 screws to be only .007" larger than the original screws minor diameter. So I drilled the holes out to .140" so the slightly larger diameter wouldn't stress the screw bosses internally.
I have re-assembled the bidet and put it back in service. We have been using it now for a week since the repair and it seems to be holding up just fine. Investigating the failure to see if I can keep it from repeating, I noticed that the pad closest to the failed hinge is not contacting the toilet bowl. The gap is the thickness of a penny. The rear pad on the other side is in contact with the bowl. This is allowing the weight of my fat butt to stress the hinge instead of being supported by the bowl at the seat pad. I put a shim on the bottom of that pad to take the stress off the hinge. I think this should eliminate this failure from reoccurring.
I recommend that when installing a bidet seat, that you verify the seat pads all contact the toilet bowl rim so no undue stress is placed on the hinge causing a failure like we had. I will know better on the next install. I cannot fault the design of the bidet seat, but I wish I had know to look at the pad touch points and understood the implications of a gap there. Not all toilet bowls are perfectly shaped.
I did notice that some of the damper goo was leaking out and I will need to locate a source for the dampers in time, but they are still working fine at this time. I was hoping to find parts more easily on the internet, but was unable to locate repair parts other than filters, seats, and covers. I did see a couple places offering parts but you have to call in with model numbers to see what they have. I do better with pictures and web sites...
I would think as bidet seats become more and more popular, there will be more sites offering a better selection of parts in the future.
We had been exposed to the bidet seats while on a trip to Japan. Almost ALL public toilets (hotels included) there have bidet seats, with the majority being TOTO brand, with Panasonic being a distant second. This isn't a very comprehensive survey, but just our experience.
After coming home, we searched for a bidet seat and settled on the CoCo 9500 for the feature set vs. price. These aren't common in our area, although there was one on diplay at our local Menards store. None of our friends or family had ever heard of these prior to us sharing our "bathroom humor" on the subject. Some of our sports fan friends now want them, but are holding out till the Lebron James version is marketed (this one would also toss powder up on to your tush after the blow dry is done).
Now I see that there are some other brands that are essentially the same unit with another brand name on them. I'm curious as to how many companies actually manufacture these or if several just share components, especially the plastic molded parts. I'm sure many of the internal parts are "off the shelf".
