Stuff You Should Know - What's the most expensive toilet in the world?

Episode Date: June 12, 2008

The most expensive toilet in the world is made of solid gold and can be found in Hong Kong. Learn more about the world's most expensive toilet in this HowStuffWorks podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he was a god. Listen to The Turning Room of Mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Brought to you by Consumer Guide Automotive. We make our buying easier. Hi and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com. With me, as always, is the greatest editrix on the planet. Candice Gibson. Candice, how are you? I'm fast. Quick, Candice, tell me, what is the most expensive toilet in the world? Oh, oh, oh. Come on, three, two, one. Hang on the jewelers. It's solid gold, y'all. It is

solid gold, y'all. It is a solid gold toilet, and it's not just a solid gold toilet. It's part of this huge display, right? I have a solid gold lavatory. Right, right. And there's actually non-lavatory parts of the display, like gold budas and stuff, but far and away, the biggest tourist attraction here at Hang Fung Jewelers in Hong Kong is the solid gold lavatory, which is why it was such a surprise when Hang Fung announced early in 2008 that they were going to start melting down parts of it. And people were mad. And not just because they had to go really badly, because you can't actually use the bathroom. The toilet is for display only. Exactly. But it was just such an odd attraction. People wanted to preserve the solid gold toilet for posterity's sake. Right. So

Hang Fung actually did start melting down parts of the lavatory because the price of gold had reached $1,000. Yeah, the dollar had weakened. Thank you, subprime mortgage debacle, and gold went up. So Hang Fung decides to cash in. I mean, we're talking tens of millions of dollars for a ton of gold. Yeah. And they assured everybody, though, that the solid gold toilet was going to remain. Can't say the same for, you know, other fixtures of the lavatory, like the golden shower, the golden sink, that kind of thing. But the solid gold toilet remains. And that is the most expensive toilet in the world. Indeed. And it's a testament to luxurious bathroom retreats everywhere. It is. That's kind of a big trend right now. Indeed. It really is. And now, you know, the bathroom

used to just be another room in the house. But it really is becoming sort of a spa retreat for people. People are adding marble countertops and sunken in tubs and chandeliers in place of vanity lighting. It's huge right now. It really adds to the value of your home. You know, I actually read a study that showed that luxury bath upgrades return something like 93% of the investment, which is just ridiculous. Kitchens are like 72%. Isn't that wild? It is wild. And, you know, it's funny, Josh, because the kitchen really used to be sort of the place where people would go to gather, you know, inevitably, whenever you throw a party, people end up in the kitchen, much to the hostesses chagrin. But now, people are apparently congregating in bathrooms A, because they're big enough,

but B, because just some are that nice. Well, you know, I'm not quite sure that the guests are actually congregating there. I think they're kind of assembled there against their will. But I read at least one article, one in the Wall Street Journal, that was centered around this couple who threw an engagement party, a large one, in their bathroom. And their bathroom, like you said, it was a nice one. This one had a koi pond, fireplaces, and certainly lots of marble and all that. But these people aren't just complete wackos. I mean, this is something that's becoming a trend in America. Bathrooms are starting to step up and say, pay attention to me. Pay attention to me. And people are doing just that. People are doing just that. And they have more reason to,

with innovations like the near rest 600 toilets. This is my favorite toilet in the world. I'd like to see even more than the solid gold toilet, mainly because you can actually use this one. And this is a really, really nice little potty companion. It actually opens its lid when it senses you approaching. It warms so that your tush doesn't have to touch cold porcelain. Right. There's a, there's a cleaning stream of water, a jet of water, followed by a puff of air to dry you off. Pretty much the only thing the near rest 600 doesn't do is talk to you. Wouldn't you agree? I agree. And so you've got this great near rest toilet. What are you going to do? Put in some shrubby shower or something? No, there's plenty of other amenities too that

are available. Have you heard about this idelux shower? I have not. Dude, this thing is a stand-up shower, but it has a UV lights around it. So you actually tan while you're showering. Wow. That certainly is an upgrade from the bathrooms of your cess pits into which people used to urinate and defecate and open areas. Sure. Yeah. But I mean, what came after that? It wasn't a direct leap from cess pits to outhouses, was it? No. It couldn't have possibly been. No, trenches came next. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. And then outhouses, right? Then, yes. And then essentially the near rest 600, right? Yeah. It's pretty much the progression. It's like that picture of the evolution of man, except with bathrooms. Well, if you want to read more about the most expensive toilet in the world

and other lux bathroom fixtures, check out the article entitled, What's the most expensive toilet in the world? It's a flush. On howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he was a God. Listen to the turning room of mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move

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