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A toilet seat is a hinged unit consisting of a round or oval open seat, and usually a lid, which is bolted onto the bowl of a toilet used in a sitting position (as opposed to a squat toilet). The seat can be either for a flush toilet or a dry toilet. A toilet seat consists of the seat itself, which may be contoured for the user to sit on, and the lid, which covers the toilet when it is not in use – the lid may be absent in some cases, particularly in public toilet.
Depending on the sex of the user and the type of use (urination or defecation), the seat itself may be left either up or down. The issue of whether the seat and lid should be placed in the closed position after use is a perennial topic of discussion and light humor (usually across gender lines), with it often being argued that leaving the toilet seat up is more efficient for men, while putting it down is more considerate for women. The "right answer" seems to depend on factors ranging from the location of the toilet (public or private), the population of the users (e.g., a sorority house vs a frat house), and/or personal or family values, opinions, preferences, agreements, or toiletry habits.
Toilet seats often rest not directly on the porcelain or metal body of the toilet itself, but upon the hinges and upon tabs/spacers affixed at a few spots. Similarly, lids do not rest directly in uniform contact with the seat but are elevated above it by the hinges and tabs/spacers affixed at a few spots. This is a possible area where effluent aerosols can be spread when shut.
Some seats are made of various types of wooden materials, like oak or walnut, and others are made of soft materials for added comfort. Seats with printed multi-colored designs, such as floral or newsprint, have been fashionable at times. Other designs are made of transparent plastic, encapsulating small decorative items such as or . The price of toilet seats varies quite considerably.
Decorative textile covers for the toilet seat lid have gone in and out of fashion. Advocates claim that they allow the toilet to be used as a more comfortable seat and provide another way of decorating a bathroom. At the same time, critics view them as a sanitation problem that creates unnecessary work.
Some metal toilets, such as those in many and , have built-in toilet seats that cannot be removed, so that an inmate cannot fashion it into a weapon, shield, or escape tool.
The purpose of this seat design is to prevent the genitals from contacting the seat. It also omits an area of the seat that could be contaminated with urine and avoids contact for easier wiping.
Water-heated seats were in use in royal homes in Britain in the twentieth century. The first electrically heated toilet seat was manufactured by Cyril Reginald Clayton at St Leonard's on Sea in Sussex. A UK patent was applied for on 5 January 1959, filed on 4 January 1960, and granted in August 1963 (UK patent no. 934209). The first model, the 'Deluxete', was made of fiberglass with a heating element in the lid triggered by a mercury switch that warmed the seat when the lid was down. Subsequent improvements were made, and another UK patent was applied for, this time for a deodorizing model with an integral fan on 20 May 1970. It was granted on 17 May 1972 (UK patent no. 1260402). At first marketed as the 'Deodar', this model was later sold as the 'Readywarm'. Among the early users of the 'Deluxete' was racing driver Stirling Moss. With the permission of Reginald Clayton, the electrically heated seat was further developed by the Japanese firm Matsushita. In 1993, Matt DiRoberto of Worcester, Massachusetts invented the padded toilet seat, an early 1990s fad.
While toilet seat covers give public toilet users a sense of cleanliness, studies have shown they are not needed as there are few germs on a toilet seat, and infections such as Salmonella are spread via the hands, not the buttocks.
President Ronald Reagan held a televised news conference in 1987, where he held up one of these shrouds and stated: "We didn't buy any $600 toilet seat. We bought a $600 molded plastic cover for the entire toilet system." A Pentagon spokesman, Glenn Flood, stated, "The original price we were charged was $640, not just for a toilet seat, but for the large molded plastic assembly covering the entire seat, tank, and full toilet assembly. The seat itself cost $9 and some cents.... The supplier charged too much, and we had the amount corrected.""But It Would Be Wrong" By: William Safire The San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, 10 April 1986 The president of Lockheed at the time, Lawrence Kitchen, adjusted the price to $100 each and returned $29,165. "This action is intended to put to rest an artificial issue," Kitchen stated.
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