Well, I purchased the Dr. Mercola Soft Spray Bidet in December 2010. I installed it according to the directions - very carefully - using teflon tape around the fittings, beingcareful not to over-tighten the plastic plumbing fittings. After 2 months of use, the cheap plastic fitting that came with the kit - the "T" fitting that screws into the bottom of the toilet with an outlet that leads to the bidet - that part broke and sprayed water from the wall inlet at full pressure for over an hour...needless to say, the water flooded the bathroom, the master closet, the master bedroom, down the hallway and seeped under the walls into the 2nd bedroom.
It took 3 weeks to get the house back to "normal" and $1000 deductible for the insurance, plus my spotless insurance record is now ruined - so my premiums went up 149% - yeah, thank you Nationwide.
The worst part was that a box of artwork that I personally created over the last 20 years was damaged by the water.
I contacted Dr. Mercola's website and received an initial response offering vague information about a refund. I asked for clarification and have so far (3 weeks have gone by) received no additional contact from the customer service department.
Is there anyone else out there that has had a similar problem with this product?
Please contact me for details.
I just had this happen to me yesterday too! Fortunately ours only ran for less than half an hour, but enough to flood the upstairs and most of the garage. All upstairs carpet needs to be replaced, plus much drywall in garage!
ReplyDeleteIts interesting, when I hooked mine up initially, also following the instructions to a T, I had one of the two t-fittings that it shipped with fail when I screwed it on. I was able to install the second one without it failing and it lasted for about a month before failing yesterday on its own.
Too bad because the bidet is great, just need to replace the cheap fitting. Hope Dr. Mercola will be honorable in paying for our out of pocket expenses.
We had the same problem with major damage. Our insurance carrier had denied coverage. Did you have insurance and did you file a claim? We had bought the product in Dec 2010 with the plastic connector but did not install it until March 2012 after they had replaced the connector with metal. Had they sent us the replacement we would have used it and not had the damage.
DeleteSorry I haven't checked this site lately...I have not heard a word from that schister or the website since I asked for a refund. It has been well over a month. I honestly do not expect them to do the right thing. I have found other victims on the web complaining about Mercola's terrible customer service - especially if it is a complaint about a product. Shame on them. Now I do not trust anything coming out of that company.
ReplyDeleteI love the disclaimer on the website to buy the bidet...at least 3 warnings about flooding if not properly installed. Yeah right. More likely, they were sued by an angry customer because of the cheap fittings they use and instead of making it right, they just throw up a disclaimer. THE WORST kind of company. How much would it possibly cost them to use a quality fitting instead of cheap ones they KNOW will fail? I call it fraud and consumer abuse. It would be great if enough of us got together and were able to get some satisfaction out of Mercola for our loses.
My family spent 3 weeks sleeping on the living room floor (as opposed to a hotel, since we have dogs and cats) and the total repair costs were over $14,000. Not to mention my homeowner's insurance went up 149% because of the damage claim. Mercola Bidet uses cheap worthless fittings that render an otherwise good thing into a cheap horrible fraudulant product.
I sent you an email describing our similar problem with the bidet. Hopefully you will respond. You may know by now they have replaced the connector with a metal one. What was the date of your loss? At least your insurance company paid your claim as ours has denied ours. We will be proceeding against them. What company insured you? Did you consider suing Mercola?
DeleteSo, if I were to take the cheap fittings and go to the hardware store for better ones, would you recommend the product?
ReplyDeletei just watched a video on this bidet, posted on youtube and Mercolas webpage. it shows what looks to be a brass T connector. the video was uploaded to his youtube channel on april 6, 2011. i wonder if they improved the quality of the fittings or if it is a bit of the ol' bait and switch?
ReplyDeletehmmm... it also says in the product manual pdf on Mercolas site that the T connector is metal. i just may order it and see if he did indeed change to a better quality fitting. though reading your horror stories scared me a bit! i feel so bad for you both.
ReplyDeletedid Mercola ever speak to either of you about what happened?
This happened to me too, TWICE!!. The bidet came with two of those T connectors. Its as if they expect them to fail. To the person who asked if you could just go to the hardware store and get another fitting - the answer is no! I went to several home centers and plumbing supply stores and I could not find any combination of T connectors, adaptors or supply lines that would work. Too bad because it is otherwise a fine product.
ReplyDeleteKarrieann you are absolutely right! The video now on Dr. Mercola's website clearly shows a brass fitting that is installed at the water source. But, the old video showing the two plastic T connectors is still on YouTube. SO they did change the connector. Now will they give one!
ReplyDeleteI just called Dr. Mercola. They are sending me the new fittings no charge. I feel bad for you though Civilized. You should get an attorney and sue.
ReplyDeletefoggybottom, thank you for your input. i really have a feeling that many many many people must have had this problem. disaster!!
ReplyDeletei agree with you as well. i would be seeking payment for damages.
still debating on ordering it...
We also had carefully hand tightened the plastic t- connector and after 6 months or so of use I had turned the water off to clean the toilet and when I turned it back on the connector broke and it began flooding my bathroom. I was able to quickly turn if off and dry up the floor with towels and had no permanent damage but it was coming out fast and I'm just grateful I was there and I can imagine the damage if I hadn't been there.
ReplyDeleteWe were going to write Dr. Mercola and tell our story but about then a replacement metal connector came in the mail before we could try to replace it. I am so grateful I had not gotten around to installing this on my elderly parents toilet. I do absolutely love the product.
I would like to hear your experience with the metal connector. Thank you.
DeleteLucky you, we never received a replacement metal connector and ours also ruptured and did major damage before we discovered it. Had we received the metal connector we would have had no flood.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any experience (good or bad) with the metal connector?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI would like to hear someone's experience after installing the new metal connector, before I venture to buy the vide. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNo way should you buy this product. It doesn't matter what t-connector they supply you with, I am surprised that so many people on here were able to use the included one. What was included with my unit was a brass t-connector, but whoop-tee-do, it didn't even begin to fit. I had to take all the components to a plumbing store and they told me that there are dozens of size combinations and the one Mercola supplied was simply the smallest and the cheapest, that the Mercola company had known that it would be unlikely for whatever they included would fit and the consumer would have to go buy something else that would fit.
ReplyDeleteEven so, to fit the other Mercola components required a jury-rigging of various other attachments.
None of it made any difference however, the entire unit is nothing but "leak city" and nothing seems to stop that.
At first I followed their criminal lie of a video where the person simply installs everything by hand, no tools. I needed to force with all my might to just get my toilet's components unscrewed. Not everybody is installing this thing in a brand-new, never lived-in house. So definitely I needed crescent wrenches, and other tools in order to do this.
Next, the jigsaw puzzle of screwing things together, I ended up with seven things that had to be screwed together, which I did, only to turn on the water and ALL SEVEN of them leaked. So I realized I needed to use silicone tape to fill up the gaps in the treads (I had already had to use this when I changed the shower heads in my showers in order to stop leaks.) But silicone tape is not all that easy to use, especially on these tiny joints, down on your knees in a cramped spot underneath a toilet. You have to make sure you wind it the correct way around, not easy to figure out when the various components are upside down and backwards...again, seven different ones, in my case. And it didn't matter, once the job was done, still most of them leaked right away anyway. From consulting a plumbing forum, I have seen that even professional plumbers disagree on how to use silicone tape--such as how many times do you wrap it around? Some say once, some say twice, some say five or six times, and even then, they still recommend the "leak test"--turn it on, see if it leaks, and if it does, increase (or decrease) the number of wraps. Well, the "leak test" is maybe fine when you are dealing with only one joint, but seven of them, give me a break? After dozens of tries with this, I gave up on silicone tape...leaks just continued. So then I decided to use Rectorseal pipe thread sealant. It is a goopy liquid that you apply on the threads with a brush, and much easier to use than the silicone tape. However, it didn't matter...three of the larger joints nevertheless leaked immediately when I turned the water back on, and even tightening the joints yet another time made no difference.
At this point, I do not know what to do. Get a plumber to install it? But honestly, what can a plumber do that I didn't do already? Is it even worth the money?
The only thing I have left to say at this point is maybe there is a REASON that in Europe everywhere they have bidets as a separate unit in the bathroom. You would think that an attachment like this would be the reasonable and standard way to go, but they don't do it. Maybe now we know that the concept is actually unworkable.
We love our bidet but we put it in our business and we were closed from sat-tue and we came in Tuesday morning toa massive flood the plastic parts the use for the water supply is defective as we also had one in our home and it also flooded.I replaced parts with some stainless pieces from hone depot on one unit and so far so good, I am afraid to try the one in our business again as that was a very expensive and time consuming repair. Bill Rose
ReplyDeleteI have had mine since sometime in 2011 and it's the metal T. Never a problem and I love it...
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ReplyDeletebuy plumbing tools online
Unless you are using a real porcelain bidet toilet, your best alternative is a quality handheld bidet sprayer like www.mrbidet.ca Solid brass t-valve and you can use it to spray clean you toilet. And forget about the hot water types that require cutting into your vanity and tapping into the sink hot water line.
ReplyDeleteToilet seat types accumulate crap and the seat must be removed to clean. Time consuming, dirty job and not hygienic.
Get a Mr Bidet from www.mrbidet.ca.
Our toilet seats were loosening after buying Dr Mercola's Bidet. We used it for a couple years, (Installed by a plumber because we couldn't find the right size fittings. We recently ended up buying a bidet with a thinner plastic that fits under the toilet seat to avoid the toilet seat moving. But now we need to get another fitting that is standard size, Just to cap off the little metal fitting is impossible to find. Still looking for the right size cap if anyone knows where to get one???
ReplyDelete