How to make a Heated Toilet Seat + Warmers DIY Ideas

During the cold seasons and in the nights and evenings, the toilet seat can get quite cold and uncomfortable to use. It becomes quite hard especially on those with health issues or the elderly. The solution lies in heating it up allowing for an easy time when you use it.

The easy solution is simply buying a heated toilet seat. The problem with that is that such seats can cost quite handsomely if you’re looking for the good quality ones. The cheaper ones won’t be any good as they won’t last as long as you want.

If you don’t have the money to get a commercial toilet seat heater or just prefer tinkering with things to make your own, a DIY project is what you need. In about an hour, you’ll be having your own toilet seat heater having spent a few dollars on the project. Below, we show you how to do it. We have also included more ideas to warm your toilet seat using readily available household materials.

DIY Heated Toilet Seat

The Items Needed

• Foil heaters – 20.1 ohms resistance
• New toilet seat
• Epoxy
• Paint (same color as the toilet seat)
• Spray can for paint
• Circular saw
• Wires
• AC transformer at least 16Vac

The Steps

Follow the steps below:

1. On either side of the new toilet seat, attach the two foil heaters using epoxy. Attach them on the underside of the seat directly opposite to one another.
2. Wire the foil heaters in series to each other then attach the ends of the wire to a single set of wires going to the source of power. A series connection means the current will run from one end of the circuit through one foil heater then through the other foil heater such that removing one foil heater stops the whole circuit. It differs from a parallel connection whereby the connections are independent of each other. At the end of the wires, you can either have terminals or a small jack to plug in the power from a pin.
3. With the circular saw, make a groove running from one end of the foil heater to the other for the wires to nestle in. Another groove should be made for the end of the wires leading to the source of power. Make sure you use wires that are small enough such that the groove made on the seat isn’t more than 1/3 way deep.
4. Fill up the groove with the wires inside with epoxy to preserve the integrity of the toilet seat and for aesthetics’ sake. Just add enough epoxy to keep the wires in place while keeping the surface of the toilet seat flush.
5. Spray the side of the toilet seat with grooves with the paint to make it look as natural as possible. Paint even the foil heaters so that you have one clean look of the seat.
6. Fix the toilet seat on to the toilet.
7. Connect the wires from the toilet seat to the AC transformer then the transformer to the wall socket.
8. Switch it on and enjoy your heated toilet seat after about 15 minutes.

We borrowed this method from Edcheung. This setup will cost about a penny a day hence very cheap to maintain.

Homemade Toilet Seat Warmer Ideas

Beyond buying and making your own heated toilet seat, other methods you can use to have a warmer toilet seat include the following:

Wooden toilet seat

Plastic toilet seats tend to be colder than other materials. You can thus easily switch the toilet seat to a wooden one as wood preserves heat better and will thus be generally warmer than the plastic one.

Foam material on toilet seat

Padding the toilet seat with foam material will also make it warmer than the bare plastic one. It’ll even be warmer than the wooden one if done right. Besides this, there are toilet seats with fuzzy padding which makes them much warmer and better looking than the simple ones.

Toilet seat sock covers

You need large clean socks that are thick and a bit rough. You then place each sock on either side toilet seat. It’ll keep the seat warm when you use it. Beware though, this project only works when you’re the only one using the toilet as it can lead to infections spreading on to the users.

Toilet paper

Fold the toilet paper three or four times and place it on one side of the seat, ensuring that it covers one side of the oval seat. Do the same for other side.

Other simple methods you could use before sitting down on the cold seat include;

• Preheat the toilet seat by rubbing the ring for a while using your hands
• Avoid sitting on the it, squat over it like they do in some cultures