Do you prefer a hard or cushy toilet seat?

Soft plastic seat, definitely. More comfortable as you say, and also adjusts to your body heat quicker. Icy cheeks are horrible!

Cushy….if its your own house it dosent really matter if its sterile its your butt

But I somehow don’t trust cushy seats as much as harder ones. Maybe it’s as you said, Erik, that they seem more sterile somehow.

I never actually gave this a conscious thought. Fun.

hate, Hate, HATE the cushy seat! For one thing, it makes you feel so fat when you sit down and the air comes out like you’re causing a flat tire on a car. Secondly, the vinyl invariable cracks and starts grabbin’ your arse when you get up. So chalk me up for HARD.

Hard, the cushy ones freak me out, I have seem some with little rips and such, and it makes me wonder how much freaking bacteria is growing in those things. They are gross, and seem like a great place to fester disease!

Our preference is a hard seat, yet easier to clean, to say the least it will last a very long time. Plus as Stratman has stated, the vinyl cracks. And who wants to take a chance of hurting a very sensitive area.

I’ll vote hard seat because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ‘cushy’ toilet seat.. maybe it’s just a US thing?

I believe that if one gets used to the “cushy” toilet seat, then one is not ready for the real world with the “hard” seats. So in order not to freak out in the real world with the “hard” seats, I think “cushy” is out.

Cushy is bad because you sit and your legs go to sleep when you get too comfortable. I like a hard seat but what about when these get cracks in them too @accrowell? They pinch!

What is really bad is when there is the carpeted toilet seat. I know they still make carpeted lids but I could swear my grandmother used to have a carpeted toilet seat. Now that is a germ-feast!

Cushy seats scare me. I’m always afraid that they will absorb whatever the past users may have gotten on them (by bad aim or similar). I can deal with the hard seat on a cold night, so that’s the way for me.

I would say a hard seat. Cushy ones are gross and seem to me like something you would fing at your grandmom’s house. Ick!

Funny. I had thought about asking this question a month ago when I had to buy a new toilet seat. I prefer wood (so hard) over resin or cushion. Cushion is kind of gross and resin just doesn’t do it for me. Wood is where it’s at.

Im all for the new wood seat, but those things don’t age very well…

Ow! Splinters!

Cushy reminds me of my grandma’s house. It’s nice but if I have to go immediately after someone, ‘warm & cushy (+ sweaty?)’ puts a frown on my face. I vote hard/sterile.

cushy is gross and sticks to you. Hard all the way.

I’m a hard-ass! So, I prefer the hard seat!

Hard wood. For all of the reasons that everyone said here. Plus squishy things freak me out. Like being in a dark room, and thinking about how dark it is. Only the dark grabs your ass.

I don’t care as long as it is clean!

I’m going to have to agree with you on that. The cushy ones are really comfy, but I would never be able to use one in a public restroom for some reason.

PS – I like that word… cushy… lol

Eww cushy ones freak me out – they stick to your skin and peel off all your butt germs, and the extra comfort seems to encourage more time on the pot…I just have better things to do than sit in my butt germs all day.

Ew, the “cushy” seat reminds me of my old old piano teacher. Her house looked like the 70’s and she had a cushy and cracked up seat. That still gives me the heebie jeebies to this day!

in addition I am pretty sure that it cushy is more expensive and needs to be replaced more often

I think we have a consensus. Cushy sucks.

toilet seats are like mattresses. depends on the sleeper or “sitter” in this case, but, terra firma is the preferred seating for me. i like the seat cold and hard. it is assurance that nobody has sat on it lately. i wouldn’t walk out the bathroom, saying, “hey thanks for keeping it warm for me.”

Yea cushy seats are good for those cold nights, but I would still go with hard seat. Maybe they can may a heated toilet seat? Theres a idea eh?

hard – soft ones stick and the vinyl makes my butt sweat

gross

Hm, what you call cushy toilet seats are something quite different from the plain plastic seats here, as I discovered by googling a bit. We don’t use those soft seats at all, but rather plastic seats which are semi-flexible (about the same thickness as a plastic bucket), which cover both the hygiene and body warmth/comfort bases. As opposed to the hard, rigid ceramic seats.

Another what-the-hell-am-I-doing-moment; Discussing toilet seats..

Hard.

Cushy sticks to your ass, cracks and peels, stains and makes that noise of air being released when you sit down.

Hard.

The cushy ones gross me out. God only knows what is left behind on those. It’s harder to tell if they are clean or not. The harder ones are a lot more easier to clean.

oops

MrJadkin.
First, use oak! It’s built to last! Secondly, I wouldn’t worry so much about the cracks as I would be about the splinters! Our oak seat is close to 7 years old and is growing smoother…

My mom came up for a visit this last weekend and we got into this EXACT discussion. I changed to a cushy seat this Spring, because I’d found myself doing a little nervous butt-wag before sitting on the frigid hard seat in the middle of winter. Our house gets so cold sometimes! The cushy seat is only good for the warmth. I agree that the air-leakage sound is a little disconcerting, it’s harder to keep clean, and I don’t know if it’s just because I went with the ultra-cheapo Wal-Mart special, but I’ve noticed the lid actually bends a little. What do they make the center out of? Cardboard? I’m afraid if I don’t sit on it just right, the whole thing will crumple.

My mom mentioned that when she was a kid (in the 40s) her dad had actually rigged up a heated toilet seat for the family. I’m going to have to set my husband to that task so we can go back to a nice hard seat.

I prefer maple wood seats. They’re hard, but not too hard. They’re cool but not cold.

I hate the cushy ones because they always let that air out when you sit down and get off. I feel like a rocket ship taking off and landing.
I prefer plastic because they’re solid but hate when they’re cold, worst feeling ever.
Agreed on the wooden! Perfect medium right there.

Cushy seats are an abomination and should be outlawed.
Wood is good.

Hard wood – plastic seats give me a cold bum when I sit on them.

My wife and I differ on this issue a bit. I prefer a cushy seat, because I am sitting on the toilet so much in a given day thanks IBS :( I will not buy a cheapo cushy seat though. I will spend between $15 and $20 for a good cushy toilet seat. Those more expensive cushy seats are made of better material, better padded, and usually more sanitary. My wife prefers the hard toilet seats, specifically the wood, because she said they are easier to clean, but I do not buy that premise. A clean seat is a clean seat, is a clean seat, regardless of the material it is constructed out of. I have seen plenty of hard seats that are very gross, to the point that I will not even sit on them, I will just go somewhere else to poop. Plastic seats, will never find a way to this house, I have been pinched once too many times from a cracked plastic seat at others’ houses, and public toilets. For me, cushy, for the misses, hard.