Talk about will power! Nearly 70% of Americans will not defecate in a public toilet. Instead, they’ll wait until they get home. According to a survey of 2,000 Americans asked about their bathroom preferences, 69% hate going in public so much, they hold it in until they can be in the comfort of their own home. The survey was conducted in May by OnePoll for MiraLax, a laxative brand.

Interestingly, men were also more likely to wait, with 74% saying they hold it in compared to 65% of women. Most say modesty makes them hold back until they get home, but public bathroom cleanliness surely plays a role in their decision to put off the inevitable.

With that in mind, Cleana, a Boston-based startup, has launched a self-lifting toilet seat that reduces public bathroom messes. The company was founded in 2019 by CEO Kevin Tang and CFO Andy Chang, two recent Boston University graduates. The duo was dismayed when they couldn’t find a clean bathroom on campus. And they weren’t alone. Tang and Chang conducted a survey with 1,500 respondents to identify their concerns regarding public bathrooms. More than two-thirds (81%) of respondents said what worried them most was a dirty toilet seat. But at the same time, 75% of men admitted that they did not lift the toilet seat before urinating.

The solution is simple: a Cleana toilet seat. The mechanical device automatically lifts and lowers on its own without batteries. The Cleana seat also includes an antimicrobial handle and a patented time-delay mechanism which resets after usage, according to Cleana’s website. The company filed for a patent earlier this year.

“We don’t want to clean a mess, we want to prevent it,” explained Chang. “If a seat is up by default, it prevents a mess. Our technology is novel because after you pull the toilet seat down, it stays down for 40 seconds.”

Company executives introduced a prototype at the ISSA Show 2021. During the past year, the company demonstrated its toilet seat for a range of custodial teams, including Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. Other test users included the University of California at Berkeley, Logan Airport and Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. According to Chang, the Patriots facilities staff liked the injection-molded plastic design and its aesthetics.  For example, Cleana has a colored handle. According to Chang 80% of toilet users will lift the toilet if the handle is a different color than the seat itself.

“They liked how the hinge is designed, too,” recalled Chang. “Traditional hinges get loose from users’ flipping and kicking the lid. Our mechanism is on the hinge. It is very sturdy.”

The Cleana toilet seat sells for $60-80 each and will last 3-5 years, according to Chang. Specifically, the seat is said to be designed for a minimum of 100,000 uses/cycles. In contrast, standard toilet seats cost about $30-40 and only last 2-3 years. The Cleana seat replaces standard commercial seats and is compatible with all elongated toilet bowls. The product is installed with two industry-standard bolts, with no special tools required.

After walking the ISSA Show a year ago, the Cleana team will exhibit at ISSA later this month (booth 3746). The ISSA Show North America will take place October 10-13 at McCormick Place Convention Center.

And while ISSA always features an array of detergents, wipes and hard surface cleaners, Chang said his company has no plans to introduce liquid cleaning products—the focus is entirely on Cleana toilet seats.

“Our mission is to make dirty toilet seats a relic of the past,” insisted Chang. “In Japan, toilet seats look great. That’s what I want for the US.”

Sounds like Chang and his co-founders want to create a Cleana future for public restrooms everywhere.