Kohler explains how the Purefresh toilet seat works in this promotional diagram on the company’s website.

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Forget the matches, the scented candles and the aerosol spray. Kohler Co. is tackling malodorous bathroom air at the toilet seat itself.

The Wisconsin company, which describes itself as dedicated to "gracious living," has introduced a solution to a less-than-graceful, and occasionally embarrassing, social situation.

Kohler's new Purefresh seat wafts away the unpleasant odors that so often accompany toilet use, replacing them with "a light, clean scent," the company says.

And all you have to do is sit down.

Perch on the Purefresh, and you set in motion a series of air-purifying events. A built-in, battery-powered fan kicks on, sucking air from the bowl and pushing it through a carbon filter.

Then the already-freshened air is ushered over an optional scent pack — choices include "Garden Waterfall," "Avocado Spa" and "Soft and Fresh Laundry" — before being evacuated into the general atmosphere.

It's one more step in evolving toilet-seat technology that already has brought us slow-close lids, bun-warming thrones and, earlier this year for Kohler, LED fittings that emit a soft blue glow to guide a sleepy user to the proper spot — and provide a "task light" for the work at hand.

The idea: Get customers to pay a little more money to get a better bathroom experience.

"We want to drive the consumer up that scale from an experience standpoint, because that is obviously one of the missions of Kohler and the gracious living," said Jerry Bougher, the firm's marketing manager for toilet seats.

The roots of the Purefresh project lie in the market studies that Kohler, a $6 billion company with 30,000 worldwide employees involved in everything from making plumbing equipment to running top-end golf courses, conducts regularly.

"We did a lot of research, and one of the attributes we got out of it was people were looking for some way to, you know — deodorize," Bougher said. "Obviously, you're in the bathroom. You're sitting on a toilet seat. We all kind of have a tendency to know what's going on at that point."

The concept isn't new. Patents for incorporating odor removal into toilet seats date at least as far back as the 1960s.

Other companies have plunged into the waters, including San Francisco-based Brondell Inc., which introduced the "Breeza" in 2007, but pulled the plug on it four years later. Manufacturing costs proved too high and sales too low, Brondell president Steve Scheer said.

But Brondell includes deodorizing features on its flagship bidet seat, the $599 Swash 1000. Kohler's bidet seats have the deodorizing equipment too.

Kohler put the Purefresh through engineering tests for battery and filter life. But the most important trial, the smell test, was necessarily subjective.

"We don't have a test, that I'm aware of...an empirical test, for that," Bougher said.

So the judgment on Purefresh's odor-eliminating capacity was left to the noses of Kohler employees.

"We actually do field tests where we have, internally, we have a number of people who would use the seat," Bougher said. "We would require them to install the seat, use the seat, and then give us periodic feedback."

Of course, some noses are more sensitive than others, some bathrooms are bigger than others, and some situations are more challenging than others.

But Bougher, for his part, pronounces the Purefresh an odor-eating success.

"I have this seat in my house," he said, "and absolutely love it." As do his wife and their 4-year-old son, who particularly likes the built-in night light.

The Purefresh, with nightlight and slow-close seat, will cost you about $120 — pricier than a conventional seat but a lot less expensive than the ultra-high-end Numi toilet that Kohler unveiled three years ago.

You're on your own for the batteries, though. They're not included.