Low-Flow Toilets

[lee]

low-flow friendly

(and in my city, where we have curbside composting, they go to an anarobic digester and are turned into soil within 14days...)

[rim]

I think the topic of the thread has strayed a bit... but to get back on track I'd like to mention the 6 litre per flush Niagara Flapperless (http://www.niagaraflapperless.ca/) toilet. I've had one in my bathroom for 5 years now and I love it. It looks like a normal toilet but looks can be deceiving. By redesigning the the tank and how it functions they created a toilet that flushes better then most normal flow toilets. Additionally because they eliminated the flapper valve the toilet can't run or leak - and the tank doesn't sweat.

[majabak]

I moved to the US from New Zealand about a year ago, and until that point I had never ever seen a plunger in my entire life, and had only ever seen duel flush toilets (and long drops... but only in the mountains!).

Since moving here I've been having a continual nightmare using the loo - I have flush guilt, yet if I don't flush multiple times I can guarantee it will block.

When I ask people here about it, everyone goes on about how toilets used to work just fine, but then they switched to smaller tanks. Given that just about every single toilet I have seen in all 12 states I have visited has a plunger next to it, I'm guessing that it's reasonably common here to have blockage issues...

Does anyone know why they didn't switch to duel flush toilets (Using the principle of less when you want it, and a little more when you need it, as someone mentioned on here) instead of the worlds most useless toilets that end up using MORE water because you need to flush so many times?

If the goal is to save water why not have smaller tanks AND duel flush in one?!

[Laurel Lyon]

What we do in my house is leave water in the bathtub after showers or baths and use a bucket to flush the toilet with it. What began as a stopgap because the cistern was broken we now do from choice. It's also interesting to see how much water you use in a shower. The downside is that there is always a ring or three around the bathtub, and it's not terribly elegant anyway.

ETA: don't do this if there are toddlers in the house! You probably shouldn't even have a bucket of water standing around.

[lee]

i love that shower idea. and in case you *do* wish to be elegant and still use your pre-used water to flush insted of virgin (almost) drinkable water, there is a system you can hook up to your plumbing that will do that for you. it's called Brac Systems

[throughwire]

Eventually I am going to switch completely over to a sawdust toilet. No water consumption at all, and can be composted. It's so easy to flush everything away assuming it somehow disappears into the ether, but it's all going into the environment eventually whether you have a septic system or sewage system. Taking a flush toilet out of the household system would save an incredible amount of water annually. Problem is, I am married to a plumber by occupation, and it's a bit hard to convince him to allow the flush toilet to sit unused while we use a composting system.

Sorry I know it's off topic a bit, but something I am trying to move towards in the next few years.