Evolution of the Toilet
Its time to start to appreciate the toilet for the amazing role it plays in our lives and our bathrooms, as we begin to research what we buy when choosing this amazing plumbing machine. There are now water conserving bowls and flushing technologies that surpass more wasteful products from years back.The bathroom toilet, no matter how much we deny or ignore it - is a prominent part of our lives and our homes. We may tuck it away in well decorated water closet rooms or cover it with ornatetoilet seats and accessories, but its purpose in our lives is undeniable and should be appreciated - not concealed. Consider this - the toilet is the appliance that uses the most water in your home, consuming up to 30 % or sometimes even more of all indoor household water for flushing demands. If you are planning a bathroom remodeling project you should put as much consideration into picking out the right toilet for your bathroom, as you would choosing your vanity or tile.
Aesthetically, there is a limit to how different toilets look. But then toilets don’t always serve an aesthetic purpose. It is more important to consider their technical aspects. On average we each flush the toilet about 6 or 8 times a day. Domestic toilets manufactured and used before 1994 used varying amounts of water to flush, 5 gallons or sometimes even 7 gallons per single flush. In 1994 it was mandated that all newly installed toilets had to adhere to a strict standard of 1.6 gallons per flush. Despite the official change many older houses are still using old toilet models; which adds to the amount of water being wasted while flushing.
If you have a toilet that was installed prior to 1994 that you do not want to replace, consider the do-it-yourself solution of putting a volume of something in the tank to permit less water to enter. Use a water filled bottle or container that will fit in the toilet tank without interfering with the equipment inside. Avoid using brick because this can cause the tank to crack and cause plumbing problems as it starts to disintegrate.
Make sure there is still enough water entering the tank as overdoing it can make users double flush, defeating the earlier point all together. If on the other hand, you are looking to replace that old toilet with something newer and more efficient you may be surprised by the variety of models available for purchase. When the 1.6 gallons/flush toilets were first required by the government, toilet manufacturers were caught off guard. They simply had not prepared toilets that could meet this standard and flush away in a satisfactory manner. Now some years down the line, enough research and innovative design has been achieved that toilet manufacturers are proudly presenting their products to the public. The most common toilet technologies used today are: dual flush system (1.6 liter for solid flush or 0.8 liter for liquid flush), gravity toilet, pressure assisted toilet and the flush-o-meter toilet. The gravity toilet is the most common and also tends to be the most inexpensive while the flush-o-meter toilet is mostly used for commercial purposes.
Sticking to a residential theme, these are the main differences between the gravity and pressure assistedtoilets: in a gravity toilet water sits in a tank until flushed, when it is released through a flapper valve and propelled by gravity to wash down the standing water, carrying along anything in the bowl. In a pressure assisted toilet, the water released when flushing occurs does not exit the tank under the force of gravity, rather the water is pushed out with the help of a pressurized tank inside the actual toilet tank, washing down the contents of the bowl under pressure, with more force and velocity, as well as noise. Both systems work well (although as with anything there are different reviews by brand) and have improved on the performance of the toilet in general since the initial complaints about the first 1.6 gallons per flush toilets.
