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Importance Of A Toilet

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It’s time we began to appreciate the toilet for the amazing role it plays in our lives and our bathrooms and we began to research what we buy when choosing the commode. There are now water conserving bowls and flushing technologies that surpass more wasteful products from years back.

The toilet, no matter how much we deny or ignore it, is a prominent part of our lives and our homes. We tuck it away in well decorated rest rooms or cover it in ornate toilet seats and accessories, but its purpose in our lives is undeniable and should be appreciated, not concealed. Think about it this way: you will spend and average of 3 entire years of your life on the john. In three years you can earn a law degree and/or go through three full gestation periods (4, if you’re really dedicated), resulting in at least three new humans! And the toilet is the appliance that uses the most water in your home, consuming up to 30% of all indoor household water for flushing demands.

as toilet users we have matured enough to approach the topic of toilets without a potty mouth. If you are planning a bathroom remodeling project you should put as much consideration into picking out the right commode for your bathroom as you put into choosing your vanity or sink.

Aesthetically, there is a limit to how different toilets look. But then toilets don’t serve an aesthetic purpose. It is more important to consider their technical aspects. On average we each flush the toilet about 6 times a day. US toilets manufactured and used before 1994 used varying amounts of water to flush, 5 gallons or more per go. 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 switchover many older houses are still using their older toilets, which of course adds to the amount of water being wasted while flushing.

The incredible amount of water wasted can be addressed in many areas of our lives, an important one of which is our toilet habits. 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 point of the operation 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 presented to you. 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 excreta 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 the gravity toilet, pressure assisted toilet and the flushometer toilet. The gravity toilet is the most common and also tends to be the most inexpensive while the flushometer toilet is mostly used for commercial purposes.

Sticking to a residential theme, these are the main differences between the gravity and pressure assisted toilets: 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.

When choosing a toilet, consult a plumber, or at the very least, read some reviews of different models by different brands. It’s hard to tell what works well without using it for some time and toilets, understandably, tend to have pretty limited return policies.

Once you’ve got a commode picked out and installed, you still need to keep an eye on it to make sure that it is working properly. Maintenance is just as important for water conservation as the picking out of the actual porcelain piece. Any leaks need to be fixed right away and the toilet should not be used as an extra trashcan – bury that goldfish in the yard and throw that trash in the trashcan.