Readers of WUWT know that while I have my doubts about the magnitude of AGW and express skepticism and sometimes outright disdain for certain green schemes and products, some of which work about as well as the photo at left, I’ll push a good idea when I see it.
Readers have also seen when I embrace and recommend practical products, especially when the save energy and resources and can pay for themselves. This is one of those products.
Last year when I was touring Australia, I marveled at a simple piece of engineering designed to save water, something obviously necessary in Australia as weather/rainfall patterns differ. It was a simple case of “necessity was the mother of invention”. Living in California, that also has water problems (but not this year) I thought to myself, it would be a great thing to bring back to the USA. Unfortunately I had not the time or resources to develop it myself.
What was this that had me so intrigued? Well, to tell you the truth, I found myself taking apart a toilet in a hotel room in Emerald and photographing the workings. Why? Read on.
Where I live in Chico, California, we depend on ground water wells. Unfortunately, the water table has steadily dropped over the last 150 years as the town has grown, and even though there are years of upticks in recharge, the overall trend is down. Water saving plans that have been suggested include the ubiquitous “brick or water bottles in the toilet tank” suggestion as seen below.
But, given that California hasn’t built any new water storage facilities in 30+ years, the suggestions ring hollow.
What I found in Emerald Australia (and all over Australia I later found) is now available here, and not only saves water, but money too. It’s a win-win. I looked for this product for over a year and when I found it this month on Amazon.com I bought one, installed it and tried it myself, and I’m more than pleased with the result, hence my recommendation.
What is it? A retrofit dual flush system for toilet tanks. Low flow for #1, Full flow for #2.
Yeah I know, it’s hard to get excited about that, except when you do the math and realize how much water and money you are flushing down the toilet needlessly each day. Here in California they get you coming and going. Water use and sewer use, plus loads of taxes and tiers if you go beyond expected usage. Besides watering lawns and taking showers, there’s very little else where water use can be conserved . The toilet is an obvious choice since it gets heavy use.
The problem with the old flush toilet is the mechanism, which is a “one flush fits all” design that hasn’t much changed in the last 100 years. Here’s a typical toilet tank setup.
Note the red flapper, that’s where this new product fits in.
In a nutshell, here’s how it works:
- The flapper is removed, the handle and chain are removed
- A new all-in-one float valve unit is attached to the flapper post and seated onto the flapper seal.
- A new two button flush button replaces the handle, and a remote cable (like an emergency brake cable) goes to the new all-in-one float valve unit.
Install takes under 10 minutes, no tools required, and it works as advertised. The design for retrofit is dirt simple. After getting the first one, and seeing how well it worked, I bought three more for my home and office.
Here’s a pictorial of what it looks like:
Here’s a video from the company about it. There a bit of sensationalism in the imagery, but otherwise it is accurate based on my experience with the product.
Here’s the product flyer:
The kit is pretty simple, and assembles without any need for tools. Pictorial instructions in English and Spanish are provided.
Price? Less than $20, and at that price it will pay for itself in a few months, depending on usage. This system is guaranteed for five years, so I’m pretty sure I’ll not only get my investment back, but a significant return on it. Plus, my kids like it and they were fascinated watching dad replace this thing and now having a pushbutton 1/2 instead of a handle.
Want one? Available here at Amazon Get it, highly recommended.
These things are common in Britain (the east side of which is a dry country).
Made in the UK by Fluidmaster. I’ve had one for several years now and the product can be found in most DIY outlets. What I don’t understand is how it works, how does the ‘dial amount’ function on the flap valve? All I know is that it just works very well.
Qquite surprised to learh that this is a novelty in the States. Not only have they been around for years in Australia but they are compulsory for new installations.
I have one of these new fangled water saving toilets. It works just fine except for one thing…I have to flush 2 or 3 times to clear the bowl. Not a success.
Until he number 2 button breaks and your left pushing the number 1 button until number 2 disappears.
In Oz before the dual flush we also had a saying:
If its yellow let it mellow
If its brown flush it down
I grew up on tank supplied water and given the sometimes less than drenching rain you can get you make do with less as usual. The dual flush has been in Australia since the 70s I believe (it wasn’t until I moved out of home in the 90s that I had a home with one though). There are also those that have hand basins on top of the toilet so you wash your hands after using the toilet and refil the cistern while you are at it… dual use, dual flush toilets!
The problem I have found is not how much water is used in a flush, but the design of bowls which leave a “dead” area in the middle of the bowl where water merely rotates like a ball and anything caught there does not get flushed away. I am exasperated at the number of times I have used toilets and when I flush having to wait and watch a ball of paper go round and round and round and not go anywhere. This requires several flushes or the application of a bucket of water down the bowl.
You can have all the clever technology in the world, but if the water does not flush the effluence away, what is the point?
This is very common in Austria, Germany and the former Yugoslavia. I did not realize how easy it was to change, though.
Thanks, Anthony, I will buy some for my house, as I am flush with cash right now…
ouch….
I have one in UK but my very young children can no longer use the flush because it takes a huge amount of finger pressure, so I give it a fail.
I can’t believe you haven’t heard of these in the USA. These are common in normal toilet seats in Finland, two buttons on top for different amounts of water. No need for any DIY stuff.
Well, that’s a sight better than that California motto, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” Who thought that one up? A man? His wife probably just loved him for that one, as she probably got stuck with cleaning the never clean toilet bowl.
My dual flush toilet was installed in 1998 and I havent had to take the lid off my cistern yet and i have 4 people using it daily…I’d say they are quite reliable.
Anthony – it’s a good idea if used correctly. Problems do arise when you see that a number 1 flush can remove a number two! Solids NEED a much larger volume of water to travel down the sewer and not stop – leading to blockages in the future and the services of a plumber.
Yeah, these things are commonplace in the UK. Must admit, I always just use the larger flush. The smaller one seems a bit wimpy, and I don’t want my bathroom stinking of urine. Maybe this fear is unfounded?
What a lovely thread to read whilst eating my breakfast.
Versions I have seen work on the syphon principle and just have an extra vent hole in the side of the unit to break the syphon earlier when short flush is selected.
Amusing, is it not?
Swathes of green legislation are proposed but simple devices that actually work are for the most part ignored.
Not that we should ever really suffer from a shortage of water in rainy England, even in the crowded South East where I live.
I would however like to mention that these devices (although not necessarily the brand you are showing, with which I am unfamiliar) are frequently quite fragile compared with the sturdy copper float and brass fittings I grew up with…or better still the now vanishing mighty clanking cast iron overhead masterpieces devised by the great Thos.Crapper.
Technology and foresight ought to be able to bring us over-abundant supplies of clean water by now.
Pretty much all new toilets in the UK have dual flush capability. Not sure if the mechanism is the same in all, but very similar.
Have these in my loos in France.
Note: over (not very long) time the O ring at the bottom of the flush mechanism can allow water to leak away – imperceptibly at first and defeating the object of the installation.
We recently redid our bathroom and spent an awful lot of time sitting on toilets in shops. Unfortunately, as soon as you start looking, you realise that some idiot (in Brussels no doubt) has decreed that all new toilets will be “narrow throat” designs. Without putting too fine a point on it, these are far more likely to block that the tranditional wider mouth U bend with a smooth interior and a large flush.
Eventually, we decided that our original 1960s toilet was perfectly up to the job … although I could never persuade my wife to replace the toilet seat with a blue LED illuminated device …. !!
RECYCLING
Whilst on the throne … I once applied for a job at a sewerage plant and was fortunate enough to get a tour around the plant. What struck me was that despite the huge amount of heavy equipment, they were a large exported of electricity. Apparently all that waste was a huge contributor to “renewables”.
So, ever since I’ve got into the habit of throwing lots and lots of food waste into the loo on the basis that (assuming our local sewerage plant also has the sense to generate electricity from waste), the food would do a lot more good composting at the sewerage plant and producing electricity, than composting in our garden and … producing worms and flies.
Now, I’ve absolutely no authority for suggesting that food waste should be flushed down the loo … but it clearly does make sense … and must be the simplest way possible to recycle. I SUPPOSE IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE BASIC LAW OF “GREENWASH” …. THE SEWERAGE COMPANIES HAVE A MONOPOLY AND SEE WASTE AS A HASSLE …. AND NO ONE ELSE CAN MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT …. SO AS NO ONE MAKES MONEY THERE’S NO COMPANY THERE TO TELL US THAT IT’S “GREEN”!
Our modern European toilet at home has an even simpler mechanism: Push to flush, push to stop.
We’ve had those in Germany for many years and except some really old installations, a “save water” option is standard in our toilets. Seems America is pretty good at ignoring certain issues. As you said, there are actually good “green” inventions.
France has had them for a long time certainly before les britanniques. We get long periods without any rain at all and a lot of our water comes from the rivers. Where I live in SW France the soil is a clay-sand mix which seriously damages pumps trying to lift water from the nappe. They do have a tendency to fail regularly although mine have been good fro some 9 years.
Australia not only has compulsory dual flush cisterns but now a government mandated bowl swilling system.
The flushing system has been designed to flush the bowls in a Whirlpool” effect.
Many high rise building managements in an effort to “appear” to have green credentials are now using “no flush” urinals. (of course the laws of unintended consequences have been in action and sewage systems that rely on a designed amount of water flow are causing problems with the reduced flushing).
AGW proponents are fully alive and kicking in all Australian levels of government. (As is Agenda 21).
And as an aside. Australia has plenty of water, it’s just badly mismanaged and distributed
Blocked pipe is what I ended up with after installing a dual flush toilet(it was the cheapest available,so that may have made a difference)I just use the heaviest flush now,as the light flush does not clear everything away.I think I use more water now,as I quite often have to flush after others have used the toilet.
Mm, OK, but you’ll use less water and if you are charged via a meter reading your water bills will drop. Maybe not so good for the water companies. Here in Germany I can’t recall seeing a single-flush toilet since many years. But then our water is supplied by the city council who have an interest in conserving the resource.