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.
When it’s yellow, let it mellow.
When it’s brown, flush it down.
Can anyone here tell me why we have had a huge thread about conserving water, and NOBODY has suggested that perhaps we need more reservoirs?
I believe that neither the UK nor California have built a new large reservoir in the last 30 years. If that is the case, it’s not surprising that water will run short occasionally. Since water exists in a cycle, and is never destroyed, conserving it does not make sense to me. It is continually flowing past us. All we need to do is to make enough reservoir space to hold it for an appropriate amount of time.
What we seem to be doing is starving ourselves of water, and then pretending to ourselves that making do with less is somehow good….
Go back to washing rather than showering, using only a pint or two in a bowl, and flannels etc to spread soapy water where needed and absorb off. saves lots of water. Modern idea of showering everyday, or even twice a day, is just a luxury, certainly not available in most Uk houses till 30 yrs ago…
Law of unintended consequences is a wonderful thing. When San Francisco legislated low flow toilets they got more than they bargained for:
The lack of sufficient water flow in the city’s sewer system has caused human waste to gum up the pipes rather than simply washing out according to system design. The odor of human feces has been emanating from underground, with the area near AT&T Park, home of the Major League Baseball San Francisco Giants, being particularly affected. “There’s nothing like the delightful smell of human waste on a warm summer day,” deadpanned Matt Hickman, writing for the Mother Nature Network.
Basically the low flush systems may not actually save much water, they may just move its use to a different place – sewer flushing duty. Or worse…4000 tonnes of bleach in the above case. Given the sewers in London were invented to save the city from cholera epidemics, I’d urge caution given the chance is nil of our cities paying to re-engineer the sewer systems for efficient low flow operation.
@Philip Peake
Perhaps the reason the US lags behind Europe and Australia in advanced crapper and appliance installations is that we’re still free to do pretty much what we want to instead of what some prune-faced bureaucrat decides we have to do. Obama is working on erasing what is left of that freedom, though.
I can keep fixing my thirty year old crappers for a couple bucks every ten years or so until some democrat bastard decrees I can’t any more, like I can’t replace my incandescent bulbs, any more. I’ll come to that bridge when I cross it. I’ve disassembled and repaired my twenty year old washer/dryer I don’t know how many times. I figure I’ll get another ten good years out of them. I draw the line at twenty years for vehicles, though. I don’t like having to do more than one engine rebuild. It gets boring doing it every 250,000 miles on the same engine.
As I said earlier, a high tech flusher for the crapper is eventually going to fail, probably in a mode that wastes more water than it has saved over its lifetime.
Saw some of those water free urinals at an I-10 rest area in West Texas the other day. Not sure how well that would work for number 2, though. Well, at least we’re half way to where the toilets were on the new world in “When Worlds Collide.”
Or, was it “After Worlds Collide.”
I am surprised that still today used bath water can’t be employed for flush.
Just try having someone service the stationary dry chemical fire extinguisher that’s required!
Off the top of my head, I have heard it attributed to Frank Zappa.
Your not the first to dismantle a dual flush Australian toilet to see how it works, Anthony.
Reported only very briefly in the MSM some years ago during a past Chinese Premier’s visit to Australia.
The Premier, an engineer by training, was a very long time in the toilet until his handlers got quite concerned and investigated.
And there he was with all the bits of the dual flush toilet dismantled and laying about him while he figured out just how the whole darn thing actually worked.
Good start Anthony. We’ve had these up in Canada for years. But judging from the number of jams we get with our full-flush toilets, I’m waiting until they come out with a #3 handle.
Our 22 year old house in central Victoria has dual flush toilets, fitted as original equipment. They work reasonably well with only the occasional mechanism jam. Surprising that they are relatively trouble free considering the mechanism of these things is a rather cheap “Heath Robinson” affair.
Here in Victoria we are not deficient in rainfall (although we have just come through a prolonged drought) it is more a case of state governments lacking the political will to build the necessary dams for fear of offending the inner city green voters. There has not been a significant new water catchment developed to serve the state capital, Melbourne, for more than a quarter of a century, while during that same period the population of the city has increased by more than a third. The final panic response of the State Labor Government was to have a private developer construct a large desalination plant on a very expensive 30 year “take or pay” basis. This means the state will be forced to pay for the water whether it is needed or not, in fact with the drought now broken the project has been delayed significantly due to flooding at the site.
The per litre cost of water from the desalination plant will be around six times as much as would the cost of water from a Mitchell River dam development. Preliminary studies were done for such a scheme, but a state Labor government put paid to it in 1986 by declaring a National Park over the Mitchell catchment.
I bought a couple of those at Costco in Chico about 6 months back.
I’m surprised you didn’t come across the even more efficient Australian lavatory, Anthony!
Out in the Kimberleys they have a cunning device called “the dunnee”. No water at all. A scoop of dirt and a good deep breath before you go in and you’ll be ‘right! Just watch out for the red-back.
At the other extreme, if you ever had a hankering to fly a Stealth Bomber, using a toilet in a posh Japanese hotel is the next best thing. Never did find out what the hell some of those buttons did….
I figured some parts of Australia had plenty of rain when we saw driftwood snagged 20 metres up a tree north of Mt Isa – and we weren’t in a gorge. The trouble is that delivery is very lumpy in space and time.
Since we are on rainwater tanks augmented by our own bore we’ve had dual flush toilets for ever as others have said re Aus & NZ.
How many loads of laundry do you wash every week? During the summer, I catch the rinse water for trees, garden and even grass. We’re talking about 13 gallons from each load. We have 4-5 loads per week for the two of us. Yes, it takes a few minutes to stop the washing machine, pull the hose out of the drain and put it into the large sprinkler cans but it’s worth it. Also, we have a rainbarrel. It’s near the vegetable garden. Furthermore, we have a “no flush” rule at night for #1. As we’ve gotten older, this saves 4-6 flushes each night. I have a friend in CA who puts a large kitty litter box in the middle of her shower where she stands and catches water to put in her flower beds. That saves her a couple of gallons per day. Many ways to save water if you can take the time to do it.
You’re not even safe if you stand on the seat.
The spirochaete can leap six feet.
(Sydney University grattiti seen 1961).
Let’s not forget the original waterless design. My particular favorite – http://www.economicnoise.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/OuthouseWOSTO.jpg
Urine (diluted w/water) is a valuable resource. I have proof, the ring of taller & extra-green grass around all my planted trees & shrubs.
When I married my wife, Thor the rotweiller was part of the deal. The front lawn was more accessible than the back, so that’s where he did his business. Everywhere he went #1, there was a surge in grass growth. It was only if he developed a favorite spot that the grass would burn from too much nitrogen.
Dual flush toilets are common in Canada, I am surprised they are not in the US since low flush ones are.
What is the quality of the product you describe?
Beware that early low flush toilets were often of poor hydrodynamic design, leading to plugging. Simply reducing water quantity led to a poor product.
Dual flush with original water capacity is a better idea, but there may also be better hydrodynamic designs,
aside from powered flush designs that are on the market.
You can buy these things brand new complete with the toilet for a hundred bucks at Home Depot. They Work Great. You really want to save, Brand New Phase Change technology is available in the market place which can save up to 60% (according to Oak Ridge Labs testing) in heat and cooling loads! A sImple, inexpensive, safe and completely passive energy saving device. More information is available at http://www.phasechangetechnolgies.com
This process is quite common in France, and more generally in Europe
By the way, is water saving a short – or a long term process ? I heard that in some sewage systems, due to water savings for flush, showers, and so on, heavy maintenance is needed, as there is an overall lack of water for the same load of material to be evacuated ! Water saving at individual may mean more cost at community level afterwards
Even easier & cheaper is the syphon type, which keeps the handle (keep handle held down for short flush; quick down & let go to let it syphon out a full flush).
Don’t know if they’re sold over there, or if they work with Yankee plumbing, but here’s a UK example:
http://www.tradecounterdirect.com/custom/files/products/LF00145_Delchem_Dualflush_Siphon.pdf