Pre 1.6 gpf Toilets - Legal Anywhere?

[Stormin Mormon]

One repair guy I talked with says that low flow doesn't move the waste along the drain -- so you end up with drain clogs.

[Alan]

I live in Canada and detest toilets that barely flush anything like my

14 year old toilets. I can hardly wait to replace them with 1.6 gpf toilets that actually make the water go down instead of swirl around aimlessly. The 1.6 gpf toilet that I had in my previous house worked incredibly well and saved a lot of money in water bills. Sometimes the ones I have now have to be flushed three times. The water saver never needed more than one flush. It was a real toilet. The water wasters are not.

[zxcvbob]

The one I bought from Home Depot (it was their house brand; glacier something?) works *much* better than my old toilet. It flushes in one flush and I don't have to hold the handle down. The only problem with it is the water level in the bowl is lower, so you have to swish the toilet with a brush more often than the old one, if you know what I mean.

Best regards, Bob (no relation)

[Dick]

Anyone who is serious about learning of the best toilets on the market today should start here

To get right to the nitty-gritty, this report is very informative. That web site has a lot of good information as well. Dick

[Eric]

"saved a lot of money in water bills"???? Cripes how much do you flush the thing? Get serious! Eric

[Mike Dobony]

You can legally go to Canada, buy a full 3.5gpf toilet and bring it back to the US. You can also legally give them to someone else to use. The trash

1.6 gpf was a nightmare in my old house. Just didn't have enough volume to get the pipes cleared and had to clean the drains at least once a year. I wished I could have found a good 3.5 gpf toilet to install there. We were forced to install the 1.6gpf toilets in the new house and they are barely adequate. Stupid law that only affects what is sold as new in the US.

[Alan]

For most people, flushing toilets uses more water than any other household use. That was the reason for mandating low flow toilets. I think replacing my toilet in the old house cut my total water usage by a quarter. Here I am on flat rate water, so they won't pay for themselves, but I want something that flushes properly and stays cleaner.

[Stormin Mormon]

"flush once for liquids, flush twice for solids"

[Dick]

All I can say is you haven't tried the latest generation of 1.6 toilets, like the Toto. The first time I flushed one I couldn't believe how it sucked the bowl down. No swirling around with these babies. They get the job done.

[Alan]

In my experience, the opposite is true. The 1.6 gpf toilets require one flush while the old ones need two or three. Maybe the first low flow toilets were not well designed, but in the last few years they far outperform the water wasters.

[William W. Plummer]

That is hard to believe. How much does a washing machine load use? How many loads does a family of four use in a week? How many length showers does the household take? And what about standing by the sink with the water running?

But the bigger issue is why people think household use somehow destroys water. It doesn't. In fact putting water out to a septic field is _returning it to the natural environment_. Evaporation, cloud formation, precipitation, collection and distribution can happen again. It is perfect recycling.

In fact there is _no shortage of water on Earth_. Fossil fuel combustion is creating more water as a by-product all the time. You might have an issue with where the water is, but the solution is more pipelines and tankers (or towing icebergs!), but stopping use is the way you create deserts.

The trouble is, anyone with "a good idea" can call himself an "environmentalist." There are no standards, no professional groups, no licenses, no degrees.

[yaofengchen]

You must live on the east coast as I do. These so called water saving gadgets are a necessity for the west coast people. They are forced down our throat by the federal government. It takes the industry a few years to get the water saving toilet to work right. I am not the only one who has to ditch at least one water saving toilet when it is mandated by the fed but the toilet manufacturer did not went back to the drawing board to re-engineer it. But I think the water saving toilet is a good idea, after being re-engineered of course.

Historically the east coast has never had shortage of water. The occassional drought does not count. LA for example, is practically built in a desert.

[Brian O]

If you're having to clean out the drains once a year, then the drain is the problem, not the toilet. These toilets have been standard for some time now, and I've yet to live in a house where they are not adequate. B

[Duane Bozarth]

" [e-mail]" wrote: ...

And who's at fault for that? :)

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Our American Standard Champions need flushing only once, whether for liquid or for solids. OTOH, our old water-wasting large-volume toilets often needed to be flushed two (or even three) times to get rid of solid waste.

Perce

On 03/03/05 08:31 am Stormin Mormon tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

[Alan]

I agree wholeheartedly.

[The Enigmatic One]

Erm...it sounds like you need to adjust your toilet.

-Tim

[Joe S]

Erm...S.O.P. for my 20 year old Kohler 'low-flush'. No adjustment available (other than replacement) will make a good flush. However, if you've got a suggestion, I'm willing to give it a try.

[Jack Sandweiss]

LA IS built on a desert by the sea. I just left that warzone after 45 years for the great northwest.

jack

[Alan]

There's probably a float on the flapper chain if yours is like the Kohler I had, that can be adjusted if you don't want to hold down the handle for two seconds when needed (most of the time it isn't).