Foot pedal to flush toilet cistern

[Matty F]

At the moment the cistern is flushed by pulling on a cord threaded through the wall. The cistern is outside on the back wall because there is no room for it inside. The cord will get somewhat unhygienic so I'd like to change it to have a foot pedal. Has anyone used a food pedal to flush a toilet? It will need to work with mud and crap on it, probably literally! It's used by some messy people and I get there only once a month to clean it.

I'm thinking of just running the cord around four pulleys, with a heavy weight to pull the cord back. It needs to be reliable and cheap, so I don't like using lots of mechanical levers, or hydraulics or electronics etc :)

[RubberBiker]

Depends what sort of budget you have. Grohe wall frame cisterns are pneumatically operated, simple flexi pipe to the pushbutton.

[Matty F]

Pneumatic is worth considering. I'd just need a rubber bulb at each end of the pipe.

[Andy Dingley]

Victorian solution to that was a chain.

[Stuart B]

Sounds a bit Heath Robinsonish...is there really no way of getting it fitted inside .even high level perhaps ....what happens in the winter with frosts ( re water inlet)?

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[Matty F]

The water never freezes. It's in northern NZ. Heath Robinson is fine - it's basically a glorified pit toilet with a flush device to wash the flap between the user and the pit!

[Tommy]

i dont like the sound of your job.

[David]

Brass chain - self-sterilising. I fact, isn't using chrome allover the place silly? If we had brass for all handrails, doorknobs etc in public buildings, wouldn't it prevent a lot of the hand-to-hand infection? Lord Rogers wouldn't be keen, but...

[Stuart B]

Sounds delightful!!!

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[Tommy]

How about connecting the cord to the flap for an automatic handsfree operation.

[Matty F]

Actually the flush is needed for the toilet paper that sits on the flap. Everything else falls through the flap just fine :)

[Matty F]

I think it looks OK:

the type of toilet is irrelevant - for hygiene reasons I'd like a foot pedal to flush the cistern. The next projects are a handbasin and a solar powered electric light.

[dennis]

How about removing the flap and using your solar power to operate an extractor fan to keep the smells going down the pan. Then you can put some sawdust down occasionally and make a composting toilet.

[Matty F]

The extractor fan would have to be very large to stop the cave wetas from coming out. I discussed all this a while ago. These are about actual size on a 17 inch monitor:

[Peter Parry]

Hinged plate on the floor with a Bowden cable to the flush mechanism. You will need to clamp the cable but a car scrap yard will probably have an old accelerator or clutch foot pedal which you could use at one end and fabricate a simple bracket at the other.

[Jules]

subterranean site in NZ, and the Wetas we used to see down there were pretty enormous. Not something you'd really want to encounter in a toilet :-)

Oh, if you want to keep it really simple, run a bit of chain from the tank to a pulley at floor level outside, then through a hole in the back wall to the stall. Anchor the chain somewhere within the stall; stepping on it should operate the flush. The pedal's far too luxurious!

cheers

Jules

[John]

[Peter Parry]

I would have thought the sight of a few of those heading for the dangly bits would actually have quite the opposite effect.

[gazz]

tie the cord to the seat, then make sure a woman goes in every so often to put the seat back down after a blokes been in, and it'll flush :)

[Owain]

Do NZ women put the seat down?

Owain