OT: American toilets!

[Matty F]

That doesn't matter when the toilet is in a shed down in the garden like mine!

[Dave Liquorice]

Or China. Inside a building rows of three sided 4' block built stalls, a 6" wide channel through the middle with water running through it. Doors? Naw...

[Huge]

At least one toilet I went in in China dispensed with the stalls. It was just a strip of concrete with a 6" hole every 3 or 4 feet, liberally littered with turds. I suddenly lost the desire to "go".

[Tim Watts]

On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:00:06 +0100, "Dave Liquorice" wibbled:

Water?...

More like a cesspool in the countryside.

[Dave Liquorice]

stalls,

Cesspool? Direct feed into the paddy field...

[Jim K]

cue hysteria about cholera etc :>)

Jim K

[Owain]

Never mind the cholera, think of the B Vitamins!

Owain

[Tim Watts]

On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:57:24 -0700, Owain wibbled:

It's organic farming, you heathens!

;->

[Jules Richardson]

Yep, all the ones I've seen here are like that. The tank on ours fills up really quickly. Internals are very basic, although as someone mentioned the flapper valves do wear out (or scale up; I've had to descale ours twice in the last couple of years.

I always assumed it was so folk can't get up to no good in there - plus if someone faints, has a heart attack etc. they'll likely end up on the floor and be spotted.

I remember those in the UK 20-odd years ago; often half of them had been broken by miscreants.

cheers

Jules

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

Oh aye, I know that not all Americans live as they might believe they have the right to, but you have to admit the country as a whole does appear to be rather impressive. I sell a fair few items on Ebay all around the world and the invention of Google Streetview allows me to go and look at where my buyers live - it seems that, generally speaking, the Americans live quite nicely, as do the Aussies. American companies also seem to provide everything that anybody could ever want, up to and including XXXL versions too.

Si

[Steve Walker]

I used to feel uncomfortable on the French ferries, as there was frequently a woman cleaning the toilets when you were there. Then I thought sod it, the French aren't bothered, why should I be. Stage two was the campsite with the urinals around the *outside* of the toilet block - again no bother once you can get past your British predjudices.

SteveW

[Clot]

Snap; many years ago(1980s), I flew into Brussels and was needing a pee but there was the lady too close for comfort and I couldn't. Spent an uncomfortable time in the taxi to the hotel!

2003, in Beijing providing advice on infrastructure before the Olympics, I went up the Great Wall one Sunday. It was immediately after the SARs issue and Westerners were of particular interest. It could have been Snowdon on a busy summer Sunday. Me, in my 50s, bald and what was left was silver white, I was "venerated" and a magnet. I went into a tower that was obviously designated for the purpose from the aroma as one approached. Fathoming out how to use the facility was a problem. After cheking no others were approaching, I aimed where seemed appropriate and made a quick exit!

[sm_jamieson]

I seem to remember Brits live in some of the smallest houses in the "developed" world. The typical front room in a 1930 semi would be the size of a US walk-in closet! I liked the story (not sure if on this group) of an exec who rolled up at his house with some US colleagues, and one says "how come your house has two front doors ?". It was a pair of semis of course ! How mortifying (in those circles anyway). Bloke said he would never live in a non-detached house again. The shame !! Simon.

[John]

She is there to see if you wash your hands - if you don't she follows you back and tells the rest of your group.

(That would be a good idea - have you ever seen someone come out of a crapper and not wash their hands - in a supermarket bog! Makes you worry what they might touch - after the door handle of course) Some people are really dirty bastards. I can't understand why people don't want to wash their hands when they get a chance - even handling coins makes then stink.

[Tinkerer]

I know a number of maisonettes where all cold water appliances (i.e. taps and toilet) are mains fed. The only storage tank is a small header for the immersion heated hot water cylinder - they are a combined unit.

[Bob Eager]

That's because: (a) Americans wouldn't be able to get in there otherwise (b) their clothes have to be bigger!

.-)

[John]

Whilst the flush cistern will be mains fed - the actual flush is from this cistern. US toilets use mains pressure directly to flush - via a "Sloane Valve"

>

[Bruce]

I think you missed the point.

In the USA, some toilets flush directly from the mains. For the avoidance of doubt, that does not mean a cistern that is filled from the mains then flushes the toilet. It means that the toilet is flushed with water directly from the mains.

[Andy Dingley]

They do in the UK too. Try a high-budget new-build office from the '90s.

More recent-builds though might have gone to a grey-water flush system, because capitalism cares so deeply about the environment.

At least one bank building in the City has mains(?) whitewater flush for the Masters' of the Universe private bog, with the "aesthetically less pleasing" greywater flush restricted to the back office minions. Naturally the assumption is that it's the Lawson trickle-down theory in action, and we guessed where the grey(sic) water was coming from...

[Andy Dingley]

Americans aren't that big.

I was in Cardiff and Weston Super Mare at the w/e 8-(

(Day trip on the paddle steamer Waverley - great day out as it happens, but Oh! the munters and the Bristol Channel manatees)