automatic flushing - men's urinals

[Frank Stacey]

The local community hall is infrequently used (and used mostly by women at that). How can we minimise water usage in the men's?

I came across mention of a system which only fills the urinals' cistern when some other water is used - possibly the wash-hand basin. Can anyone point me to a spec and source of this sort of control. I am aware of the sort which uses a motion detector and only initiates filling the cistern when someone moves in the loo area. I am hoping the mechanism which I am hoping someone can recognise from my brief description might be cheaper and easier to set up.

TIA Frank Stacey

[Malcolm]

Working in a school, I think the sustem you nedd is a dual system - activated by motion sensor but also by a long term timer so that the system is flushed once every few hours even if it is not used. I have been told that it is not a good idea to leave the system not flushed for days at a time

Malcolm

[ARWadsworth]

Well only making the gents urinal flush when the wash hand basin is used certainly will save you some water! It is probably the ultimate water saving feature.

However the system you are thinking about is called Cystermiser. I believe that it operates on pressure. You will have to Google for it as have only ever fitted the PIR systems that you refered to.

Cheers

[A Plumber]

the cisternmiser lets a small amount of water, adjustable, into the cistern when there is a drop in water pressure ie when a tap is opened, and slowly fills up the cistern until it flushes. Easy to fit also.

[Onetap]

Easy to fit, but doesn't work very well IMHO. It also assumes that men will wash their hands; not necessarily true. The PIR systems are better but as stated by an other, you need a system that can flush once a day, say, if not used.

[robgraham]

".....uses a motion detector...."

What does that use - a microphone to detect the splash, etc ?

[ARWadsworth]

Some of the cistermisers have that capability.

[Peter Andrews]

I fitted one of these

in the local guide hall in 2008. Needless to say the gents urinals were under used but were flushing twice an hour 24 x 7!! The water saving was consideable and I was looking at full payback in about 12 months (except they got a grant and refitted all the toilets and no urinals about 9 months later). Battery operated and flushes once a day even if unoccupied. About an hour to fit IIRC.

Peter

[Peter Andrews]

Should have been

- cheaper!

[John]

I saw the final solution to this problem in America. They had small manually operated flush tanks over each urinal. Push button operated. But I've often thought that there's no reason not to install a WC flushing tank, there are some very small one's these days.

But it would only work if the inlet supply was slow and that blokes didn't vandalise it if it wasn't able to flush because it wasn't full. If busy they probably need flushing once per hour.

What about the waterless devices that are around?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Aston Matthews used to have a unrinal in their show room which had a washhand basin in the top. It was flushed by the basin waste. Quite clever I thought, but I've never seen one fitted anywhere.

[cynic]

A simple solenoid and programmable 7 day 1 channel c h timer to shut off the water supply into the flush tank during un-occupied periods would be my favourite. Also adjust the fill rate valve to reduce the frequency of flushes. Do however watch out for being too parsimonious as an underflushed urinal builds up urea crystals in the trap and outflow pipe and is a stinking job to clear out. Push-fit joints can be your friend in this eventuality.

[Doctor Drivel]

The simplest, and cheapest, is to have a wall push button. Screwfix sell one which can be fitted in bathrooms and toilets (IP66 rated - exterior) and set from 2 mins to 2 hours (not by the user). The push-button can operate a water solenoid valve to the cistern. A cheaper push-button can also be outside the toilet.

I would have a timer to flush the urinals once a day. Set it to 5 or 10 mins. The push-button overrides the timer.

There are user operated mechanical push buttons on each urinal, but very expensive.

[Peter Johnson]

A few years ago a local authority architect told me about a new police station that they'd been called back to, to investigate the stinking gents. Architect walks in, turns tap and urinals flush as expected but it turned out that the users did not wash their hands.

[Dave Liquorice]

Another possibly American solution (as I've only seen them in CostCo stores) is a PIR in each urinal. Flushes while you pee or do they flush when you move away. Anyway you get the idea.

[Sarotrob]

Replace the flushing mechanism with manually operated Prestex Push valves and request that users push after going. This is the usual arrangement in the States and the continent.

[Dave Osborne]

I noticed this afternoon that our local community centre has a urinal control system by these people:

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter Johnson saying something like:

Dirty pigs.

[1501]

Perhaps Hendon taught them to piss in the urinal and not on thier hands.