Toilets account for approx. 30% of water used indoors. By installing a Dual Flush toilet you can save between 40% and 70% of drinking water being flushed down the toilet, depending how old the toilet is you are going to replace.

 

If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I would highly recommend a Caroma Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. On an average of 5 uses a day (4 liquid/ 1 solid) a Caroma Dual Flush toilet uses an average of 0.96 gallons per flush. The new Sydney Smart uses only 1.28 and 0.8 gpf, that is an average of 0.89 gallons per flush. This is the lowest water consumption of any toilet available in the US. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several toilet rebate programs available in the US. Please visit my blog http://pottygirl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-you-should-know-about-toilets/  to learn more or go to http://www.caromausa.com to learn where you can find Caroma toilets locally. Visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see how we flush potatoes with 0.8 gallons of water, meant for liquids only. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli

Of course, you can also go the waterless route with composting toilets if you are serious about saving water.

 

It would be nice if toilet parts were better standardized for installation and repair. You also have to watch for the too frequent flushers: those people who flush the toilet almost obsessive compulsively when there is really no need for a flush. Removing useless flushes combined with low water usage toilets would greatly help water consumption.

 

On the municiple end, I would like to see toilet water segregated into a seperate system so it does not mix with industrial run off and other waste so the toilet water could be better processed for landscape fertilizers.

One of the things we found in a big-box hardware store:  A lot of the 6-litre flush toilets use a flapper with a hole in the side of it, to allow the air to bubble out so it closes in about one second.  These are for the older designs of toilet with a 13-litre tank, converted to 6-litre consumption.  However, none of our aftermarket suppliers could furnish us with the 6-litre flapper.  The flappers all have a hole in the bottom, so it closes only when the tank is empty. 

Thus, if you replace the flapper on your old 6-litre toilet, you may inadvertently convert it back to a 13-litre.

Keep tabs on this the easy way.  Time the run of the toilet refill from pulling the chain until the ballcock stops filling it.  If you have to change the flapper, time before and time after.  My new six-litre runs 20 seconds.  My old 13-converted-to-6 ran 24 seconds, but the entire plumbing system has been changed since then.  (It was not far off 6L).  My uncle's 1911 pull-chain ran 75.

Oh, and if you let the yellow sit long enough, it will stain the porcelain, leading to harsh chemicals being flushed into the water table.

Keith
Edited by jiquay - 9/18/09 at 7:49am

how 'bout this--simple and easy. "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." it has always seemed a waste to me to use even .8 of a gallon of water to get rid of 1/2 cup (or less) of pee. of course, flush for company or other monthly issues. you may have to wipe the underside of the toilet seat more often but this saves SO MUCH water. if you're easy on the tissue, you can get as many as 4 or so uses before each flush (just don't clog up your toilet-this may seem obvious but if this saves 1 overflow, it's all good). i've been doing it for years.

p.s it is advisable to flush b4 pooping. otherwise combining the previous paper in the bowl w/ the newly added ingredients can make a bulky, hard to flush down clump. may not be a bad idea to know where your plunger is when starting this practice. this post may seem like a lot of info for a simple act but these are the lessons i have learned.......

Edited by devkeunescats - 9/17/09 at 7:07am

Sorry bout that! I use the toilet, I flush the toilet. I have no intention of letting it urine sit there waiting for some magic number.  

What's surprising is that no-one has mentioned the time-tested use of bottles in the water tank.  We have one old (pink) toilet; it's from the 50's, and matches the sink and tub (the type of bathroom which can disgust until you learn to embrace the novelty of it).  Through trial and error, we figured out how many (filled with water) wine bottles to stick in the tank for an adequate flush; I believe we have at least 5 bottles in the pink tank. 

It's a trick I read sometime during the 80's when I first moved away from home.

The other toilet in the house is a (more) modern unit, with 3 bottles in the tank.

And yes, the duration for filling the tanks is now definitely under 20 seconds; when we moved in, it was well over a minute each.

hey russ!

no one said you have to do it this way. what ever floats your boat, ya know?

i keep a bucket under the a/c condensation  tube and on humid days, can catch up to 3-4 gallons a day-depending on how much the a/c is on.  i use this water for watering my plants and lawn. it is also less water i have to pump out of my well, saving elec.

In our renovations, we bought the American Standard FloWise Dual Flush toilet.  What a piece of crap that turned out to be!  It has two buttons on the tank lid, for a 3-litre or 6-litre flush.  The bowl is shaped like a cone, small-side down.  There is a postage-stamp-sized puddle of water in the bottom of it.  Now my girlfriend had no problems with it, but shall we say as I sat on the interface, my outlet port was not properly aligned with the little puddle in the bottom, and I left streaks on the side of the bowl.  It was not 3-litre/6-litre, but more like 3-litre/36-litre, because I had to push the button six times to get it clean.  After a week, while I was tempted to take a sledge-hammer to it, I removed it and returned it to Home Depot.  "No sir, I'm sorry, we cannot accept returns on a used toilet for sanitary reasons."  After arguing an hour with them, threatening to call head office or the local news, because I had spent $250 for a poorly designed piece of garbage, and showing photos of what it did and didn't do (the manager proposing to give me a brush so I could sweep it out.  "Would you accept having to clean your toilet 28 times a week?")  they agreed to give me a toilet of equal value, an AS Triumph Cadet 3.  Good little crapper, and I am happy with it.