subject: The Toilet Trilogy, Part II [print this page] While toilet technology and flushing efficiency have made vast strides in the last decade, the inner workings of your latrine remain pretty much the same. With that said, let's take a look at what makes your unit work in the second installment of The Toilet Trilogy.
The bowl is the water-containing receptor where you...ahem, do your business. It can be placed into two general categories: Round-frontand elongated. While round-front bowls are compact and designed to fit in smaller spaces, elongated toilets have extra room in the front for added comfort.
The tank is the fixture reservoir for flushing water. On a conventional toilet, the ballcock (or float valve), flush valve and trip lever are installed in the tank. A tank lid closes the top tank opening.
Your toilet would just be a bowl if it weren't for the tank lever. This activates the flushing of the toilet and can be put on either the left or right side of the tank, or on the top.
Believe it or not, you have a choice as to what type of toilet seatyou have. Materials used include hardwood, molded wood, plastic, polypropylene, solid plastic, ureaand wood. And, for those who crave sitting in luxury's lap, heated toilet seatsare offered by Jacuzzi, Kohlerand Toto.
The rough-inmeasurement is critical to installing the correct size toilet. These dimensions are the distance from a finished wall or floor to the center of the waste or supply opening or mounting holes. Nearly every two-piece toilet is a 12-inch rough, and most flush valve toilets are 10-inch rough.
The most significant advance in recent years when it comes to flush toilets is clearly how much water is used. As recent as the early 1990s, toilets typically used 3.0 gallons per flush (gpf). In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a bill that forced standard 3.0 gpf toilets to reduce their use to 1.6, nearly a 50 percent reduction in water usage.
In addition, the plumbing industry has adopted a program called WaterSense. Much like the lighting industry's ENERGY STARprogram, WaterSense is committed to designing products that use less energy and water, helping to save you money as well as the environment. The WaterSense program currently uses 1.28 gpf as a standard for toilets, which may soon become the industry standard if history repeats itself and WaterSense takes off like ENERGY STAR did.
As technology continues to improve, so will your water and money savings. For example, a 1.4 gpf setting option offers eco-friendly water savings of up to 2,000 gallons per year, based on usage of 10,000 gallons per year using a 1.6 gpf toilet.
In the final installment of The Toilet Trilogy, how to install you brand new toilet when you've finally chosen your new fixture.
