The How much water does a typical person use each day? thread got me to thinking about this again.

Not long ago we had a new water softener installed. That got me to thinking about water usage, which got me to thinking about what an incredible waste of water it was to run multiples-of-gallons through a commode just to flush what is mostly other water.

Now those of you on municipal water supplies and sanitary sewers may not give a crap, but when you're on a well and septic system you tend to think about such things.

So I got to looking at dual-flush toilets. Everything I found that was "reasonably affordable" seemed to be of questionable construction (e.g.: Plastic "chrome plated" parts where they really should be actual metal) and everything else was hideously expensive. I don't want to be pissing my money away needlessly, either on something that won't last of something that's unnecessarily costly.

Would prefer the flush controls not be on top, as I use that space for setting stuff, but I can probably work around that if I must.

Recommendations or anti-recommendations?

My parents put one in on the most use toilet five years or so ago. They are on septic. The durability and savings didn't work out and my dad re-installed the old one. Your experience may be different as that's obviously a one off.

When in Japan, Toto seems to work very well. Side flush models too. Don’t know which models and features but maybe something like this?

https://www.totousa.com/connel...gated-bowl-with-seat

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Originally posted by rocket72:
My parents put one in on the most use toilet five years or so ago. They are on septic. The durability and savings didn't work out and my dad re-installed the old one. Your experience may be different as that's obviously a one off.

Yeah, but also what I am trying to avoid. If it wouldn't be too much trouble: Can you find out what make and model they tried?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
When in Japan, Toto seems to work very well. Side flush models too. Don’t know which models and features but maybe something like this?

https://www.totousa.com/connel...gated-bowl-with-seat

$750!

That's what I meant by "hideously expensive."

Thanks for the hint, though.

Yea, hopefully there are equal or better brand/models available at a lower price.

That being said, toilets are one area where I trade money for time.

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by rocket72:
My parents put one in on the most use toilet five years or so ago. They are on septic. The durability and savings didn't work out and my dad re-installed the old one. Your experience may be different as that's obviously a one off.

Yeah, but also what I am trying to avoid. If it wouldn't be too much trouble: Can you find out what make and model they tried?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
When in Japan, Toto seems to work very well. Side flush models too. Don’t know which models and features but maybe something like this?

https://www.totousa.com/connel...gated-bowl-with-seat

$750!

That's what I meant by "hideously expensive."

Thanks for the hint, though.

My parents definitely didn't spend $750 on a toilet like that. My dad thought it was an american standard but he said he wasn't sure and deleted that episode from his files

Maybe one of those buy once cry once decisions? Unless $750 results in perpetual crying.

If you are on septic and haven't heard "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down," then you live under a rock.

An option not discussed is adding 1 or 2 bricks to the tank. The water use goes down for all flushes, and the coat of new equipment is less than $5.

I put a dual flush converter on in the toilet that is the highest use by far in the house when the old standard flush system in the tank gave up the ghost. We have hard water and it's well, hard on tank internals, flappers etc.

Dual Dump Valve Link

Picked up a dual flush unit at Lowes Depot, it works well, easy to install, no need to buy a $750 unit, $30 will do the trick and give you the reduced water use you're after.

The only thing that has gone wrong is the handle which is a dual unit that replaces the stock handle broke internally after a couple of years, then again it is the highest use unit.

Can't comment on how much it's reduced use because our water bill isn't going to reflect the minor reduction in total water flow per piss. Theres no real way to measure this stuff.

OTOH you could just pee in one toilet all day/week and flush once a day or week or only flush when you dump and achieve the same objective...

Maybe install one of the no flush urinals, although I've heard they really don't do well, and stink like a highway gas station pisser...

I did not replace the toilet. The local Ace Hardware store stocks a dual-flush valve that replaces the flush valve in a standard toilet.

I think it was somewhere around twenty bucks.

Both the low flush setting and the full flush can be adjusted independently.

Pee in the yard.

Install an RV toilet. Then you can flush as big/long or as small/short as you wish. Can even control the amount of clean water that refills the bowl...lots or little.

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
If you are on septic and haven't heard "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down," then you live under a rock.

An option not discussed is adding 1 or 2 bricks to the tank. The water use goes down for all flushes, and the coat of new equipment is less than $5.

bricks work, if you have a float on an arm, you can also bend the arm to stop the valve at a lower water level

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
If you are on septic and haven't heard "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down," then you live under a rock.

We do that when we're on the generator, but SWMBO won't tolerate it as a regular habit. Stains the bowl and smells bad, she says.

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
An option not discussed is adding 1 or 2 bricks to the tank. The water use goes down for all flushes, and the coat of new equipment is less than $5.

It was discussed in the referenced "water per person" thread. Repeating my response there: 1. A couple of bricks won't lower the tank volume much. 2. Lowering the tank volume on an older toilet may produce problems with flushing... uhm... "heavier loads." 3. And even lower-volume tanks still use way more water than necessary to flush urine--which is essentially water. (I believe dual-flush toilets use only 1½ ga. for urine flushes.)

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
I put a dual flush converter on in the toilet that is the highest use by far in the house when the old standard flush system in the tank gave up the ghost. We have hard water and it's well, hard on tank internals, flappers etc.

Dual Dump Valve Link

Picked up a dual flush unit at Lowes Depot, it works well, easy to install, no need to buy a $750 unit, $30 will do the trick and give you the reduced water use you're after.

I did not know those existed. I'll look into it. Thanks! (V-Tail noted also.)

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
If you are on septic and haven't heard "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down," then you live under a rock.

My friend’s well dried up. He has to have his water delivered to a storage tank. To save water, he installed a urinal in the bathroom.

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
If you are on septic and haven't heard "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown flush it down," then you live under a rock.

We do that when we're on the generator, but SWMBO won't tolerate it as a regular habit. Stains the bowl and smells bad, she says.

You have an electric toilet in your home??

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You have an electric toilet in your home??

The pump to refill the shitter is electric.

As far as a recommendation goes, I really liked this toilet:

Toto

I put a very similar one into a bathroom at my old house that was on septic and well water. I liked it so much, I ended up replacing all of the other toilets with it.

I have a Sam's club special no name dual flush. I had to replace the flush valve after a couple years.

Alternatively, I have a Toto Drake II. It actually uses very little water and will flush a brick. Price was manageable and the quality is fantastic.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Not long ago we had a new water softener installed. That got me to thinking about water usage, which got me to thinking about what an incredible waste of water it was to run multiples-of-gallons through a commode just to flush what is mostly other water.

The water you flush down the toilet goes straight back down into the earth. The loss to evaporation is close to zero. It's really not a big deal flushing water down the toilet when it returns back to your well over time.

Is your softener salt based? How good for your system/leach field is a couple of hundred pounds of salt added to it per year? That's a lot of salt.

Dual flush is a hard no. Clients don't like them because they don't do the job, and break more than a typical toilet.

We now install the new standard in low-flow, or "high efficiency" toilets. For the most part, these are Toto, because I do higher end renovations.

In my own home, I have had one of these for several years:

American Standard Vormax

I put this in after the toilet that was here when we bought the place gave up the ghost. I like it, it does the job. Apparently American Standard was purchased by Toto's main competitor, in order to get a foothold in the US.

Without replacing the whole toilet, just make sure the seals are good, and put a brick or bricks in the tank, if adjusting the float lower isn't sufficient.

I wouldn't buy a dual flush toilet, much less install a retrofit in an existing toilet.