Low Flow Toilets

[Canes12]

Do I have to put in a Low Flow toilet, so I can flush and flush to get the thing to work, or can something be done to improve the flush?

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James Arjuna

[Retired plbg1Participant]

The only thing wrong with those toilets is that you put in too much paper it will noy flush. Make sure water is up to mark in tank and that the flapper stays up long enough to empty tank, might need aj.

[robertgfParticipant]

get a pressure assist toilet, more money but they flush like a mother

[racefanoneParticipant]

I’ll drink to that,Robertgf.They do work little noisy though.

[roosterParticipant]

I installed one for a friend in his guest bathroom and say he used it acouple of times just for the hell of it. there quite the conversation piece. [img]null[/img]

[James_Arjuna1Participant]

Thanks. I may go with the pressure model.

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James Arjuna

[nicktheplumberParticipant]

Because of the 1.6 gallon “Federal Flush” regulation, your toilet must be engineered to work extremely efficiently. There is hardly any margin for error. In the good old days, 3.5+ gallon flushers hardly ever presented problems, even the inherently inefficient designs, such as the “wash down.”

I’m really not sure how the authorities settled on 1.6 gallons as the “optimal” flush volume, but we bonehead plumbers are stuck with it. We depend on the toilet-maker’s engineers to provide units that work under the legal constraints. Some of them do and some of them don’t. One brand that seems to always work well is the Toto, especially their G-max system. You can also go for various pressure-assisted toilets. These do flush better, but I don’t like them because they are more complex and therefore more prone to failure, eventually. Also, they are all damned noisy…

Retired Plumbing made a good observation. Many cheaper 1.6 gal flushers fail to flush well because the ball (flapper) valve closes a bit too early in the flush cycle. This can be fixed by having the homeowner take the extra effort to hold the flush lever down for a few extra seconds, to make sure the tank discharges completely during the flush.

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