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 by Bill and Kevin Burnett, Inman News
A: We fondly remember the days of the standard 3-gallon flush toilets — one flush and the package was delivered every time. Nowadays, with 1.6-gallon models mandated and ultra-low-flush toilets available, a good plunger is required equipment for every household, office and business. Both of us have 1.6-gallon flush commodes. Kevin has three and Bill has one. None of them works all that well. Even the jet-propelled commercial toilet at Kevin’s office fails from time to time. Although it’s like riding the rocket in “Dr. Strangelove,” occasionally it doesn’t deliver the goods. We don’t see the conservation logic in flushing twice or more to empty the bowl. Perhaps we are showing our age, and we know the green folks may not approve, but we sure would like to find a throne that works at a reasonable price — even if a little extra water is needed to do so. The dual-flush toilet you discovered on your trip is a worldwide phenomenon, developed in the 1980s and mandated for use in Australia and Singapore. For some reason the concept is relatively new to North America. A dual-flush toilet is controlled by two buttons on the tank. One discharges a larger amount of water (1.6 gallons in the United States) into the bowl to flush solid waste. A second, smaller flush (0.8 gallons) is used to clear urine. The concept of using only the water you need to discharge the waste makes as much sense to us as it does to you. A recent study supports this position. According to research done by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., flushing the toilet accounts for approximately 30 percent of total residential indoor water use. In terms of water conservation, using a dual-flush toilet is a no-brainer. The Canada study showed that flush volumes were reduced by 68 percent in single-family homes. But customer satisfaction was a mixed bag with 85 percent of participants rating the dual-flush toilets either “good” or “satisfactory” for appearance, clearing solids and clearing liquids. But just 66 percent of respondents said they would definitely recommend dual-flush toilets. In the States, Caroma and Toto make and distribute dual-flush toilets. Unfortunately, when you remodeled your bath, you looked at the big-box stores for this specialty item. Home Depot and Lowe’s are great for getting standard materials and fixtures. But when you’re in search of something out of the ordinary, shop where the pros shop. In this case you should have gone to a plumbing supply house. As we’ve said before, even though these businesses cater to the trades, they are usually happy to do business with the public. A caveat here, though. Know what you want before you go in. Here you knew. You’d seen the toilet in your travels and had enough information to tell the salesman what you wanted. Another option to narrow the search is the Internet. Google “dual flush” and you’ll find links to Caroma and Toto. Check out these sites and you will find a number of models available for $300 to $600. Dual-flush toilets seem like a good idea to us. If they work without the occasional double flush, great. If not, perhaps the industry and lawmakers could compromise and increase the volume of water for the larger flush so that solid waste is consistently cleared from the bowl. What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story. Copyright 2008 Bill and Kevin Burnett
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3 Responses to “Dual-Flush Toilet Sure to Wow”
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Q: We recently returned from a vacation in France. Many toilets had two flush buttons — one for a small flush and one for a full flush. I thought they were a great idea, as they save water and, when needed, actually clean the bowl; the lack of cleaning action is a common complaint with many water-conserving toilets.I recently remodeled and could not find any similar toilets at Home Depot or Lowe’s. I ended up with something that was satisfactory, but I was disappointed. Are there any dual-flush toilets being manufactured or sold in the United States? 
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[...] Inman News Praise to our readers, they’ve done it again. Last week we wrote about dual-flush, water-conserving toilets when, after returning from a trip to France, a reader questioned why she could not find a [...]
[...] Telltale Signs Water Heater, Furnace Will Soon Die by Kevin and Bill Burnett, Inman News Q: After reading your column on noisy water heaters I was left with a question that has been worrying me since I was widowed and no longer able to depend on my husband to know such things. The issue that sparked my attention was your estimated life span of water heaters as determined by their warranties.I know my furnace was new, and I think the water heater was too, when I purchased this house in 1973. I am haunted by the idea of one of them suddenly breaking down, but also would hate to replace an appliance that I have found to be so reliable. Are there estimated life spans for such things? Or warning signs of demise? If so, what are they? Somehow furnaces and water heaters are much more mysterious to me than my kitchen appliances. A: Let’s do the math. Installed in 1973, your furnace and water heater are 35 years old. The water heater rivals Methuselah for longevity. The furnace is a ripe old age. Even though they are senior citizens, we don’t recommend rushing out and replacing these venerable stalwarts without doing a little investigation — “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”We recommend that you do two things. First, give Pacific Gas & Electric a call and ask them to send a service person out to inspect the water heater and the furnace. This will be a safety inspection. The service person will make sure these appliances are operating safely. If not, they will be “red tagged,” and you’ll either get them fixed or replaced.Second, if the furnace is functional, have it serviced. This will extend its life.Realize, though, that your water heater, especially, is on its last legs. The good news is that you can run it till it dies, then replace it in relatively short order. The estimated life of a gas water heater is about 15 years. That you’ve gotten two times that is incredible.Water heaters usually give up the ghost by springing a leak at the bottom of the tank. Hopefully, the appliance is in a garage where the leak can be contained. If not, consider replacing it before it leaks. As part of the replacement process have a drain pan installed, if there isn’t one already. A drain pan is a shallow metal pan that the water heater sits in with a drain hole with a pipe in the bottom directed to the outside of the house. The two biggest things that go wrong with furnaces are a cracked heat exchanger and — if it’s a forced-air unit — a blower motor that quits. A heat exchanger takes the heat produced by burning natural gas and transfers it to the duct work for distribution throughout the house. What usually makes heat exchangers inoperative is a hole or a crack that allows the hot water to escape, or exhaust from the combustion fuel to escape into the interior air of the home. This is carbon monoxide and in sufficient quantities can be deadly.Constant heating and cooling from years of use will eventually cause a heat exchanger to crack, but some last longer than others. Under some conditions, many survive well beyond their predicted life spans. Yours appears to be one of those.Blower motors receive return air from the interior of the home, force it through the heater and blow the warm air into the living area. Blower motors can collect dust and dirt, making the motor work harder. Failure to regularly clean the dirt can cause the motor to burn out prematurely.It’s important to change the furnace filters and vacuum the blower area regularly to prolong the life of blower motor. These are two of the things regular servicing will accomplish. An annual internal inspection by a licensed HVAC will include cleaning and testing for exhaust leaks. It should cost in the neighborhood of $100 and is money well spent.What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer, click the byline at the top of the story.Copyright 2008 Bill and Kevin Burnett See the Burnetts’ feature, Dual Flush Toilet Sure to Wow. [...]
I immigrated from Germany 10 years ago where Dual Flush toilets were very common for about 10 years. As I tried to find one here in 2007 I was not sucessful. This is when I contacted Caroma and started marketing and distributing Dual Flush toilets in Georgia.
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