Do you have problems with your water?

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Anyone have a high-mounted toilet? That's supposed to help (even with modern low-water requirements) because there's more static pressure from the drop in height.

I guess the traditional style is a wall-mounted tank going down a tube, and pull chain.

Kohler and others have a wall-mounted seat with a high tank that needs to be buried in the wall.

One model looks like this with two buttons for 0.8/1.6 gpf.

It looks like this inside the wall:

OOO Wall mounted. Oh goodie. Now I can go for a rest stop mod motiff!!! Don't forget the auto cut off after half a second on the sink!!!

 

[mrodgers]

We sure do, half an acre, and we don't waste one drop of water on it. If it turns brown, it turns brown.

I agree. Limit the water I need to do needed tasks like flushing a narly clogger, then the rich people are all out there sending gallons of water just out to the ground every day.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree. Limit the water I need to do needed tasks like flushing a narly clogger, then the rich people are all out there sending gallons of water just out to the ground every day.

Around here you're going to have to water your foundation during times of bad drought..unless you want to spend tens of thousands of dollars later on due to foundation issues.

Don't equate watering your grass to being rich

 

[MillauFr]

We sure do, half an acre, and we don't waste one drop of water on it. If it turns brown, it turns brown.

No one here waters their grass. Every lawn is yellow during the Summer as we get very little rain. You will get plenty of dirty looks if you water grass

 

[RamblingMad]

Maybe they need more fiber in their diet.

 

[Searc]

Around here you're going to have to water your foundation during times of bad drought..unless you want to spend tens of thousands of dollars later on due to foundation issues.

Don't equate watering your grass to being rich

Why would you need to water your foundation if the ground is dry?

 

[Colleen27]

A government official in the United States is indicating that due to water use regulations enacted in 1992, "People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times" and "You can't wash your hands, practically, there's so little water that comes out of the faucet".

I'm curious if this is actually true for anybody.

I think it was true of the early-generation "low flow" toilets. At least the lower-end ones. When DH was working in residential construction, he had quite a few customers who were replacing builder grade low flow toilets because they had to flush multiple times (though I'm sure 10 or 15 is a massive exaggeration) or experienced frequent clogs. But DH installed the first lower volume toilets in our house about 15 years ago, and changed the ones in this house over as soon as we moved in (in '09), and we've never had that problem. Not even when we had four men in the house. So I'm thinking it was a problem specific to either the era or the makes/models builders chose for low-to-mid range new construction around the turn of the millennium, not a universal issue with low flow fixtures.

We do have an issue with water pressure when washing hands right after flushing or if the washing machine is running, but that has everything to do with an extremely old and narrow service line to the house. Low flow fixtures didn't entirely fix the problem, but they did help somewhat. They certainly didn't make anything worse.

 

[MillauFr]

Why would you need to water your foundation if the ground is dry?

Some soils act like a sponge. They expand and contract depending on their water content

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Why would you need to water your foundation if the ground is dry?

Soil with good moisture provides counter pressure. When it's too dry out the soil will contract and push away from the foundation wall leaving it vulnerable to foundation cracks and shifting. Early detection is the key. Last year when we were having extreme prolonged drought and longer than normal heat we were watering our foundation after we started getting soil separation from the foundation wall though we should have been watering the foundation prior to that. We also have a decent amount of clay soil in the area which can worsen problems. Watering your foundation is more meant to keep the soil moist not soaking wet. It just kinda goes with the territory of our area. Our summers tend to be hot and dry.

Last year was a bigger problem because we had virtually no snow and not enough overall precipitation followed by the hotter earlier and very dry summer. This year was complete opposite with extreme wetness and mild temps go figure.

 

[Searc]

Some soils act like a sponge. They expand and contract depending on their water content

I understand that, but water around your foundation is never a good thing.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I understand that, but water around your foundation is never a good thing.

Standing water? Sure but water in the soil around your foundation that's an entirely different thing and that's what I'm talking about. The reason I quoted the PP was because they said water going into the ground. There are some very important reasons why some people need to water the ground. May be considered a wastage of water but certainly not a wastage in general.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Speaking as the ex-wife of a plumber, there is some merit to the toilet statement. Low flow toilets are crap (pun intended) and they can't handle crap. Great for the plumbers that make a living unclogging them, but not anyone else. As for the pressure valves, any plumber is capable of opening up your pressure if you ask. You can do it yourself if you just watch a YouTube tutorial.

 

[bcla]

Speaking as the ex-wife of a plumber, there is some merit to the toilet statement. Low flow toilets are crap (pun intended) and they can't handle crap. Great for the plumbers that make a living unclogging them, but not anyone else. As for the pressure valves, any plumber is capable of opening up your pressure if you ask. You can do it yourself if you just watch a YouTube tutorial.

it’s really not all that hard to design a low water gravity flush toilet that works well. It just needs a high enough water column for higher static pressure, a wider glazed trap to make it easier for waste to flow, and a wider flapper. Mine works like a champ, when the older one that used 5 gallons would plug up almost every day. Sure it would try to spend more time trying to flush out a blockage, but when it couldn’t flush everything out of a narrow trap, it ended up overflowing onto the floor. I had to clean that up.

The really good toilets aren’t even that expensive. Ones from Kohler, American Standard, and Toto sell for less than $200. I’d rather have a new, well designed 1.28 gpf toilet than any older toilet I’ve ever used. The old way of trying to send more water through a narrow hole rather than making the hole bigger didn’t really work. The earlier low water toilets just modified that with the same bowls and same flappers, but with less water.

 

[Lilsia]

Speaking as the ex-wife of a plumber, there is some merit to the toilet statement. Low flow toilets are crap (pun intended) and they can't handle crap. Great for the plumbers that make a living unclogging them, but not anyone else. As for the pressure valves, any plumber is capable of opening up your pressure if you ask. You can do it yourself if you just watch a YouTube tutorial.

Our low flow toilets are crap. We have to go, flush, wipe, flush, wipe, flush. So yes, we are wasting more water flushing more often with less in the toilet then if we just flushed it all at one time. And even then, they plug at times which means more water to get it flushed down after plunging. We don't water our grass unless it gets really bad. We are in a nice neighborhood and are probably the only ones without a sprinkler system. The water waste is sickening. They are all just set on timers and even go off when it is raining. We do have to water when it gets too bad because the HOA likes the neighborhood to look nice. But we live somewhere that has access to plenty of water and have never had to limit water use so I guess people take it for granted.

 

[Dan Murphy]

A government official in the United States is indicating that due to water use regulations enacted in 1992, "People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times" and "You can't wash your hands, practically, there's so little water that comes out of the faucet".

I'm curious if this is actually true for anybody.

No, it isn't true for anyone.

Not sure who the government official is, but maybe s/he makes big loads and needs a 15 flusher.

 

[bcla]

Our low flow toilets are crap. We have to go, flush, wipe, flush, wipe, flush. So yes, we are wasting more water flushing more often with less in the toilet then if we just flushed it all at one time. And even then, they plug at times which means more water to get it flushed down after plunging. We don't water our grass unless it gets really bad. We are in a nice neighborhood and are probably the only ones without a sprinkler system. The water waste is sickening. They are all just set on timers and even go off when it is raining. We do have to water when it gets too bad because the HOA likes the neighborhood to look nice. But we live somewhere that has access to plenty of water and have never had to limit water use so I guess people take it for granted.

If that’s your problem, then maybe you need a new one. There’s actually a testing organization that rates toilets.

https://www.map-testing.com/
Also, they test using soy paste that mimics the real thing.

https://www.map-testing.com/map-testing-protocol.html

 

[RamblingMad]

Stop pooping bricks. That's my recommendation.

 

[Jennasis]

No. Not a problem...ever in my life or anyone I know. Maybe if you eat a lot of Mcdonald's?

 

[Lilsia]

If that’s your problem, then maybe you need a new one. There’s actually a testing organization that rates toilets.

https://www.map-testing.com/
Also, they test using soy paste that mimics the real thing.

https://www.map-testing.com/map-testing-protocol.html

We probably do need new toilets. I think the builder put in the cheapest ones that he could find. There are 4 of us and have never had this issue with any other toilets, ever. To the other comments about us eating McDonalds and pooping bricks, come on. That is just a jerk thing to say. The toilets are the obvious issue.

 

[bcla]

We probably do need new toilets. I think the builder put in the cheapest ones that he could find. There are 4 of us and have never had this issue with any other toilets, ever. To the other comments about us eating McDonalds and pooping bricks, come on. That is just a jerk thing to say. The toilets are the obvious issue.

We needed new toilets when we bought our house, but kind of put it off for a few years. Ours were massive. I tested the capacity of them (required for our water company rebate), and one was maybe 5.5 gallons while the other one was closer to 5. If the trap got clogged, the only thing that more water did was pour over the lip of the bowl and leave a mess to clean up. I wouldn't say that our current toilet never clogs, but when it does the wider trap makes it easier to plunge and the water stops before it overflows the top of the bowl.

The worst are the low profile toilets with a gravity feed. The one I mentioned does have a slightly wider flapper, but it's a nonstandard design and still doesn't work all that well.

Some of the best flushing toilets would be the commercial kind with a flushometer, but that requires the water be pressurized or use commercial (wide) pipes. I was thinking about maybe one of the pressure-assist toilets, but there are reports of them blowing up.