Does the so-called ‘courtesy flush’ achieve any genuine reduction in odour?
If Lieu isn’t the first respondent to this question, I’ll be sorely vexed.
I thought the courtesy is not in regards to smell, but sound. Some people don’t like to hear the sounds of “butt music”, natural as it may be.
Ah!
I’d imagine courtesy would apple to any of the five senses, although if that of Touch is included, that person is seriously fucked up.
Butt as to that of Smell, even a submerged steamer is gonna stink to high heaven. The best you could hope for is that the water is really, really cold where it might protect it like some fecal shipwreck.
Apple?
Apple?
I can’t believe I typed apple during a turd discussion. Apply is what I meant regarding the ummm… fruits of your labor.
There is another sense that is slightly more disturbing if involved, I’d say.
Band name, anyone?
Yeah, I realized that shortly after posting as I took a sip of my soda. The irony? It was a Mountain Doo.
And what mechanism, exactly, would you invoke to allow fumes to escape through the water? Remember, the U-bend was invented precisely to trap noxious sewer gases where they belong.
Of course, if you’ve been saving up a real Yule log, some of it may poke up above the waterline.
By the way, isn’t a “mange tout” a person who peddles skin diseases? 
I don’t think pointing to the u-bend proves that foul fumes from a submerged turd-in-the-bowl won’t reach your nose – it’s an altogether different situation.
A submerged poop’s gasses, being lighter than water, make their merry way into the atmosphere in no time at all. Hell, I’ve seen some of mine sitting there doing an, um, passable impression of an alka-seltzer tablet. (Of course, I’ve also seen mine putting off heavy white vapour like a freakin’ fog machine, which I’ve never heard anyone else, not even lieu, admit to.)
More to the point, most turds don’t head straight for the bottom of the bowl like little Jimmy Hoffas.
Unless you’re in a drought-stricken area, a courtesy flush in a public loo makes an appreciable contribution to the common good. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.
Anybody care to define what a courtesy flush is? My guess so far is a flush while the product in question is airborne, so to speak, so that it doesn’t splash down and sit there a while, rotting away and attracting flies. However, that’s a very wild guess.
Smoke on the water
A fire in the eye…
Oh goody, another opportunity to show [link deleted]
You may now continue your day.
E3
Hauky: A courtesy flush is when you flush the toilet during a lull in the, ahem, movement. Some selfish bastards (like every single one of my co-workers) wait until they are completely done before even thinking about flushing the toilet. Result? The steaming pile of poo (half submerged in the bowl) stinks up the entire bathroom.
Flush people! For all our sakes.
I’ll be honest – I’ve never heard of this. I’m under the impression that people flush once – when they’re finished.
Seems like a waste of water. Plus, it doesn’t strike me as being very effective in reducing smell. The smells escape during the process, not after.
This is a common misconception. As a rebuttal (no pun intended) let me ask you this: when is the last time a fart stunk up your room/house/bathroom for more than a minute?
On the other side, someone “drops a bomb” in the work bathroom atleast once a week or so. I mean, the entire bathroom has been unbearable for entire days at a time. Is all this stink from gas? I think not.
Also, think about. You have feces floating in a shallow pool of water. Do you think that it doesn’t emit odors? If that were the case, we would never have a need to flush.
Wow, I am posting about poop. I really need to reasses my priorities.
Freudian slip.
Most people I’ve in been around in public restrooms are generally courteous and try to remain quiet as possible. Some aren’t so kind. I thought that such flushes were to mask sound rather than odor. Frankly, I am less grossed out by odor than the chord progression of a virtual brass quintet. Bowel sounds etch themselves into my memory for a few minutes, the odor loses its effect when I leave the room.
Humor comes when everyone is sitting in the stalls and trying to be courteous. You can tell that no one wants to make a sound, and they assume the same. So you basically sit there trying to quitely finish your business or just give up and try again later.
Nik
I’ve installed water closets which had electronic sensors that flushed automatically, and they had a “courtesy flush” override button, so they must do some good.