Instead of ripping out the whole apparatus and installing a new dual-flush toilet, I’ve been looking at these kits that replace the guts of your current toilet with a new dual-flushing mechanism.
Has anybody installed one of these, and if so, do you regret it?
Just looking at some of the kits they look like they are all made for 2 piece toilets. By that I mean the gate mechanism is attached on both sides of the tank at the base. A plumber can chime in but I don’t think one of these kits would work with a one piece toilet.
Things to consider. The toilets made for dual flush fall into 2 categories which are pressurized and gravity fed. The pressurized unites requires water pressure of 25 psi or greater to operate.
Whatever toilet system you have, they are all dependent on the efficiency of the flush design. Not all toilets are created equal in their ability to move waste regardless of the amount of water used.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that a kit can only work as a gravity style system. Unless you can research the exact combination of after-market product and YOUR specific toilet then it’s a crap shoot if it will work.
Sorry for the pun.
I guess I should have asked, why do you want to switch to a dual flush system?
BTW, If you have an old style “high-flow” toilet you can easily see if your toilet will work to your satisfaction. Set your float so it refills the toilet with 1.6 gallons of water and give it a test run. If it doesn’t flush solid waste to your satisfaction then you need a kit that is adjustable enough so the full flush works. You could, in theory, keep the high flow rate and still the benefit of a 2nd low flow flush.
Three reasons:
To do something environmentally responsible that’s* very* easy and painless,
To save a couple bucks on the water bill,
Because I came up with the idea of a dual flush conversion kit on my own, and was very excited about my “invention” until I discovered it had already been invented. (Thanks for nothing, Internet.) Getting the kit is my consolation prize.
Yes, #3 is probably the most important one to me. What can I say? I’m like that. :rolleyes:
Well that’s cool. But you’re not saving water unless you have a nuclear furnace in the bathroom. What you’re saving is the electricity used to pump/and or process the water. So if it was just that aspect then you should value that against other electricity saving devices and choose the one that is most cost effective.
But if #3 is yanking your chain then give old faithful a test drive with less water and see if you’re happy with the results.
FYI, I get your urge to tinker. The first thing I did when looking at the kits was think “I could make one”. Of course, I’d spend more than $30 in the process.
I got an air-assisted toilet that I regretted. Water pressure inflated a bladder inside a plastic mini-tank to speed the water along. Made a lot of noise and didn’t really clean the sides or leave completely fresh water between flushes. So the bathroom was noisy and stank. It went.
I did get a two-volume float-flapper that is good, although my water bill didn’t change.
How do you figure? The #1 flush uses only about half as much water as the #2 flush, so I should save water, right? Since right now I use 100% of the tank every time somebody pulls the handle.
I saw these all over Europe. They make a lot of sense for public toilets, but for private ones won’t Ed Koch’s “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” algorithm save even more? And be cheaper?
Briefly, yes. However: maybe it’s just me (or possibly my roommate) but around here the yellow/mellow protocol leads to a certain truck-stop-bathroom ambiance in and about the facilities.
Besides, I’m an American. I don’t want to change my bad habits, I want to buy some complicated gadget to solve the problem for me while I eat Crisco straight from the tub.
Also, I was reluctant to admit this in my OP for some reason, but I’m one of those guys who friends sometimes hire to do simple odd jobs that involve tools for cheaper than a professional. If these dual-flush crapper-flappers are practical, I was thinking I could add the installation to my repertoire and pick up a few extra bucks now that I’m laid off.
But since I do these odd jobs for people I know and like (and because I’m basically an honest person), I wanna make sure the whole thing isn’t a lousy idea before I start offering to do the installation.
I’m aware that the installation is something that a homeowner who’s handy with tools could do themselves. That said, I mostly work for people who aren’t handy with tools. 
Water isn’t consumed when you flush it. It is a continually recycled commodity. You’re not wasting anything except the electricity to process it. I was just pointing out that there is a cost/benefit to any changes you make to save electricity.
Well here, when we flush water, it goes down to river to Iowa. We consider that ‘consumed’, because it never comes back. (Not that we would want it back after Iowa, anyway.)
Well, that might be true. But my toilets are specially designed to flush with a mixture of light sweet crude, whale oil and whooping-crane-egg mayonnaise, so I try to conserve when I can.
It might be worth experimenting with just reducing your tank capacity. By putting a full, sealed bottle of water in the tankyou can displace a little of the water, reducing your flush volume by half a gallon or so. This is usually not enough to affect flush ‘quality’ but the water savings do add up.
Thanks for thinking green!
Whale oil is hard to flush at room temperture.
I found a site that mirrored what I said about bowl design. All toilets are not created equal and it really matters how efficient it is to begin with.
You could do what araminty suggested and just drop stuff in the tank to displace water as a test. costs you nothing. You could just average the difference between high flow and low flow water usage and take the thought process out of flushing. Costs you nothing and you can invest your eco-dollars on something else such as a new clothes washer or low flow shower head.