Note that the paper is dispensed out of the bottom of the unit. The cheap-ass paper that they hold tends to tear off inside the unit at random. It wouldn’t be a problem except that building engineers everywhere, sadistic bastids, feel compelled to mount them about two feet off the floor. So that means that from sitting on the toilet, I have to bend over and bend my arm in three places to dig the end of the paper out. If they only mounted the thing at eye level (average person, seated) we could easily reach up into it without breaking any bones. But no… Is there a code stating that they have to be mounted so low?
It’s even worse when they have serrated edges so if you don’t pull it exactly straight down, it rips.
At my college we had ones like this. Notice how it’s oval shaped and the axle isn’t centered. That way the toilet paper rips each time it comes around and ‘falls’. Unless you’re really careful…or you know how to take the roll off the tube (it was tamper free but I had something to remove it).
Ah, I’ve encountered those, too. You’re right, those are fiendish also. In addition to the bumpy roll, they also seem to have a really stiff axle so you have to pull fairly hard (which just helps ensure that the paper tears every time it bumps). :mad:
You know that key hole in the top? You can open them up with just about anything. I routinely use the file/screwdriver on my small swiss army knife to open those. Then I don’t have to mess around reaching up into the damned thing.
My dad actually put one of those in the bathroom in his house. We all hate it, but he loves how cheap the toilet paper is that he buys at some surplus place in Wisconsin.
I’ve never understood why those dispensers have to be mounted so low either. Especially in the handicapped stalls. What if a person has balance problems? They might tumble right over, trying to get the paper out from a dispenser opening no higher than the toilet seat. Or maybe their hands shake so much that it’s hard for them to get into the bottom in the first place and then they have to contend with the fact that their shaking makes it so that they can barely pull a single sheet before it tears. Having disabilities can be hard enough, why do certain establishments insist on making it harder?
While we’re at it, how about the places where the dispenser is mounted three or four feet away from the toilet? Our Costco has handicapped stalls where this so (or maybe they’ve fixed that during their remodel. I haven’t been in there since then.) And I know a place where it is not only four feet away but on the wall behind where you are sitting. I don’t even bother reaching for the toilet paper there. The seat liner dispenser is mounted above the tank and much easier to get to. I have no qualms about using those.
And now that I’ve mentioned it, what’s up with seat liner dispensers that are mounted so high up that you have to straddle the toilet to get to them? When I am Empress of the World, heads will roll on these issues, believe you me!
God, I hate those. I can’t remember where it was, but someplace I used to work had those… only there was a little stopper, so you could only turn the roll a half-turn at a time. Unless you forced the roll to turn around the stationary cylinder, you’d never get more than two squares of paper. Gah!!
Those, I don’t mind that much, as long as they actually roll. The design prevents the problem of grabbing the TP, giving it a pull, and winding up with yards of the stuff.
Now, a version where the roll literally WILL NOT TURN (it swings back and forth maybe a half a rotation)- that’s just wrong.
For pure malice, however: the dorms and classroom buildings at my college had TP mounted on a “Sav-Haf” holder. - basically, a metal strip that is wider than the core of a roll of toilet paper. It is hinged on one side so you slide the roll onto the other half, then swing the hinge closed and insert the other part into the roll- whereupon it locks so you cannot open it until the roll is empty and you rip the cardboard center off the infernal thing. The paper would not roll AT ALL.
I always made a point of painstakingly rmoving much, much more than I needed just to attempt to punish the bastards for being so stingy.
Heh. A friend of mine often accepts bartered stuff in exchange for services (he does tattooing). Much of the stuff is probably stolen (he traded a tattoo for six DVD players, new in box recently. The customer said they were all gifts.)
Anyway, years ago he did a tattoo in exchange for several cases of what we all called “turnpike toilet paper”. Awful stuff; he couldn’t give it away.
I hate that. I cannot stand to keep finding prices slightly higher than I expected, or food to taste not quite as good as I want, or days that are just a bit too cold or too warm. I’m so sorry to hear this happened to you, sometimes I wonder if life is worth living at all.
On my floor of the office, there are two mens rooms. The one for staff is a urinal and a single seater, therefore it is an ADA compliant stall that is huge. I’m so far from the door and privacy wall that I feel like i’m sitting right in the middle of a football stadium. I can use the more privately-dimensioned stall in the public mens room but then there’s a chance of someone using the ADA stall next to me, which can also be awkward.
Our office building offers free hot coffee to residents at a nice little coffee bar as we come in on cold mornings. But what about we tea drinkers? Are we chopped liver?
Stanley knives work marvelously on those as well. A Stanley knife can also open all the private mail slots on our mailbox wall, as well as all the keyed file cabinets in my office.
