One of our toilets needs replacing. I understand that new toilets use less water in the first flush, so, of course, you must flush again (and again?)
Please tell me the technology has improved and the problem of multiflushing is no more.
I keep hearing people talk about having to use multiple flushes on low-flow toilets, and I am baffled. How massive are you people’s bowel movements? Or maybe you just use way more toilet paper than is needed? 99% of the time one flush is enough for me.
They have improved the designs so that they flush better. Than main thing is that they flush faster and more forcefully, so they don’t need to use as much water. You want to look for one with a 3-inch flush valve, and also a fully glazed trapway. (That means the drain part has a smooth finish so the water and waste flow out more easily.)
If you get those, there should probably be no problems with flushing. My problem with the new toilets is that there simply isn’t enough water in the bowl. You may have to flush twice because of that.
Bath designer here.
The less water a toilet uses the better designed it must be to avoid the need to double flush. There are several makes that manufacture good low-flow or HET. I believe the TOTO toilets are the best. Our plumbing desk sells about 10 - 20 TOTOs a week - people love them.
If you are looking for a 1.28 gallon flush theAquia 2 is a great choice. It offers the option of a .9 gallon flush for liquids or a 1.6 gallon flush for solids while still qualifying for the HET rebate in most water districts. Another good choice is the Drake, available in both the 1.28 and the 1.6 gallon flush. Neither one of these toilets require a double flush. These toilets are easily found for 25% off of the posted list prices. I would caution you against Kohler toilets. We sell them but customer satisfaction is not as high, and we hear complaints of the need to double flush.
For more reading you might check out: Terry Love’s plumbing forum.
Also Google ‘Maximum Performance (MaP) testing’ to find independent testing. (I’m not providing a link because they lead to PDF files).
Or improve your aim.
I for one don’t see what the problem is with a toilet you have to flush twice to clear of feces. Probably two-thirds of the time I go to the bathroom it’s just to pee, and it’s nice knowing I can flush after those times and not be wasting so much water.
I have an American Standard lo-flo toilet that’s about 3 years old. It works great. I use (TMI) a lot of toilet paper, and I almost never have to double flush.
Wonderful shit here!!! :D:D:D
Thank you all, very very much!!
I will now buy with more confidence.
My brother is a master plumber and is a big fan of water saving toilets. He shares Don’t fight the hypothetical’s dislike of Kohler, which he considers to have great external design, but cheap and crappy internals. He equipped me with a Gerber PowerFlush with dual flushing - down for pee, up for poop. It uses the continuous water pressure to pressurize a tank of air. When you hit the flush lever, it opens a valve and the air pressure literally fires the water down into the tank. Old style toilets could never move water any faster than gravity, as if you were pouring it from a pitcher above. This is like flushing the toilet with a fire extinguisher. The Gerber is so efficient that, most of the time - unless it is a truly monumental dump - the smaller flush is more than enough.
I can’t second pressure-assist toilets enough. I don’t have one now, but I installed on in the bathroom in my previous house, and never, ever had a clogging issue. Mine was only a single flush model, but we live in a water rich area so conserving even extra wasn’t an issue. Aside from scaring newbies the first time they flushed it, it also solved all of my pipe clogging issues. Every once in a while I’d have to snake the drains, but the pressure this thing put out put a stop to that.
The only reason I don’t have one now is because I haven’t gotten around to renovating any of the bathrooms, and my wife wouldn’t let me put one in the kitchen.
There are good low-flow toilets and bad ones. The one in my last apartment was fairly new (the complex was new when we moved in in 2003), but had to be flushed multiple times most of the time. We have low-flow toilets here in our house, and generally no need to multi-flush.
I’d ask around and/or read some online reviews of brands before I picked one.
I’m ashamed to say we ended up with a Kohler.
That’s all they had at this place and we got our Plumber’s price. This was all quite okay with my wife, but I’m pissed.
It’s one of those push this for pee, push that for dump.
Salesman said the Kohler is warranted for life, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I had the joyous pleasure a couple months ago of hearing my toilet tank develop a hairline crack.
I was in another room with my wife and I heard a strange clunk sound, my investigation turned up a toilet tank that was now dripping.
It was a 60’s-era high-volume throne that always gave us trouble and was often a double-flusher anyway.
I asked the guy at Home Depot for a recommendation, telling him that it was the main toilet and I wanted absolutely no double-flush issues.
He gave me two choices, and I ended up buying an American Standard “Champion” toilet, the one that they show flushing down 20 golf balls.
In the two months since, I have been overjoyed with the decision. It uses much less water, but when you flush, the water rushes in from below, lifting things up at first, and then all rushes out quickly, removing all traces.
I have seen the light! The new low-flow toilets have compensated for their lack of water by improved flow engineering. 
We just remodeled out downstairs bathroom, and replaced the ancient high-volume toilet (which often needed double-flushing) with a modern “Cadet” low-flow toilet. It was one of the cheapest that Home Depot carries, and IT IS AMAZING! I never have to double-flush, and it must use 1/3 the water of the old toilet. There’s none of the whirlpool business of the old toilet - you just flush, and slurp - everything’s gone. I’m very happy with it.
Someone in the ad department is having way too much fun.
Anne Neville is quite right here. Even a few years ago, Consumer Reports covered low-water-use toilets, and found some that worked fine, and other brands that frequently required a double flush (or even more) to empty completely. And some of them cost more than ones that worked better.
So do check around for recommendations, both online & from friends, and get one of the good brands.
It is a quality issue. Most people buy toilets based on price. They get what they pay for-old designs with tanks modified to comply with federal rules. They take several flushes. If you spend more $, you get a newly designed unit that flushes just fine first try. In my experience (about 2 years ago), the cheap ones were around $60 and the expensive ones were around $150. I went with the convenience of a toilet that works first time and haven’t been disappointed.
I put al ow flow Kohler in my master bath when I remodeled back in mid-1994. It worked so well, I put another one just like it in the second bath when I did that one a few months later.
They are not pressure assist, they were the model just down from that. I have to double flush only when I have taken a dump of epic proportions. (Maybe once a month or so) Other than that, one flush does it.
Or is trying to appeal to customers with astonishing dietary preferences.
When my little brother remodeled his home in Michigan, his contractor “smuggled” a toilet in from Canada. A few of his neighbors confided that they had done similar things. This was 8 or 10 years ago.