virtually every toilet in America has a spherical-shaped bowl ,which is full to the brim with water maybe 10 inches deep. Why so full?
But there are un-American toilets where the bowl is deeper, and more of a cone shape, with steeper sides.The water is only about 3 inches deep, at the narrow bottom of the cone(which is about 6 inches wide). The walls (sides) of the bowl are exposed, extending about 10 inches above the water.
Result–you can pee without making so much noise! Males have plenty of open side-bowl to aim at, with no splashing.Women also make much less noise, because the water surface is very small.
It’s just so much more… refined and classy. You can use the toilet and not worry that you are preventing the people in the next room from hearing the TV.So why do American toilets insist on being so rude? Couldn’t the water level in the bowl be reduced?
(if it’s relevant, the tank and flushing mechanism is the same on both the Amercan and un-American (McCarthyist?) toilets)
hey, it’s been a while since we’ve had a good toilet thread! I had expected this to be a well worn subject, but a search of GQ titles didn’t find any previous threads
I don’t know if it’s possible to reply to this without Too Much Information, but…
More water helps to prevent poo from sticking to the sides of the bowl, and helps dissolve any remaining “skid marks” after flushing. I have used European toilets that were a bugger to keep clean because of their “low water mark” design. It certainly wasn’t a water conservation tool, as everyone seemed to flush the toilet 2 or 3 times before it became presentable. In one place in Austria, the design was so terrible I had to douse the toilet with a wastebasket full of water before it would flush effectively.
I’ve lived in America my whole life, and traveled extensively. Of all the toilets I’ve encountered, I’ve never seen one that was spherical or one that was full to the brim with water. There’s always room to pee on the porcelain, and the bowls tend to taper toward the front somewhat. The only time I’ve seen one full to the brim was when it was plugged up.
I’ll never forget when I got up in the middle of the night to pee when I was about 12. I aimed for the center of the bowl, as usual, and then went back to bed. My father appeared in the doorway and said,
“Water sprayed on water makes a sound that’s plain to hear,
but water sprayed on porcelain falls deafly to the ear.”
He went back to bed without saying anything else, and I’ve always aimed above water level since then.
Without measuring, I have to say that I’ve never seen a toilet that had more than 5 inches of water(and that’s being generous). And the toilets I’ve seen in various other countries have, for the most part, looked pretty much the same in shape.
It is a problem for us male Europeans, when we sit down for a number 2 on an American toilet our todgers get a dunking ;). European toilets are made for accomodate for the European physique without getting our peckers wet.
American toilets are different from those overseas, or at least in my experience -so noticably different in fact that on one trip there my friends and I actually took a photo of the toilet in our hotel (in Hawaii). The basin was a lot shallower and full of water than we were used to. (Apparently we think about this too much!)
I gotta go along with this - it leads to all kinds of absurd contortions and thigh squeezing.
OTOH good news - those fuzzy toilet seat covers seem to have died out - you know, the ones that prevent the seat from staying up, so when you were taking a piss, you had to lean forward with one hand holding the seat up and still try to aim straight ?
Many home toilets are composed of a lower hemi-sphere(ish) part and a upper cylindrical part that extends the ‘brim’ of that hemi-sphere upward to the seat.
I’m guessing the OP meant the water was filled to the brim of the spherical shape, not the very brim of the seat. IOW, half full.
This is something that Australians notice too. Nearly everyone I know, after visiting the USA for the first time, comments on the high water level in the toilets there.
I just replaced a toilet so I gained “intimate” experience. The water is only 5 or 6 inches from the bottom and less than half-way to the brim. You gotta have some water in the bowl to prevent sewer gas from seeping out of the toilet. And what’s the big deal with making noise while peeing? That’s why they call it taking a tinkle! Aiming right at the center of the bowl minimizes the “splash” effect during the act. I’ll take a noisy pee job over a grungy toilet any day. I remember reading that the Japanese have invented devices that will create background noises (like water sounds) that will cover up the various noises as you do your business in the bathroom. I really hope that we don’t get that prudish.
Something I’ve had the misfortune to discover is a problem with ‘high water line’ toilets is that it isn’t always immediately obvious that they’re blocked. That is, it’s obvious for the person who’s used to it, and knows where the water is, but for anyone else, it might just look like it’s quite full. And while the bowl can cope with one cistern of water before overflowing, two isn’t good. The British (and European, but there’s differences there) toilet is very obvious if there’s even a slight blockage - having the normal waterline at the end of the cylindrical pipe makes anything unusual into somthing very noticeable.
Oh, and just to take the TMI quotient through the roof…isn’t there an obligation on any urinating male to use his power to destroy any residual markings on the porcelain?
As GorillaMan notes, UK and indeed European bogs are rather different from Yank ones. The water level is far lower down from the rim of the bowl and the flushing action comes from above rather than (so it seems to me with Yank ones) from below. I find it very disconcering if the fruits of my labours remain so close to me after I’ve ejected them…
As someone with a touch of paranoia about blocked bogs, give me the British or European sort any day: you know where you are blockage-wise. There is far less danger of overflow with the latter.
I don’t think my “todgers” any different that most Europeans and mine has never taken a dunking while taking a dump. And willy is always dry as a bone. The only way I could see someone getting wet would be if they forgot to put the toilet seat down. I would imagine the many folks have tried to climb the invisible ladder when you notice the seat is still in the upright position when they go to sit on the throne. And who can forget the experience of having a drop of water hit you in the sphinter just before your asshole slams shut.
/slight hijack, but relevant/
Saw many deep-bowl toilets in Europe. I even peed in a bidet the first time I saw one. It was in a room all by itself with a sink, when I advised my hosts that I had to go to the toilet.
Many Mediterranean societies have had an alternative to the OP for many decades, or centuries. When visiting a lady doctor friend in a modern highrise apartment complex in a suburb of Istanbul (Bakirkoy), I needed to tap a kidney after dining. When shown the way to the toilet, I was surprised to see a small closet-sized room with a porcelain floor, resembling a shower stall except that there were two foot-shaped raised areas near the front of it and a hole in the middle, with the floor sloping up slightly to the perimeter sill. A pipe ran down the rear wall from the ceiling to a small fan-shaped outlet just above the floor. I needed only to aim into the hole. I then turned a handle to flush. Had I needed to do a number 2, I would have had to assume the position being careful not to let my trousers get in the way. I had seen other such facilities around the Med, but to see it in a modern highrise apartment complex really amazed me. No wonder we saw the Iraqis carrying commodes on their exit from Kuwait in the Gulf War.