Somebody once told me a joke about putting somebody bread in the bottom of a urinal - I forget how the joke goes, but I’ve never been able to get the image out of my mind. Something to think about next time nature calls. 
And according to the Waterless/Water free Urinals System | Waterless Co Inc., the average male uses the facility 3 times a day. It’s good to know I’m not some kind of freak of nature.
I can attest to Cecil’s recommendation not to use plastic piping for toilets. My g/f house has plastic. When somebody upstairs flushes, the dining room gets treated to a rather loud rushing and tinkling sound. AND, it also led to my cutting a hole in the wall to find the “leak”.
Sometimes (but not all the time) when somebody upstairs flushed or drained the tub, you would hear in the dining room a very distinct tapping sound. It came from near the floor, and was obviously water dripping between the walls. But opening it up showed the area to be bone dry.
Turned out to be thermal expansion - when the water flowing in the pipe was a different temp than the pipe itself, the pipe would expand or contract, with the largest movement being near the floor. The sides of the pipe were rubbing against the wall board, with friction causing the “tap-tap-tap” sound.
No pun intended, of course …
And they suck. And they are definitely not odorless. And urine starts out sterile, but by the time it hits the porcelain it sure ain’t anymore. It picks up a lot of nastiness along the way out.
I do sit down, in the morning. I’m just not coherent enough at the early hour to trust my aiming ability.
Every other time, though, I stand up because there’s no fun in sitting down. I dream of the days when I will be able to play video games every time I visit the urinal. See the link below:
You’re In Control (Urine Control) **
[/QUOTE]
However, I only see the above leading to higher splash rate than the absymal rate that there is now.
All I can say is…ewwwwwwwwwwww, I’m glad I don’t live in Amsterdam
Something I’ve noticed, is that no one has commented on the physiology of the, ah, “originating source”. Aiming can actually be a little tricky for men.
Imagine, women, if you will: a sausage with a vertical slit running through the centre (no, the hole isn’t round) attached to a water balloon. Now, if anything else had been in the passage that the water was about to travel the water is going to be thrown off-course. This is especially true if the previous substance was sticky at all. Which (guess what?) it is.
Most guys have erections throughout the night, and some are “early risers” who take care of business by themselves or with some helpful assistance, and this definitely “gums up the works” a little bit. This causes some odd directions, or even two directions at once, which is always a surprise and really tough to aim.
Just thought you’d like to know!
Methinks modern urinals are poorly designed. Remember the tall ones back when? What happened to those?
And about the placement - well the average inseam is 30" - why do they put them at 32-34" I need a damn stool or go to the little boys urinal. Just place them where men won’t make a mess on themselves and the floor.
My own water experiments have concluded if sitting is not an option, make noise at the waters edge pissing downward. I don’t think much of screens - they were designed to keep out cigarette butts.
A necessary function discussion might lead to some changes here.
To add to Thursday’s remarks, note that the opening has two flaps of skin from the slit. Sometimes they do not seperate properly, causing the same effect of putting your thumb over the opening of a hose. Aiming isn’t always as easy as it seems. No matter how precise you are with the pointing, the stream exits at whatever angle it desires. The dreaded split stream is a killer (two streams diverging at approx 30 - 45 deg angles, neither one hitting the bowl).
Hate to say it, but I completely disagree with Cecil. I pee in the water, because every time I try to pee on the back wall it splashes on me. I’ve never been splashed on by peeing in the water. Not once.
On a related note, there is a seemingly large growth in the use of flat rubber mats with holes in them to hold the urinal cakes. If I am forced to pee in a urinal that has one, the splash rate goes up by a large amount. I have no idea why janitorial staff thinks this is a good idea.
I came across a different problem than tcdaniel. I am six feet tall, and many of the urinals in department stores are too low for me. If I don’t do knee-bends, the only direction the stream can go is straight down, thereby causing a splash at about the shin level.
I forgot to mention that I am living in Malaysia. There aren’t a whole lot of six-footers here.:smack:
As was mentioned earlier, it prevents clogs and makes it easier to clean after inconsiderate smokers have used it.
Not if the bathroom has a carpeted floor.
Not to pick on American Standard (I think all urinals are poorly designed), but the parabolic shape is exactly the WRONG shape for the back wall of the urinal.
Anybody who studied physics, math, engineering, or life knows that if you’re standing at the focus of the parabola, the splash will be focused directly back at you (duh). :smack:
Those directors of design obviously never use their own products, because if they did, then they’d know that blahedo above is right in aiming for the side. Only an acute angle will produce laminar flow and reduce splashing. That’s why aiming for the waterline along the back wall, as pablito suggests, also works.
– wilbert (former mechanical engineer and eternal student of life)
Well, if you put carpet in your bathroom you deserve what you get. It’s a simple fact of life that sometimes bodily fluids get the best of us. Not just urine either, but also sudden diarhea or vomit can lead to aiming disasters. (With vomit, being room-spinning drunk doesn’t help much either).
I just knew that the Teeming Millions would keep this discussion at the high level of fluid dynamics and angles of refraction…
I’ve heard the orgin of the phrase “to take a piss” comes from the subject of urinals. The original urinals had a target built in, in the form of a butterfly. And the latin for butterfly is Apis, which if you horrible mutate it into english sounds like a piss.
anyway just though I’d throw that out there
I believe that you mean a bee, not a butterfly.
What the heck are you all talking about? I haven’t been “splashed” by a urinal once in my entire life. Not once. Either I have superb urination skills that some of you don’t possess, or you are doing something seriously wrong.
I always aim for the porcelin part of the urinal, not the water.