Several years ago, my apartment complex installed a low flow toilet in my bathroom. Since then, it’s kind of been an olfactory nightmare; because it uses so little water, my longer sessions there breach the surface on a regular basis, which is unpleasant, to say the least, never mind all the times I’ve found paper still soaking from hours before.
My complex has changed hands once or twice since then, so I’ve been considering asking for a “regular” toilet. But I’m also a bleeding heart liberal who cares about the environment, and wondering if this is just a first world problem I should swallow for the sake of the next great crisis. Any opinions on this minor dilemma? Anyone else with a low flow toilet deal with this too, and have tips, maybe?
All toilets are low-flow now.
But, there are good ones and bad ones. The good ones are much, much better than some of the old water monsters. Getting management to pony up for a new (and, more expensive) toilet is going to be a trick, though.
Sounds like this was one of the older (cheaper) style of low flow that didn’t use enough pressure to completely flush the toilet. Almost all the ones on the market now are better than that. Talk to management about a replacement. Even agree to go half on it. It will be worth the relief.
Inadequate flush is one problem, but the OP also describes a problem with inadequate depth of water in the bowl during use. Poorly designed low-flow toilets may have both of these problems, but well-designed low-flow toilets do not. In our house we have 9-year-old low-flow Toto toilet (1.28 gpf) that always flushes perfectly without resorting to a long flush, and has plenty of water depth - and a 25-year-old toilet, probably not low-flow, that requires a long flush and is prone to clogging if you’re not conservative with your toilet paper usage.
OP, talk to your management about a replacement. Do your research first, identify a promising make/model, and propose it to them. If you’ve got home improvement skills, you might offer to do the installation yourself, saving them the labor cost. If not, offer to share the purchase cost. Bearing part of the cost not only reduces their costs, but it also indicates to them that this is not a trivial/capricious request: you’re serious about your dissatisfaction with your current toilet, to the point that you’re willing to put some of your own money toward the solution.
I reckon it could also be approached as a health problem. Left over product* could equal fecal matter floating about in the air and onto surrounding surfaces. Extra flushes also means extra matter being tossed about into the surroundings. Sure there’s a lid, but still . . .
Maybe you could get some neighbors on board.
Similarly frustrating are the ‘water savers’ placed in new faucets, hose nozzles etc. to reduce flow. All they do is cause you to run the water twice as long to achieve the same result. Maybe some work better than others. First thing I do is get rid of the water saver thing. Not because I’m wasteful, but because I want something that works efficiently.
note that I could have said sh_t but was too polite
It depends on where you are. I live in a water-rich region where home water usage has virtually no environmental impact. A drought-stricken state in the west might be a different story. And even then it’s a question of whether industrial and agricultural uses overshadow home use. I’d say toilet flushing is minor and a lot more justified than watering a lawn for example.
A good low-flow toilet is at least as efficient in flushing away unmentionables as a dinosaur model, and often works even better.
Having to do repeated flushings because of an inefficient model is wasteful of water and costs the landlord money. Maybe organize a complex-wide simultaneous flush protest?
Offer to help pay for a new toilet if management doesn’t agree to do it. Yes, there was a time when the low-flow toilets were terrible. But there are a number of excellent ones on the market now. I replaced two toilets within the past year with … I think they are 1.5 gallon toilets. Both work great. One is a lot noisier than the other.
It’s just a little taller than I would like. Somehow, toilets keep getting taller and taller off the floor, but I don’t. But other than that, it’s a terrific toilet.
Ugh, I think I made a tactical error when I communicated with the office and the maintenance guy. I mentioned both the surface breach issue and the occasional toilet paper remaining after flushing. and I think they both thought that the latter was my main issue rather than the former. So they installed a new flush valve that should help with the latter, but apparently doesn’t do anything about the former, for reasons brought up earlier in this thread, I think.
Ugh. Think I might just have to live with smelling my own crap until I move out.
Get yourself a bidet. If you’re a bleeding Heart liberal, you should prefer a bidet anyway as it’s friendlier on the environment.
As far as the toilet goes, you’re stuck with it. I can guarantee you that management office does not give one fuck about your toilet. They probably only installed those low flow toilets because they had to. Not because they care about anything other than making a profit.
