# What is this thing floating in my toilet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043 "2005-03-31T03:51:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/1 "2005-03-31T03:51:44Z")
Floating in the tank, that is. I had the lid off the toilet tank the other day (to untangle the chain), and for the first time in my years of owning that toilet noticed that there was a float in there that apparently did nothing useful. I’m not talking about the float that controls the water supply - that one is easy to understand. This is another float, ring-shaped, that fits around the overflow pipe. When the toilet is flushed, and the water level in the tank goes down, this float falls down and hits the flapper, causing it to close prematurely, resulting in a weak flush. It isn’t attached to anything else; it seems like its sole purpose is to interfere with the proper flushing of the toilet. So, as an experiment, I held onto the float and flushed the toilet to see what would happen. It was like having a brand new toilet! For the first time, that toilet flushed the way a toilet is supposed to! So I used a piece of string to permanently defeat that float and now I no longer have to flush three times to clear the bowl. Also, there is much less handle-jiggling required now. So, anybody know what the actual purpose of that part is? I have tried [toiletology.com](http://toiletology.com) and a few other toilet-related websites, but none of them mention that part. Could it be some kind of misguided water conservation measure? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/2 "2005-03-31T04:18:00Z")
You don’t mention the brand of fixture, but I’ll wager that it’s one of the many methods of meeting the 1.6 GPF regulation enacted by the toilet manufacturers whose R & D budget isn’t very large. Like tearing off mattress tags and duping CDs, etc., defeating that device is a no-no, but I won’t dime on you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/3 "2005-03-31T04:45:19Z")
The brand appears to be “URC”. I couldn’t find much about them with Google. I don’t think we have that 1.6 gallon regulation in Canada, but I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/4 "2005-03-31T04:47:03Z")
Oh, and thanks for keeping it under your hat 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/5 "2005-03-31T13:25:13Z")
URC stands for Universal-Rundle and is now part of Crane. I think Sears sold URC toilets under their name too. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/6 "2005-03-31T18:15:59Z")
That’s one of the cheapo brands, as I feared. At least it’s not Gerber-they’re worse. Those companies produced some terribly engineered pieces of shite just to meet the 1.6 GPF regulations, which were also awful-in essence, the fixture couldn’t _use_ more than 1.6 GPF, it didn’t have to _effectively remove the waste_, though-but that’s another rant. 😃 If you’d like to fix your toilet and save water, try installing a Fluidmaster Bulls-Eye Adjust-A-Flush flapper. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/7 "2005-03-31T19:26:18Z")
Thanks cats, I may look into that if the string fails me. ---
**Author:** ![Eegba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Eegba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eegba)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/8 "2005-03-31T19:47:35Z")
…am I the only person who opened this thread because the title was “What is this thing floating in my toilet?” and the OP’s handle was Manduck? ---
**Author:** ![glilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/48db29/32.png) [@glilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glilly)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/9 "2005-03-31T20:07:11Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Floating in the tank, that is. > So, as an experiment, I held onto the float and flushed the toilet to see what would happen. It was like having a brand new toilet! For the first time, that toilet flushed the way a toilet is supposed to! So I used a piece of string to permanently defeat that float and now I no longer have to flush three times to clear the bowl. My toilet may use the same mechanism. Instead of permanently defeating the mechanism, you can just hold the lever after flushing to get a giant flush when you need it, and flush regularly for a less-critical flush. ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-floating-in-my-toilet/297043/10 "2005-03-31T20:27:02Z")
My guess was going to be “A goldfish”. Good to see you got it figured out though.