LOW FLOW TOILETS IN SANTA MONICA

The term low flow toilet has been around for some time. It came about when the water conservation concerns of the nation resulted in a federal mandate that all toilets use only 1.6 gallons of water to flush. The first generation of these toilets were a cause of much rancor throughout the nation. The general design of the toilets we are used to, with a gravity assist flushing mechanism, doesn’t account for limiting the water. Their functional efficiency dropped dramatically with the new water use regulations.

Today, however, those concerns are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The demand for new innovative designs and a sincere desire by manufacturers to improve their porcelain product performance has produced not only better flushing toilets, but better looking ones too! You can often find consumer ratings for different toilet designs with a five star scale rating the flushing performance. Many toilets still resemble the toilets of old and still use a gravity assist flushing system (with varying degrees of success).

The top-of-the-line models get rather adventurous and use all kinds of designs and features to get the flushing performance up. By redesigning the trap at the bottom with a wider opening and a less restrictive flow pattern, these commodes make the smaller amount of water produce more flushing power. Other new designs have a pressure-assisted system using vacuum pressure in an airtight tank to help push the waste through. One of the most adventurous is a model by Kohler that actually has a pump in the tank to add pressure.

The driving force behind a lot of the newer designs is twofold. With varying degrees of flush they can price at different levels. Though their existence was first driven by government regulations, the manufacturers are motivated to design and sell what their consumers want—so what do you think of the low flow toilet?

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