Posted on 01/26/2019 1:16:01 AM PST by vannrox
My order at my favorite Chinese takeout was taking too long. I stopped into the men's room. There I witnessed a common scene: the modern toilet disaster. An otherwise clean business had a restroom calamity on its hands, one so grim that I hesitate to describe it.
The conjectural history is not difficult to reconstruct. The toilet apparently had trouble flushing. There was a plunger by the toilet, of course, as we see everywhere today. The toilet was plunged to get rid of the obstruction, while the obstruction itself spilled all over the floor and stuck to the plunger too.
The customer probably left the ghastly scene in a rush. Management knew nothing. But now customers were coming and going into this bathroom, surely losing all inspiration to eat or order food.
It would be easy to blame the restaurant owners. What is with these people and why can't they at least have a clean restroom? But reacting this way would be unjust. The hidden hand behind this unsanitary calamity is the US government. The true origin of the mess was not in the hour before I arrived but back in 1994, after Congress passed the Energy Policy Act (passed in 1992).
(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...
Some of the low usage toilets these days work great. Go to Home Depot and look at some of the reviews.
As for the good old days, the old toilets clogged up, too, and had plungers next to them.
I live in a border town. Back in ‘94 when this law changed there was a tendency for the old style toilets, still available in Canada to make their way across the border. Thus, US customs began secondary inspections for “ bootleg “ toilets. Interest in architectural salvage yards shot up, too.
CC
My house was built in 1993 and one of the last fitted with three gallon toilets. I consider them to be a selling point.
Yeah. And they would overflow. Yuck.
This one joint I stayed at had his 1.6 gallon tank lined with 1/2” styrofoam on the inside, probably cutting it down to 1.0 gallon - it was really ugly when it ‘flushed’. Thankfully there was a workaround because he had a garbage bucket that could hold close to 2 gallons and he had a bathroom sink with a high spigot, allowing me to fill the buck with water and pour it into the tank while it was flushing. Worked great, but still, as the article implies, what are we allowing ourselves to be reduced to?
“...after Congress passed the Energy Policy Act (passed in 1992).”
Didn’t even know of this gem - yet another given to us by Bush Sr.
There are 1.6 gal Pressure toilets that use line pressure to compress an air pocket in a holding tank to give you an impressive flush. You RARELY need a plunger, at worst, just wait for the tank to recharge in about a minute, and give it another blast. Gerber makes a good one.
I just bought one to replace an old cracked (high-flow) toilet. I think it might even be 1.3 gal??
It still scares my wife a bit with the force of the flush! (That is - being a very strong flush). I was a bit leery, but reading the reviews it sounded like it would be okay. So far, so good. Although I guess that if it does get clogged, I’ll need to use a snake, as the design doesn’t allow for a plunger to be used.
Agreed - we always buy new toilets when we buy and move into a new home. I’ve installed a lot of them. This time I upgraded the style and bought these wonderfully sleek models with dual flush modes. I thought the design was beautiful and would make my wife very happy. She was. The design is brilliant and you would never be able to tell it saves water. Don’t get me wrong, congress can wank off for all its idiocy, but I do not mind the 50% reduction in my water bill for our home. There are additional reasons for the reduction but man, I’m good with all of it.
I had the full flush toilets which I had rebuilt with bronze hardware and they lasted decades but, I finally had to replace them.
The newer pressure flush ones are vastly improved over the earlier models of the 90’s and they don’t overflow the bowl when they fail to do the job.
What I hate is the automatic flushing toilets that flush every time you move an inch! Damn things defeat the low flush feature by repeatedly flushing before you are even settled in! Of course, the automatic sinks only dispense an ounce of water after flailing your hands in front of the spigot for minutes!
Then, you have to dry the soap residue on your hands in front of the carwash force blow dryer to save on paper!
He should use a toilet in a restaurant IN China, what an experience.
In a storage building where I work on my collection of jalopies there must be 10 or so toilets sitting for decades.
They are from a commercial building that got renovated a few times close by.
I’m sure the guts have long since rotted away. I haven’t touched them.
The most glaring thing here is that the government is deciding where we take a dump.
Think about that.
I named my original lo-flo toilet Albert. He should have stuck to inventing the internet.
In San Fransicko the bums don’t have a flush problem.
Government intrusion aside, I find that 1.6 is plenty of flush power in new toilets. In my rental, I actually dropped in rock-filled 1L bottles into the tanks to cut down on water consumption since we’re on well water. No complaints and the bowl still clears on 1 flush every time.
I have a well and a septic tank, my choice of toilets is not dictated by the cost of water. Heck I run my dishwater half full at times and do laundry practically every day.
But I used to live in a city, and the cist of water was a concern.
Need to bring back the old time crapper with the elevated tank up 3 feet or so. They work great...encountered one a few years ago when abroad.
So far 100% success.
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