Toilets
Hot commode-ities
Most of us don’t put much thought into where we “do our business” every day, but the toilet is a necessary part of the bathroom and provides its main purpose. Photographers have devoted galleries to it, and designers have dedicated years of research to it. Heck, there’s even an international Toilet Day (November 19, in case you want to celebrate) every year. So, the toilet does deserve attention, specifically when you are designing a bathroom.
Standard
Standard toilets in North America use a tanked flush system to remove waste from our homes and send it to a water treatment center. But toilets have come a long way since their introduction, and your existing toilet may be a little behind the times. Now you can choose from a round bowl or an elongated bowl and several different flushing systems. While most toilets sold are white, many models are available in off-white colors too. Higher-priced models may also offer black and / or other colors to match your bathroom design. Standard toilets come as single- or double-pieced units. If you’re working within the same bathroom footprint and not changing the plumbing, you should note the kind and size of the toilet you’re replacing to ensure that the new toilet you choose can fit into the existing space properly. If you’re changing your layout and plumbing completely, you have more options.
Water-Efficient
In the past, standard toilets were produced to use 7 gallons of water per flush (GPF), and that meant we were literally flushing our clean, natural resource down the tubes. As the population has increased and indoor plumbing has become customary, water treatment centers have been working beyond capacity (literally, sometimes!). Officials have recognized the need and the opportunity to cut back on volume by reducing toilet flow to 3.5 GPF and then again to 1.6 GPF. While these versions had to go through some considerable shrinking pains and at first did not deliver the power of the 7 GPF models, the industry has risen to the challenge and there are now lots of 1.6 GPF models that actually do a better job than the old 7.0 standards. In addition to saving the world by installing one of these water-efficient models, you’ll also save on your own water bills. In essence, the right choice in a toilet may actually make money for you.
If you want to take your environmental concerns to the next level, maybe a tankless toilet or a composting toilet is for you. Not nearly so widespread and still quite costly, these are the toilets of the future!
