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- By James Wisler
- Bathroom Remodels Plumbing Tips Residential Plumbing
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Here are some toilet features that you might not know about already, but which are useful enough that you’ll wonder how you ever did without them. (I hope that some of this information will serve to enhance your repertoire of potty jokes.)
Most people don’t think about the water surface area in the toilet bowl itself, but I always bring it up during a conversation about replacing a toilet. If you go to your grandma’s house and use her restroom, generally speaking, it’s going to have an older toilet. You’ll notice that there’s a ton of water in the bowl. When you flush it, it’ll seem like the water swirls around forever until it finally clears down. Those two characteristics (lots of water and long flush time) are very useful in bowl cleanliness.
If you look at a new toilet (especially if it’s on the cheaper side), the bowl will often get dirty and stay dirty fairly easily. It’s not surprising, because a greater surface of water would protect the actual porcelain from getting dirty. New toilets also have government regulations requiring only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. Thats why they are engineered not to swirl as much as the older toilets do, and the water just goes straight out of them. The sudden, direct movement leads to a dirtier bowl.
You don’t usually think about how silent a toilet is when it flushes, which is another noticeable characteristic of older toilets. Older toilets tend to be fairly quiet, while newer ones can get very loud. It’s not uncommon for bathrooms attached to the master bedroom to get regular nighttime use. Having a quieter toilet would definitely be beneficial in that case.
These next two features are fairly commonly known, but if you’ve never experienced them yourself, you don’t know what you’re missing. You won’t ever want to go back to a regular toilet once you get used to them. The first pertains to the shape of the bowl: toilets either come with a round shape or an oval/elongated shape. The elongated shape is much, much easier and more comfortable to use.
Next pertains to the height of the actual bowl that you sit on: it’s either standard height or slightly elevated. If you’ve ever used a handicap accessible public toilet, you might have noticed that it’s higher than the toilets in other stalls. It’s not a big enough difference for you to spot at a glance (about two inches), but it’s definitely noticeable in terms of how close to the floor you are while seated. I like to call them comfort height toilets because the higher position is just more comfortable to use.
To most people, a toilet is just a toilet. But in our world, there are definitely characteristics we look at when selecting the products we offer to our clients. It may surprise someone when we discuss these things, but these are definitely features with noticeable benefits. If it’s almost time to replace your toilet and you have any questions, just contact us today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.
