Experiences Installing and Using Dual Flush Toilet

Todd provides his experiences with installing and using an efficient dual flush toilet.

We were similarly impressed with the performance of our dual flush toilets -- very good flushing on the "low" 1 gallon flush.

From Todd:

My toilet!

This spring my 40 year old septic drain field failed. We already had
plans for renovating our bathroom and had purchased and ordered much of
the materials. After much research I had ordered an H2Option toilet
manufactured by American Standard. They also sell this toilet as the
Eljer Somerville. The Eljer is only available with a round bowl and non
insulated tank. American standard claims to have completely redesigned
this toilet from the ground up as a dual flush toilet.

WOW!!!!

I can not believe the efficiency of this thing. Try as we might we have
not been able to get it to clog or not fully flush even with the .9
gallon flush. I am going to actually resize the drain pipe from 4" to 3"
as I feel that flushing solids with the .9 gal. flush needs a smaller
pipe to keep things moving.

The toilet I removed was a 5 gallon flush American Standard that was
about 40 years old. My parents also have an A.S. that is about 30 years
old so I feel that they are a quality company. They are an American
company though this model appears to be manufactured in Mexico. The nice
thing about it is that American Standard toilets are available through
almost any plumbing supply house and even many big box stores like Home
Depot. You can even order it through walmart.com, though I personally do
not like that option. I purchased mine through a small town hardware
store. Even though I paid a bit more than purchasing directly from the
plumbing supply house, I helped to support a valuable resource when I
need that one part on Saturday at 5pm. A midwest hardware/building chain
called Menards, regularly puts the Eljer model on sale for $175, so it
is even a relatively inexpensive option considering its savings
potential.

I had to have the septic tank pumped in February and again about 6 weeks
later in April. I installed the new toilet in late May. Its now the end 
of June, and due to weeks of rain I am still waiting to get the drain 
field installed but I have not had to pump the tank again. I have 4 kids 
including 12 and 14 year old boys. They use a 5 minute timer in the 
shower though as they know we need to be very conservation minded at 
the moment. We also have a front loading washer and efficient dish washer.

Thanks again for the great site!

Todd

A bit more from Todd:

Here are some more links that you might want to put on the page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZeSxGYCDTk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBXzhilSX-s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP1CsFoHnY4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v9h0tZXwu0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhjV2WYWwz0&feature=related

If you really wanted to, you can even adjust the flush valve to use a
different amount of water for either of the two flush levels. I might
adjust my "full" flush down to about 1.3 gallons and see what happens.

The toilet pegs the scores on the MaPP testing that I see you already
have a link to on your water page. I personally think it flushes better
than the Caroma toilets that I have used, and it stays cleaner as it has
a quite large "water spot," or as the kids would say... target.

It seems quite silly to me to get so excited about a toilet, but this
one really is a homerun. It flushes better than my old 5 gallon model
just using the .9 gallon setting. Just imagine if everyone installed
these. Composting toilets are great but it is very difficult to get
approval for not having a septic system in my area. Also I am lazy, that
is why I am installing solar panels instead of a wood boiler! Composting
for 6 people is time and space consuming.

Todd

More links to this toilet:

American Standard H2Option Dual Flush Toilet...

Eljer Somerville Siphonic Dual Flush ...

Specifications...

Gary June 30, 2010