Interesting Facts About Toilets
A toilet is both an unglamorous fixture and a necessity at the same time. Often, a toilet is left without any attention until it malfunctions or is overly dirty. If you are unfamiliar with how a standard toilet operates, you may be surprised to learn certain facts about them. Does this Spark an idea?
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They Are Basically Simple to Repair
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From toilet to toilet, the same symptoms and problems that appear call for the same types of repair. If a toilet flushes by itself or keeps running, the cause is the same, even in different toilets. Look at the parts inside the tank of any gravity-flush toilet. These parts do the same job, and are basically repaired in the same way, as the next gravity-flush toilet. For example, whether the tank's fill valve uses a plunger, float cup or diaphragm, you replace each of them the same way.
They Use the Most Household Indoor Water
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Toilets account for the largest portion of a home's indoor water usage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Approximately 70 percent of a household's overall water usage is used indoors and, of that, toilets account for 26.7 percent of that indoor water usage. This amount is greater than the approximate amount used in clothes washers, which makes up about 21.7 percent. The toilet's water usage dwarfs the usage of other bathroom items, such as the shower, which, according to EPA estimates, accounts for about 16.8 percent of a home's total indoor water usage.
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They Now Use Less Water Than Before
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If the toilet in your home was manufactured before 1995, it probably uses too much water. In 1995, federal law stated that toilets can only use up to 1.6 gallons of water for each flush. Compare that to toilets from the 1980s, where about 3.5 gallons of water flushed down the drain each time. Years before that, toilets guzzled about 7 gallons of water with each flush. Installing a newer model toilet will cut down noticeably on the water usage and bills.
There are Two Bowl Types
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A toilet bowl is considered to be either standard or elongated. The two different types require seats of different sizes, and a seat that fits one will not fit on the other. A standard bowl is also called a round bowl, and requires a seat that measures approximately 16 1/2 inches. By contrast, an elongated bowl has a seat that measures about 18 1/2 inches. To determine the bowl size, measure from the center of the hinge posts to a center point on the outside front of the bowl.
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References
- Photo Credit uniquely lit toilet in boston nightclub image by Stephen Orsillo from Fotolia.com
