Royal Flush

[Dave F]

Do you absolutely despise low-flow toilets?  Do you cringe at their feeble, sissy, pantywaist flushes, eerily reminiscent of a prostate in need of Flomax?  Does having to flush two or three times to get the job done cause you to breathe fire, foam at the mouth, and curse the authorities who continue to erode away our precious freedoms?  If so, then this will turn you green with envy:

This, my friends, is an original Kohler Wellworth; A gentle giant from a bygone time when water conservation didn't exist, planned obsolescence had not yet been invented, and you could still buy Chlordane and asbestos tape at the local hardware store.  Five full gallons per flush, just look at the size of that tank!  Why, it takes a hefty one-inch copper water service line from the street just to feed this monster.  Flush it and take a listen: A raging, roaring torrent, sounding so much like the Kursk sinking all over again.  Feel the whole house rumble.  It's almost like having Victoria Falls right there in the bathroom.  How very, very satisfying indeed.

Still hungry after that huge Thanksgiving feast?  Go ahead, have some more turkey and yams.  Have another piece of pumpkin pie; Have two.  Don't worry, it's not a problem. This bad boy only knows one way to do it – the right way.  So, pass the stuffing, then pass the stuffing. Then, with just a single push of the lever, bear stark witness to the majesty of stars and complete galaxies streaming past the swirling event horizon as they disappear forever into the oblivion of the dark abyss.  Wow, it just doesn't get any better than that!

This toilet, installed in 1942, has been dutifully feeding the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant in Playa Del Rey with ferocious efficiency for the past 70 years.  With a little luck, it will continue serving mankind for the next 70 as well.  No planned obsolescence in this house.  Yes, life is definitely good.

Data sheet excerpt is from a 1948 Kohler Plumbing Fixtures catalog.

Oh, by the way, the phone is a rose 305.

[GG]

No, I absolutely adore low-flow toilets!  Mine has a good powerful flush that is reminiscent of Niagara Falls in miniature, and is more than sufficient to do the proverbial job without having to work overtime. 

In fact I've taken the "switcher" approach to my water supply, because, living in California which is basically a desert, we have to use water as efficiently as possible.  And unless you live in the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast, where rain is eternally plentiful, sooner or later you will too. 

So here's the system:

Version 1:  Purge water from the shower (the cold that comes through before the hot) goes into tank A.  The contents of tank A, perfectly clean water, are used as input to the washing machine to do the laundry.  The output from the washing machine (graywater) goes into tank B.  The contents of tank B, controlled by a pump in tank B and an electric float switch in the toilet, are used to flush the toilet instead of clean water being used for that purpose. 

This I get maximum water efficiency with none of the "three stinks" that are so common in California among the technologically challenged (those who can't build their own water recycling systems):  the stink of clothes that don't get washed enough, the stink of people who don't take showers enough, and the stink of toilets that don't get flushed enough.  I can wash my clothes freely, take half-hour showers (with a high-efficiency showerhead) and flush, flush, flush the toilet 'til my heart's content.

Version 2:  After the Japan earthquake, seeing as I live about 1/2 mile from the extremely dangerous Hayward Fault, I decided that keeping a large supply of fresh water around at all times was a Good Thing.  So I modified the system as follows:

Purge water from the shower goes into tank A as before.  But when tank A is filled, it gets swapped directly with tank B, to become available for flushing the toilet.  Meanwhile fresh water goes into the laundry, and the graywater from the washer gets stored in tank C and drawn off in buckets to flush the toilet (a minor inconvenience at worst).  When all the graywater from a given batch of laundry is used up, and/or when tank A has filled again, I cycle tank B through the toilet flushes and then swap the full tank A into its position. 

This results in slightly more water usage, but it provides me with, on average, 40 gallons of fresh water in the tanks at all times, an ample supply for use during the first weeks after an earthquake.   All of that, and none of the "three stinks."

---

That said, if I owned this place (or some other nicer place, though Bay Area real estate being what it is, that's "somewhere over the rainbow" where "blue birds fly"), I could build out the system further, with 100 - 200 gallons of clean water storage, fully cycling from purge to laundry to gray to toilet, for all the conservation plus all the water storage desired, and no compromises. 

[jsowers]

   Somehow, Al Bundy comes to mind. I think his was a Ferguson, though.

My mom still has her original Kohler Wellworth toilet from 1953, and her Kohler sink and tub with all the original fixtures. That is indeed a flush from the past, even with the brick mom put in the tank. I got a new Kohler last year to replace one of my 1985 toilets and it's a real wimp.

[GG]

There is however, one issue about low flush toilets. 

They are designed for use with smaller diameter sewer lines from the house to the street.

Because, you see, a smaller diameter sewer line concentrates the flow of water to enable a smaller quantity of water to have sufficient force and depth to move solid wastes all the way down to the sewer main under the street.

In a larger diameter sewer line, the smaller quantity of water is spread out over a larger area of pipe, so it may not clean the line thoroughly each time.  This can lead to deposits, which become blockages, which become "surprise!" in the shower or bath some day as the drain backs up. 

SO:  If you have a high-efficiency toilet, but your sewer line is still the old larger-diameter pipe, you should flush once for #1 and twice for #2, to ensure that the pipes are properly cleared all the way to the street and the risk of backups is minimized. 

As with electric automobiles, it will take a while before water efficiency goes from the stage of "tiny slow-speed neighborhood vehicle" to "Tesla Roadster and Chevy Volt, with the speed and range you expect." 

Between now and then, you can do the "switcher" routine, and "hack your water system."

[Dave F]

  Somehow, Al Bundy comes to mind. I think his was a Ferguson, though.

Yes, and that's one of my all-time favorite Married... With Children episodes.  In fact, my wife and myself call our Wellworth "The Ferguson".  A fitting name, given the similar qualities.

[GG]

Yo Dave!  Speaking of explosion-proof teles in the loo! 

I just scored three of these:

http://www.britishtelephones.com/ericsson/02186.htm

It's not exactly explosion-proof, but it is waterproof and humidity-proof, which makes it good for next to the shower anyway.  Though, seeing as I'm in rental housing with a fully tiled WC, I'm not going to go drilling through the tiles in search of the elusive wall studs. 

Instead, one will go in the garage for now, and the other two will wait on the shelf until I own a place.  At which point another will probably go next to the front door as an entry phone, and another on the back of the house.   In the city, one of the great advantages of these is that they keep out all the pesky little critters that lurk around waiting to get in and find things to gnaw on.  (On the other hand, in the city, they'll need to be tied into the burglar alarm in case someone tries to steal them.  Sigh.)

As for the WC, I'm thinking AE 186 wall set, with line 1 for the residence lines, 2 for the business lines, and 3 for the emergency lines.  This because it can also be switched over to power fail service if the PBX is down.   

[Dave F]

Yo Dave!  Speaking of explosion-proof teles in the loo! 

I just scored three of these:

http://www.britishtelephones.com/ericsson/02186.htm
 

Very nice!  Yes, one of those would go quite nicely with a "Ferguson".

[AE_Collector]

And when the explosion proof set isn't needed for phone calls in the bathroom you can use it as a jack stand while working on the car in the garage.

Terry

[GG]

It occurred to me earlier tonight, there's one good reason why explosion-proof phones in bathrooms, despite their ability to stand up to the dangerous after-effects of baked beans, may not be such a good idea. 

You need both hands plus your eyesight to use them. 

So you're in the shower.  The phone rings.  You reach across to open the shower curtain but now you've got shampoo in your eyes, and the phone rings again and you're trying to hold the shower curtain open and reach for the latch on the box to open it so you can get to the handset, and now it's the fourth ring and you're definitely not pleased and your eyes are smarting from the darn shampoo and you answer with a slightly exasperated "Hello?!!"

... and it's your Mom.  She immediately picks up that you're mad about something.  So you try to explain, and all she can say is "my son the inventor....!"

The only thing that would be worse, is having a light-colored 302 get tugged off the edge of something and plunge into a bowl full of blue-tinted water, to come out looking vaguely two-tone even after a most thorough cleaning.  "Nice two-tone 302 you gots there, was that a prototype or something?"

On the other hand it could make for great television comedy.

[Dave F]

It occurred to me earlier tonight, there's one good reason why explosion-proof phones in bathrooms, despite their ability to stand up to the dangerous after-effects of baked beans, may not be such a good idea. 

You need both hands plus your eyesight to use them. 

So you're in the shower.  The phone rings.  You reach across to open the shower curtain but now you've got shampoo in your eyes, and the phone rings again and you're trying to hold the shower curtain open and reach for the latch on the box to open it so you can get to the handset, and now it's the fourth ring and you're definitely not pleased and your eyes are smarting from the darn shampoo and you answer with a slightly exasperated "Hello?!!"

... and it's your Mom.  She immediately picks up that you're mad about something.  So you try to explain, and all she can say is "my son the inventor....!"

The only thing that would be worse, is having a light-colored 302 get tugged off the edge of something and plunge into a bowl full of blue-tinted water, to come out looking vaguely two-tone even after a most thorough cleaning.  "Nice two-tone 302 you gots there, was that a prototype or something?"

On the other hand it could make for great television comedy.

Well now, it sounds to me that what we really should be aiming for is an explosion-proof Speakerphone.

DF

[GG]

Dave, the explosion-proof speakerphone is what you want to use to call someone when you know they're in the bathroom and they'll have to pick up their explosion-proof handset whilst otherwise engaged:-) 

[GG]

Oh, Dave, and speaking of WCs, today in the East Bay we had two nasty little earthquakes, on the very dangerous Hayward fault.  So on the small chance those are foreshocks of a big one, I filled up my water tanks with clean water (50 gallons).  I've got two more 25-gallon tanks and will probably add one more of those into the "circuit" so instead of an average of 30 - 40 gallons, I can keep an average of 70 gallons.  That of course will not hold up the house if the house falls on my head, but at least there'll be clean water if the house is still standing.  Yes I want to get the heck away from the Hayward fault.  (Working on it.)

[Dave F]

Oh, Dave, and speaking of WCs, today in the East Bay we had two nasty little earthquakes, on the very dangerous Hayward fault.  So on the small chance those are foreshocks of a big one, I filled up my water tanks with clean water (50 gallons).  I've got two more 25-gallon tanks and will probably add one more of those into the "circuit" so instead of an average of 30 - 40 gallons, I can keep an average of 70 gallons.  That of course will not hold up the house if the house falls on my head, but at least there'll be clean water if the house is still standing.  Yes I want to get the heck away from the Hayward fault.  (Working on it.)

I think you mentioned earlier that you live in a rented house.  Plumbing in all those tanks seems to be quite a lot of effort to put into rental property.  Maybe your landlord can be persuaded to give you a break on the rent for adding these useful additions to his house.

I have often thought of sticking an additional water heater (probably a 50 gallon unit) in line with the cold water inlet to the house, just to make use of the tank.  In an emergency, that would add capacity to whatever is sitting in my regular water heater (assuming, of course, that everything survives).  The 1994 Northridge earthquake was quite an eye-opener.  (Perhaps I should consider building a steel "roll cage" in the bathroom to insure that my precious Wellworth survives the next Big One).

[GG]

Dave - All my plumbing connections are screw-on and removable.  For the interface to the showerhead, I had to build up a combination of various adaptors, but nonetheless it works.  The float switch in the toilet tank is DIY, fabricated from an odd assortment of parts.  The tanks sit in the hall outside the bathroom, which is the best place for them in a quake.  You could call the decor "Mad Scientist Modern":-)

Once I buy a place all of this will be done in a less hackerish way.  Though, some of it may not be strictly code and would still have to be done with removable connections to be legal.  (I've researched this stuff in excruciating detail when I was working on the graywater system design.)

See, to me the whole conservation thing shouldn't be an exercise in puritanical misery buoyed up by a politically correct stiff upper lip.  It succeeds when it's "sustainable comfort."  Just like with household solar: what's selling like crazy these days is solar that zeros out your electric bill while costing less in monthly leasing than your electric bill did.  So instead of having to spring for an expensive installation and be darn careful about turning off lights, you just sign the contract, the company installs the panels on the roof, and your monthly cost for electricity goes down.  Same thing with graywater: the design goal is that you don't notice anything has changed other than that the water in the toilet is tinted blue. 

[Dave F]

You could call the decor "Mad Scientist Modern":-)

You should post some pictures.  I (and others) would be interested to see what you have created.