Toilet Devices Save Water

QUESTION: Our water bills are too high, but we can’t afford to install new water-saving toilets. Are there any inexpensive ways to reduce the amount of water wasted by our toilets?

ANSWER: Flushing toilets alone can account for up to 40% of your family’s water bills. By installing one of several types of inexpensive simple devices, you can cut the toilet water usage by more than half. This can save tens of thousands of gallons of water each year. In addition to cutting your water bills, it should help reduce future water rate increases in your area.

New inexpensive (about $10) special water-saving tank flappers are simple and effective devices. A flapper is the flexible rubber-type seal that fits over the large drain hole in the bottom of the toilet tank. It is attached to the flush handle and opens when you flush the toilet.

These new flappers are specially designed to provide a positive and effective flush with half the water volume. You can easily install one yourself in a few minutes without removing the water line to the toilet.

One design uses a simple adjustable knob in the center of the flapper. There are five tiny different-size holes in the bottom of it. Each size hole allows water to fill the flapper at a different rate. This determines how quickly the flapper closes and the amount of water saving.

Depending on the design of your specific toilet, you can select the hole size to get the greatest water saving while providing an effective flush. It is simple to adjust after the flapper is installed.

Another type of inexpensive device utilizes a floating slide on the overflow tube. As the tank empties during a flush, this floating slide moves down the tube and a contact ring forces the flapper to close sooner. You can adjust the position of the contact ring on the float to fine tune the flapper closure timing for the greatest water saving.

You can also easily install a simple dual-flush kit (about $20). A “low-water-volume” flush is used for liquids and paper. A “higher-water volume” flush is used for solids. Typically, one uses a low-volume flush 80% of the time. One kit utilizes two flush handles, one behind the other. On another design, you push the handle twice for a higher-volume flush.

A water dam can reduce toilet-water usage. It is just a sheet of springy metal or plastic with a foam or rubber seal around its edge. You simply set it in the bottom of the toilet and it springs out and seals against the tank sides. In effect, it reduces the water volume of the tank.

You can write to me at the address below for Utility Bills Update No. 116 listing manufacturers’ addresses and telephone numbers of new water-saving flappers, dual-flush kits, water dams, product information and a water-savings chart. Please include $1 and a self-addressed stamped business-size envelope.

Letters and questions to Dulley, a Cincinnati-based engineering consultant, may be sent to James Dulley, Los Angeles Times, 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45244.