DIY Low Flow Toilet – A Simple Water Saving Device
May 31, 2009 
7 Comments
Some regular household toilets can use as much as seven gallons of water per flush, for a large family that means alot of water being used everyday. Luckily the new generation of toilets incorporate lots of water saving features such as low flow and smaller flush volume, often just a mere 1.6 gallons per flush. Most people are not ready to replace their current toilet and are probably waiting for that next big bathroom remodel before switching to a new toilet. If you crave the water savings of a low-flush toilet, but aren’t ready to shell out for a new commode, you’re in luck. Using a few readily available household items you can turn your water-guzzling toilet into a water-sipping low-capacity flusher!
You Will Need:
1/ A plastic bottle – small enough to fit into your cistern
2/ A white wire coat hanger
3/ A pair of pliars
To begin the project simply use the pliers to wrap the wire hanger around the rim of the plastic bottle. Check that the bottle and hanger will fit inside the cistern and then fill the bottle with water. Make sure that the bottle cap is screwed on tight. Take the top off the cistern and carefully fit the bottle and hanger inside the cistern, make sure that the bottle allows sufficient clearance for the float to operate correctly.
Hey presto, you have reduced the amount of water you will use to flush in just a couple of minutes with just household items.
A regular toilet is not designed to flush paper and solid waste with reduced amounts of water, so the likelihood of clogging or having to flush twice after installing a water displacement device increases. Standard US toilets clear the bowl with siphon technology, so the diameter of the trap way has to be a small as possible (please view siphon vs. washdown technology here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6pymOet7g&feature=channel_page.) If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I would highly recommend a Caroma Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5” trap way, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several rebate programs currently available throughout the US as well as LEED points. Please go to http://www.caromausa.com for more detailed information or visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see how we flush a potato with the half flush (0.8 gallons), meant for liquid waste. To learn more about toilets you can also visit my blog http://pottygirl.wordpress.com/. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli
Hi Andrea – Welcome to Our Everyday Earth and thankyou for the information, I like the PottyGirl blog, lots of useful water saving tips.
Hi Martin,
a simple idea! We have 2-level toilets so we’re all set, but I know a similar idea is to chuck a common brick in the cistern to displace a bit of water.
Did you find it flushed okay?
(after reading the comment above)
Charndra
A few months back we switched to low flow shower heads, sinks, and toilets and have seen a significant reduction in our h20 consumption and cost. We should recover the intial cost with in a few months.
Excellent, thanks for sharing, we’ve installed low flow shower heads but haven’t yet installed the low flow faucets… We’re midway through a master bath renovation so the low flow faucets are next on our list of things to do