To the editor:
Re: Saving water with every flush, July 10 Kelowna Capital News.
I am questioning that adding any type of ballast (e.g. sand filled one litre plastic bottle) to a newer high efficiency toilet will conserve any water.
The news article and your website seems to suggest that any toilet will benefit in reducing water consumption based on the addition of ballast.
While I completely agree older toilets (and some early model low flow toilets of about 10 years ago, while going through design changes) will reduce water consumption but only if the ballast extends from above the low level mark to the high level mark.
Modern high efficiency low flow toilets use technology (flapper valve function especially) that differs from older model toilets. Since high efficiency toilets no longer drain the entire tank, a one litre ballast (plastic bottle) cannot possibly save one litre of water per flush as suggested on your web page. It could only save the displaced volume of the plastic bottle between the high and low water mark. Some high efficiency toilet designs may have a high level mark that exceeds the ‘body’ height of the bottle. The neck of the bottle displaces little water.
Also, old toilets use the same amount of water per flush (draining the entire tank). New high efficiency toilets consume an average of their advertised consumption value—some flushes will be more and others will be less.
I would be very interested in your research to prove any water savings with model high efficiency toilets that doesn’t impair their design performance.
Understandably your goal is to create discussion which this does.
Tom Kinsman,
Kelowna
