Is your toilet costing you money?

Odds are the answer is YES.

It may come as a surprise to learn that in the US the toilet is where most of the water in a home is used & wasted. 

On average 30% of all potable water used in a household is for flushing the toilets. If your toilets are older than 1992 then that percentage could be even higher. When we consider the growing problem of water shortages across the country I have to ask why. "Why do we use potable fresh water to flush human feces and urine down the drain?" This is a self indulgent luxury that borders on insanity. We are running out of fresh water but yet we use it as though it were an inexhaustible resource. 

As this practice is ingrained in our lifestyle, and designed into the infrastructure of our communities, correcting this absurd behavior will take time and money. To start we can take some basic steps to minimizing the waste of potable water we use to flush toilets. One of the most cost effective and simplest things you can do is convert your current toilet into a dual flush toilet. Of the many kits available I recommend the DualFlush Pro. This kit has all the components needed to replace all of the old parts in a standard tank type two piece toilet. For under $35 (including shipping) you get a new fill valve, dual action flush valve and dual action flush lever (not a push button), all gaskets and tank bolts. I was so impressed with the quality of design and simplicity of installation, I posted a video on YouTube demonstrating the installation in less than 10 minutes. A dual flush toilet can save over 5000 gallons of water per year. 
A couple other brand I have tested include the Hydro Right by MJSI and Select A Flush kit.


Thanks for checking in.
AP

www.AskAquaPro.com
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com 
www.AquaProSolutions.com
www.AquaEnvi.org
www.AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com

Can I Save My Old Toilet or Should I Buy A New One?

Here's a great question submitted to AskAquaPro.com on Nov 3, 2009.
Ron Whitworth asked;
"Can I make my existing toilet more water efficient rather than throwing it away?"

Well Ron the short answer is, I hope you can.
I am a big fan of minimizing the amount of waste that goes into our landfills, and converting/upgrading your existing toilet rather than throwing it away is one thing I definitely encourage; under the right circumstances. There are plenty of “do it yourself tricks” out there that can be much more trouble than benefit so do your home work before deciding on what will work best for you. The good news is there are viable, effective, affordable options for improving the efficiency of a toilet rather than throwing it away and spending $$$ for a new High Efficiency Toilet (HET or UHET).

A couple things to consider;
a) If the current toilet uses more than 3.5 gallons of water per flush you should bite the bullet and get a new toilet. You will recover the cost of buying a new toilet pretty quickly by replacing these old water hogs. Get rid of it.
b) If you have a pressured assist toilet it can not be modified.

One of the most cost effective ways to improve water efficiency in a toilet is to convert it to a dual-flush. The Dual Flush Pro toilet conversion kit makes this easy to do and cost’s less than $55. This kit comes with everything you need to turn your existing toilet into a Dual Flush water saver toilet in about thirty minutes. The handle has a dual function; push one way for ½ flush to remove liquid waste and push the other way for full flush to remove solid waste.
For most major brand 1.6 gallon per flush toilets the kit is pretty well set up right out of the box to provide a 0.8 gallon half flush and 1.6 gallon full flush. Not all toilets are created equal. Some models will require adjustments to the factory settings of whichever kit you decide to use. These adjustments are simple with the Dual Flush Pro kit.

Thanks for asking,
AquaPro
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com
Aqua Environmental Resource Center

Save 1200 plus gallons of water a day.

Here is a creative short video that shows the value of water to our everyday life. . I bet you had no idea how much water it take to get you through the day. Every aspect of every day life is somehow connected to water. Conservation and efficiency should be on everyone's mind every day. The sooner we change our habits the better. I would love to hear how you are doing your part. Comments anyone?

AP
AquaPro@AskAquaPro.com
www.aquaprosolutions.com

The Stealth Toilet Is Taking Gravity Flush Toilets Too The Next Level of Water Efficiency

Once again the ingenuity and forward thinking of the folks at Niagara Conservation has produced a toilet design that is sure to establish a new standard in the industry. While most manufactures are pressing to produce Dual Flush toilets as their next big push in the HET market, Niagara Conservation is introducing a single flush toilet that uses 0.80 gallon per flush. That’s right a gravity flush toilet that only uses ½ the water of a standard 1.6 gallon toilet to evacuate both liquid waste and solid waste. Niagara reports to us that the Stealth toilet performs as well if not better than most 1.6 gallon toilets on the market.


The Niagara Stealth toilet utilizes the ingenuity of a pressurized trap system. Essentially the flushing mechanism forces air into the trap while the bowl is refilling. The air is trapped between to water seal, one at the top of the trap and one at the bottom of the trap. A positive pressure pocket of air is created behind the water in the bowl thereby requiring less water to create the siphon need to evacuate the bowl.

The Stealth toilet by Niagara Conservation is currently only available for limited distribution. We have been informed that it will be available for retail distribution by the end of October 2009. Retail price is expected to be in the $375.00 range. The Stealth toilet will be available for advanced order from AquaPro Solutions online store in mid to late October 2009.


Aqua Environmental Resource Center is conducting an in house test analysis of the stealth toilet at our new Asheville, NC facility.
Stay tuned for our report or call for information
877-4321-H2O (426) toll free
828-255-0772 local

AP
AquaPro@AskAquaPro.com
AquaPro@AquaEnvi.org

www.AquaProSolutions.com