Homemade Toilet Flusher

Gravity Toilet Basics

• What you don’t see when you flush a toilet is the elementary design that makes it work. The bottom of the toilet leads water up and over a curve roughly in the form of a flattened, upside-down "U." Water seeks its own level. The tank above a toilet stores water. When you push down on the flushing lever, the mechanism in the tank sends water into the toilet from inlets just under the ceramic rim. The added water pushes the water containing waste over the top of the curve. The departing water forms a partial vacuum that sucks water after it. When the added water reaches the previous level, the flush is finished. Water under pressure refills the tank.

History

• In the 19th century, the water was stored in a tank on the wall behind the toilet. You pulled a chain and the water ran down a pipe into the toilet, triggering the gravity flush. In the 20th century, water delivered under pressure enabled manufacturers to market toilet flushers. They invented all kinds of rubber, metal and plastic doodads and gadgets to empty and refill toilet tanks. What the flushing mechanisms all had and still have in common is that they really aren’t intended to last forever. If they did, sales would flatten. That flushing mechanisms are a superfluous convenience is an amusing sort of open secret.

Flushing Requirements

• Older flush toilets used 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush. Most toilets now use 1.6 gallons of water, although more frugal toilets can get by with 1.4 or even 1.28 gallons per flush. They typically require 20 to 25 pounds per square inch of water pressure to refill the water tank from below. Water is scarce in some developing countries, and people might not have any water pressure system at all, yet they have gravity flush toilets using a simple methodology.

Homemade Toilet Flusher

• Attach a hose to a faucet. To flush the toilet just aim the hose into the bowl and turn on the water or use a plastic dipper to retrieve water from the sink. The toilet will flush using the same laws of physics as those with fancy flushing mechanisms. In the developing world, people may have their toilet connected to a septic tank but do not have water delivered under pressure. They fill a barrel from a stream, river, lake or rainwater collected from the roof and scoop flush water with a dipper.