Best Options for High-Efficiency Toilets

By Dan Chiras
Published on February 18, 2010
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With only a few simple tools, you can install a new water-efficient toilet.
With only a few simple tools, you can install a new water-efficient toilet.
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Dual-flush toilets look like standard toilets, but instead of one lever to flush, they have two buttons: one for a full flush and another that uses less water.
Dual-flush toilets look like standard toilets, but instead of one lever to flush, they have two buttons: one for a full flush and another that uses less water.
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The unit inside this toilet tank pressurizes the water so that each flush uses only 1 gallon of water.
The unit inside this toilet tank pressurizes the water so that each flush uses only 1 gallon of water.

<p>With water shortages becoming more common, numerous states and nations are enacting regulations to conserve water. The efforts have centered primarily on water efficiency — ways to meet our needs using the least amount of water. One popular approach is the installation of high-efficiency toilets to replace old, water-intensive ones, which consume as much as 7 gallons per flush. If your home has an old toilet, it makes sense — economically and environmentally — to replace it with a water-conserving model that will use about 55 percent less water than a conventional toilet.</p>
<p>Installing a high-efficiency toilet can save you a substantial amount of money by reducing your water bills. Water-efficient toilets also reduce our collective pressure on limited water supplies and, in urban areas, the amount of waste flowing to sewage treatment plants. Less waste lowers the plants’ operating energy and costs.</p>
<p>In rural areas not served by municipal wastewater treatment plants, water-efficient toilets reduce the amount of waste flowing into septic tanks and leach fields, extending the lives of these systems. If you use well water, an efficient toilet will also cut down the run time of your well pump, reducing electrical consumption. Plus, the less your pump runs, the longer it will remain in service.</p>
<h3>What Are Your Options?</h3>
<p>Water-efficient toilets fit into three categories: <strong>single-flush</strong> at 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf), <strong>dual-flush toilets</strong> (1.6 gpf/0.8 gpf) and <strong>pressure-assist toilets</strong> (1 gpf). Single-flush toilets using 1.6 gallons per flush are now required by law in most new home construction and bathroom remodels. Although the earliest water-efficient toilets had some problems (such as tanks that were too small and lacked sufficient flushing power), most water-efficient toilets on the market today work well.</p>
<p>As the name implies, dual-flush toilets provide two flushing options. Solids are flushed with 1.6 gallons of water. Liquids are flushed by about half that volume — 0.8 to 0.9 gpf. Most manufacturers offer at least one dual-flush toilet.</p>

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