It’s a small thing but it has bugged me for a while that the most common form of low flush toilet handle used in large scale bathroom facilities (Leed certified (highly environmentally friendly) type buildings) is designed to encourage more water use.
Let me explain: most toilet flushes are only going to flush away #1, not #2. And most of us (in the U.S.) are used to pushing a toilet handle down to flush.
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| Photo of handle in Brown University Building |
Enter this model of toilet flush where if you squint at the graphics you can see that for a low flush (1 drop of water on graphic) you pull the handle up and for a heavy flush (3 drops of water on graphic) you push the handle down.
If you’re not used to these toilets (most people don’t have dual flush toilets in their home, and if they do, they’re not this model), you will probably just push the handle down and it will be the heavy (#2) flush, which is likely to be unnecessary.
What am I missing? The people who design these must have thought this through. Am I right? is it really a design flaw? Please educate me.