Is it a Four-Flusher?

Did you know there is controversy brewing in the bathroom?

The battle? How to test toilets.

In an ongoing effort to bring light to things better left in the dark I have done some, ahem, homework on this important subject. I began by wondering if there was a reason that I am often greeted when I go to do my business by someone else’s business, if you get my drift. For years I blamed it on the premise that people are pigs and they don’t flush.

Now it seems that the problem goes, no pun intended, deeper than that.

Flashback with me now to the energy policy act of 1992 which requires that all toilets use only 1.6 gallons of h20. Before that each flush was at least 3 gallons and sometimes as much as 7 GPF (that’s toilet expert talk for gallons per flush.)

So not to get too graphic here, the amount of force to move the movement has been cut in half. But the amount of.. um..deposit has remained the same.

Bottom line (no pun..well maybe a little one) is that you often have to flush twice to do what you used to do with one push on the handle. Many people don’t do double flushes and so we are often greeted by a reminder of those who have gone before.

Now comes the controversy. Testing toilet flushing for years has been done by using ¾ inch plastic balls in the hopper and pulling the trigger. The standard? 100 balls in the bowl, at least 75 have to leave the premises. The problem? Well no matter what you have been eating you probably don’t leave plastic balls after a sitting.

It’s just not a good test.

So the big toilet guys have come up with a new test. It involves using something called Miso, a food product that is made of soybeans. The stuff is used mostly for soups.

I checked out some miso and it definitely looks the part.

Yep. Looks about right.

It seems to have the ..um..right consistency.

It’s even brown.

So in the ongoing quest for the perfect flush let’s hear it for Miso.