A common trick for people concerned about water use is to put a brick in the toilet tank. However, some Public Works departments would prefer you fill a plastic bottle with sand or rocks and put that in the tank instead. They say that bricks can disintegrate and damage plumbing.
Toilets know when to stop filling with water once the water reaches a certain level. By displacing that water with an object, you reduce the actual amount of water needed to tell the toilet it’s ready for action. It’s likely you don’t need quite the full 1.6 gallons per flush (or whatever) 10-gallon hat, so to speak, to do the job fine.
Alternatively, you can install a lo-flow toilet. — BEN POPKEN
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you can indeed make the same adjustment by turning a little screw. but don’t turn it too much or you’ll have to flush twice
This reminds me of my college days when we would do an “upper-deck” at house parties.
http://www.antiupperdeck.com/
@TechnoDestructo:
Jeez, you must be always damaging your plumbing.
@Pelagius: I have two of the dual-flush toilets in my home in Florida, imported from Japan. Amazing how well they work compared to the American Standard 1.6 gallon toilets that they replaced. Even using just 1.4 gallons per flush for..ahem, #2, they can still swallow a full roll of Charmin Ultra 2-ply on a single flush without the slightest hint of choking. Using just 0.9 gal for the “#1″ flush makes a heck of a lot of sense.
After living with these for awhile, it now seems strange to see a typical American toilet, with the bowl full of water and the water rising during the flush. Seems wasteful to use 5 gallons to move 1 cup of wee.
Unlike any of the American toilets, the Japanese & Aussie toilets use gravity towards their advantage. I’ve seen the American Standard “Champion Right Height” toilet… not impressed. It’s an amazingly simple toilet, no pressure tanks, siphon jets, or any other fancy technology, just damn good fluid dynamics. Looks like they stayed awake in Physics class….while the American crapper makers were probably paying homage to the porcelain god rather than improving them.
I challenge the thought that a brick in the toilet saves water. This would only be true if the water level fell below the top of the brick. In most modern toilets, the water level on fall about 3-4 inches and would never reach the brick. This is simply physics. Yes you would save the volumn of the brick the first time you put it in, but after that it is pure urban legend that it saves water. (unless as stated above, the water level falls below the top of the brick and then it would only save the exposed volumn of the brick.