In their own words, on their forum, Dunbar Plumbing explains the benefits of the Champion 4 toilet:

“With the American Standard Champion 4 toilet, our customers have been extremely pleased with the flushing action of the toilet with a “no worry” attitude about what possibly gets thrown down the toilet. This toilet uses a small fraction of water compared to the older 1.6 gallon toilets including the 3.5 gallon flush toilets. Now that these new style toilets use so little water compared to the wasteful 3.5 gallon toilet, it’s a no brainer that those older toilets were such a costly design. We’ve watched the advancements in the technology grow over the past 25 years and it has been a road hard paved with good intentions to finally get a good working, good flushing toilet.”  Read more at the Dunbar Plumbing Forum.

On the other hand, that’s not a discussion Professor Toilet really wishes to have with the in-laws.

If you have a houseful headed your way this month, get a top-rated Champion 4 toilet like the Oakmont.

Also as nervous as anyone else about the prospects of uninvited guests, including clogged toilets and other plumbing nightmares.

Our friends over The Money Pit have a set up tips to help prevent an appearance by your plumber at the dinner table (unless he’s been invited).   Take a read:  Preventing Holiday Plumbing Problems.

It’s World Toilet Day.  A perfect day to hug your plumber.

The premise of World Toilet Day is to remind us all of the serious sanitation problems facing much of the world.  Problems that affluent countries rarely think about.  Until you study World History and learn about the Plague for the first time.

The first rate sanitary systems we enjoy in North America are indeed due to our advanced product technology, but also to the plumbers who protect the health of our nation every day.

So in honor of World Toilet Day,  the Professor urges you to do three things:

1. Make a donation to your favorite clean water charity.

2. Go ahead and do the Big Squat.

3. Hug your plumber. And tell him or her “thanks.”

The iconic 1930s American Standard ad

This post is part of

MaP Your Way Around Clogged Toilets

To flush the likes of this economy, it takes a high performance toilet, independently tested to remove at least 1,000 grams of solid waste on just 1.6 gallons of water or less.

That’s more than 2.2 pounds of stuff you really do not want to be plunging.

Maximum Performance Testing (MaP) is an independent report of toilet flushing performance developed by John Koehler and Veritec Consulting.  The 15th edition was just published last week, available free through the Alliance for Water Efficiency.

The EPA requires that WaterSense labeled toilets be able to flush a minimum of 350 grams in the MaP test.  At present, MaP test is the main, if not only, independently recognized test designed to gauge this rather important parameter.

Follow along with participating bloggers for the Bathroom Blogfest ’09 all week:

• Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads http://www.customercrossroads.com
• Reshma Anand at Qualitative Research Blog http://onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
• Shannon Bilby at From the Floors Up http://fromthefloorsup.com/
• Shannon Bilby and Brad Millner at My Big Bob’s Blog http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
• Laurence Borel at Blog Till You Drop http://www.laurenceborel.com/
• Jeanne Byington at The Importance of Earnest Service http://blog.jmbyington.com/
• Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! http://www.customersrock.net
• Leslie Clagett at KB Culture www.kbculture.blogspot.com
• Katie Clark at Practical Katie http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
• Iris Shreve Garrott at Checking In and Checking Out http://circulating.wordpress.com/
• Julie at Julie’s Cleaning Secrets Blog http://cleaningsecrets.greatcleaners.com/
• Marianna Hayes at Results Revolution http://www.resultsrevolution.com
• Maria Palma at People To People Service http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
• Professor Toilet at Professor Toilet’s Blog http://www.professortoilet.com/
• David Reich at My 2 Cents http://reichcomm.typepad.com/
• Bethany Richmond at The Carpet and Rug Institute Blog http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com
• Carolyn Townes at Becoming a Woman of Purpose http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com
• Stephanie Weaver at Experienceology http://experienceology.blogspot.com;
• C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com
and Simple Marketing Blog http://www.SimpleMarketingBlog.com
• Linda Wright at Lindaloo.com: Build Better Business with Better Bathroomshttp://lindaloo.com/

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 mandated that all toilets sold in the United States effective January 1, 1994 could flush with no more than 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf).    Unfortunately, science had not quite caught up to our politicians, Professor Toilet says sarcastically.   And the season of bad flushing had begun.

Humorist Dave Barry told MSNBC that “blowing the lid off that story” got one of strongest reaction of all the columns he’s ever written.

The objective was water conservation, but the result was anything but.  Using less water in toilets engineered to flush 3.5 gallons or more only meant double flushing or more, wasting far more water than the old toilets ever used.

Fortunately, science prevailed–even over Congress.    Read more from the Plumbing Manufacturers Institute about the difference between water conservation and water efficiency.

How much is 1,000 grams?  It is equal to 2.2 pounds.

How much is 2.2 pounds? It is equal to:
*    Two 16 oz steaks
*    Eight quarter-pound hamburgers
*    66.6 chicken nuggets
*    The difference between zipping your jeans standing up and lying down
*    Probably more than your current toilet can flush without clogging
*    Way more than you will ever “output” in a single visit to the toilet, no matter what you did last night

The test is called Maximum Performance Testing or the MaP test.  Download a free copy of the latest MaP test from by John Koehler and Veritec Consulting and see how many grams your toilet can flush cleanly and completely.

Scores are a general barometer of a toilet’s ability to remove bulk media.  You can figure out what “bulk media” means.  The MaP test protocol was designed to closely replicate “real world demand,”  incorporating soybean paste as a test media and measuring how many grams can be flushed up to 1,000 grams or 2.2 pounds.

If you think that’s a tasteless mental image, you are correct.  It’s supposed to be.   With apologies to the geniuses in marketing, we haven’t seen one real world case of anyone passing golf balls.

The EPA requires that WaterSense labeled toilets be able to flush a minimum of 350 grams in the MaP test.  The top-rated toilets  can flush at least 1,000 grams at one time (a real world test you really don’t want–that’s more than two pounds.   At present, MaP test is the main, if not only, independently recognized test designed to gauge this rather important parameter.

First published in 2003, the 14th edition is available free-of charge on the websites of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), the California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC), and Veritec Consulting Inc.