Archive for american standard toilet
The Professor is a proud friend of John-Michael Gigliotti, a 14 year old autistic teenager and highly knowledgeable toilet fan, whose passion for the commode is impressing plumbing industry executives and improving the facilities at a public park in his hometown of Camden, PA with the help of plumbing manufacturer American Standard.
John-Michael’s parents say that he has been fascinated by toilets since the age of 3, and that as he grew older he learned all he could about the different styles, brands, and flushing mechanisms available. Earlier this year John-Michael was given a tour of American Standard’s Piscataway, NJ-based factory, where he thoroughly impressed the staff with his knowledge of the brand’s product line. John Michael’s father, Camden City Council Member John Gigliotti said that he “watched John-Michael in utter amazement at how he shared his passion and knowledge of your product line and the product line of your competitors with [Director of Design] Gary [Uhl] and other members of your team.”
John Michael and his Cadet 3 Toilet from American Standard
The company donated the toilet of John-Michael’s choosing – the Cadet 3 FloWise, a selection the Professor would fully endorse – to his family, and John-Michael has been happily giving all visitors “the demonstration” ever since. Council Member Gigliotti thanked the company for their generosity and for their engagement with his son, reflecting, “it is going to take this spirited type of thinking and approach to help transition many of these children into adulthood and obtain semi-independent living with meaningful employment.”
However, receiving a new toilet for his home didn’t stop John-Michael from thinking about other parts of his daily life that would benefit from an upgrade to a new American Standard toilet. Over the summer, while visiting a local park, he noticed that the restrooms were in poor shape. He suggested to his father that they contact the company and ask if they could help by replacing the toilets, urinals, and sinks with better models. The Professor is pleased to report that American Standard agreed to help, and has told John-Michael to identify exactly what is needed at the park. They will then donate whatever products he believes will improve the park facilities.
John-Michael is still making his selections, but the Professor looks forward to learning what his recommendations are and offers a tip of the hat to this new, civic-minded colleague, the teenaged Toilet Guru.
Toilet Testing: What Goes into a Reliable Product?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen choosing a toilet for your home, there are a number of important things to consider. In addition to pricing – something that nearly everyone needs to worry about these days – there is the issue of maintenance and reliability: how can you be certain that a toilet will work reliably and continue to do so into the future? Then there is also the issue of water use. Toilets are by far the biggest indoor sources of water use in American households, so by choosing a low-flow toilet you can save water and save money on your monthly utility bill.
The Professor’s solution is to learn as much as possible about the testing a manufacturer performs on its toilets. What kind of tests were done, how rigorous were they, and how well did the toilet stand up to them? A video that demonstrates the tests that American Standard performed on the Champion 4, one of its newest high performance, low-flow toilets is one of the Professor’s favorite new discoveries. It not only shows the many ways that the toilets are tested for effective flushing, but also looks at product improvements that American Standard has made based on what their (engineers? designers?) have learned from earlier product tests.
Toilets: Get Comfy
Posted by: | CommentsWhen selecting a toilet, homeowners have the choice between round and elongated bowl designs.
Round-front toilets have been around the longest and typically extend 25 to 28 inches from the wall. Newer to the scene and designed to be more comfortable, elongated bowls typically extend 29 to 31 inches from the wall.
Because the toilet sits opposite the door in many smaller bathrooms, a regular elongated toilet can restrict the size of the door or its swing – or just make navigating small powder rooms difficult.
A third option is called compact elongated, which combine the best of both worlds: comfort and space savings. Compact elongated toilets, such as the Compact Cadet 3, offer the comfort of an elongated bowl in same 27½-inch footprint as a conventional round-front bowl.
This space-saving feat is accomplished by reengineering the trapway so that it is closer to the wall but still fits standard 12-inch rough in designs.
It is important not to confuse bowl size (distance from the wall to the front of the bowl) with a toilet’s rough-in dimensions, which denotes the distance from the wall to the center of the toilet flange in the floor).
Yurt Sweet Yurt: An Eco-Friendly, Water-Efficient Life in Western Montana
Posted by: | CommentsEco-friendly plumbing fixtures are often found in really interesting and unique eco-friendly homes. The Professor recently had the opportunity to chat with Patty Woodland, who lives in a newly-built yurt in Western Montana, about how her WaterSense-certified faucets and toilet fit into her green lifestyle. In the interview below Patty discusses her experiences as a part-time goatherd, soap maker and jewelry designer and also tells us what steps she took to make her home an earth-friendly space.
1. What is a yurt?
According to the dictionary, a yurt is: a circular tent consisting of a framework of poles covered with felt or skins, used by Mongolian and Turkic nomads of E and central Asia. But MY yurt is more permanent. It is a kit house my husband found and it arrived on two flatbed trailers. It consists of 36, 4′ panels with a 6′ skylight at the center. The ceiling is 18′ high and pie shaped paneled wood sections. The interior walls go up 9′ so it is very open and airy. We wanted a unique home with lots of windows to take advantage of the beautiful view we have of the Clark Fork River and this fits the bill.
2. Why did you choose to live in a yurt?
Yurts are very energy efficient structures. They also stand up well to high winds – which we see in our spring storm season. My husband was intrigued with the idea and once he gets an idea in his head there is no stopping him. Additionally, the price per square foot for the kit was quite affordable and we could design the interior to our needs.
3. What other funny-sounding names do you have in your life? 
I have a small herd of dairy goats that I have named after family and friends. There is this one very stubborn goat named Nora. The head goat is Pricilla and she is the SpokesGoat for Happy Goat Soap, a small business I run using the excess milk from my little herd. She takes her duties very seriously; she blogs! She posts every day to The Maaaaa of Pricilla telling tales of her life on the Happy Goats Farm with all of the goats; Abby, Mallory, Sarah, Stubborn Nora, Luke, Little Lew and Little Timmy (the new kids on the Farm). She also sometimes mentions the Farm cats Stinky, Pumpkin and Sherpa.
4. What are the eco-friendly choices you made in your yurt?
We are trying to make all of our choices as green as possible! Our flooring is bamboo and Marmoleum. Marmoleum is green alternative to linoleum made of linseed oil and jute. We used low VOC paint on the walls and will use it on the trim – whenever the trim gets added. All of the light fixtures and appliances are Energy Star rated. Our toilet and bathroom faucets are water conserving since we live in an area of the country where water use is a big concern. The windows are Low E and we added an overhang to the roof so as to keep the house cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. We also added additional windows for passive solar heating. We insulated the basement with ICF so that it helps to again keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Our woodstove meets the highest standards for emissions as set by the EPA. My countertop is a recycled quartz called Caesarstone.
5. What are the eco-friendly choices you declined due to budget?
I had fallen in love with artisan made cabinets made from larch grown here in Montana but the cost was just too great. I am very happy with the cherry cabinets I did get, and the company is part of a green network, but it would have been nice to have them crafted locally. My cabinets are all hardwood and again, due to costs I only have base cabinets. The plans called for additional base and wall cabinets and more countertop. I opted to put in two sets of steel shelving. They compliment the open feel of the yurt and will provide plenty of additional storage and display space for my canning jars and pantry items. We also want to add solar hot water and electric but it will have to wait until we can save the money.
6. You live far more vibrantly than the Professor, great richness of color in your rooms. Does the Professor note a well-trained eye for art and artistic expression?
I don’t know about well-trained but my mother was an artist and I think I may have inherited her sense of color. I came late in life to a talent for making jewelry. I love pairing different gemstones and I sell my creations at Broken Teepee Designs. Why live in a beige house when you can have a cherry red kitchen, a yellow bedroom and a raspberry bathroom? If one is not comfortable picking out bold colors there are designers that are more than happy to help. And I know that not everyone wants to live in a house full of bold colors but try adding a touch of red or pinch of purple. It will make you days in your house happy.
7. Does your American Standard FloWise toilet flush well? Does it flush powerfully?
Oh yes! I am very happy with the high-efficiency toilet; especially with the fact that it uses so little water!
DIY Installation and performance of Low Flush Toilet
Posted by: | CommentsA big shoutout to Todd, who has just replaced an old American Standard five-gallon flusher with H2Option. Todd is going to save more than 10,000 gallons of water in the next year, according to our water saving calculator
Here’s Todd in his own words:
WOW!!!!
I can not believe the efficiency of this thing. Try as we might we have not been able to get it to clog or not fully flush even with the .9 gallon flush. Read more: DIY Installation and performance of Low Flush Toilet.
Bathroom Reading Month: Do You Read On the Toilet?| BlogHer
Posted by: | CommentsBathroom Reading Month: Do You Read in The Bathroom? | BlogHer.
Do you read in the bathroom? Many people multitask on the toilet, which isn’t too surprising, consider how many people text and drive.
A 2008 study sponsored by American Standard shows that people are doing a lot of things inside their bathrooms besides the obvious.
1. A full 88 percent use at least one electronic device in the bathroom.
2. More than a third read their mail — both snail mail and e-mail.
3. 15 percent talk on the phone, and three percent watch TV.
On Saving (Seltzer) Water at the Brooklyn Farmacy
Posted by: | CommentsLike most people, the Professor enjoys a treat now and again, and nothing hits the spot like an old-fashioned chocolate egg cream. And in Brooklyn, New York, there is now a great new place to have one, thanks in part to the assistance of the TV show Construction Intervention. The shop is called the Brooklyn Farmacy, and proprietor Peter Freeman was about to give up on his dream of opening a neighborhood ice cream shop in a beautiful 100 year-old pharmacy because of the daunting amount of renovations the building required.
A chance encounter with the casting director of the television show saved the day, and Peter agreed to let the crew of Construction Intervention renovate the shop for an episode of the show. The Farmacy’s electrical wiring was re-done, structural problems with the building were fixed, a long soda counter was installed, and two new bathrooms that now feature WaterSense-certified toilets and faucets from American Standard were built.
Having comfortable and inviting bathrooms was important to Peter, who wanted a safe, clean environment for neighborhood kids to wash their hands before digging into a slice of his strawberry-rhubarb pie. The Professor also notes that the new water-saving fixtures also compliment his eco-friendly philosophy of buying locally and sustainably made products.
Congratulations, Peter! The Professor tips his hat to you.
A Life and a Marriage Saved by the Champion 4 Toilet
Posted by: | Comments
It’s likely that very few people make a hobby of reading toilet reviews the way the Professor does, but this take on the superior flushing ability of the Champion 4 up at HomeDepot.com is a must-read. Follow the link above for the touching story of how the virtually clog-free toilet kept an Atlanta resident out of federal prison and saved the life of a mother-in-law whose regular diet apparently consisted of “broccoli, cabbage, and gravel.” Enjoy.
Toilet Myth Busting: Water Saving Toilets Carry The Load
Posted by: | CommentsMany plumbing professionals worry about the ability of water saving toilets to sufficiently carry waste to the sewer. While architects typically determine the sizing, pitch and venting requirements for drain lines, Professor Toilet and other toilet scientists focus exclusively on the science of effective flushing.
Coined “Drain Line Carry,” the ASME Standard requires that every toilet – regardless of water volume used in a flush – be able to drive 100 ¾-inch polypro balls down a 3-inch rigid pipe an average of 40 feet. All of American Standard’s water closets meet this standard and many, including Champion 4, Cadet 3, Colony FitRight, Evolution2 and H2Option, exceed that requirement by more than 16 feet. Here’s where we test:
Helping to transport waste through drain lines is what engineers term “supplemental flow,” or additional water generated from faucets, showers, clothes washing, etc., which is obviously more prevalent in residential than commercial applications.
In other words, drain line clogging isn’t likely to be caused by a water saving toilet. Other common causes of drain line clogging are broken or misaligned pipes, buildup of grease or grit within the drain, as well as flushing inappropriate materials.
Special note to commercial building professionals: Installations with extremely long drain lines (e.g., shopping malls or industrial sites), may require evaluation on a site-by-site basis, especially if no supplemental flows are available.
