Friday, March 6, 2009

German toilets: Product review

German toilets are different from any other that I have seen. They have an intermediate platform of sorts built into them. I wonder what the manufacturers were aiming for - "such a long fall for the poop. Lets give it a landing zone to ease the way to its inevitable drowning". That's right - your poop collects in a nice little pile on the shelf and then waterfalls gently into the pool when you flush.

But it isn't just that. While in the rest of the world the pool of water in the toilet is aligned with the rear end of the body, in German toilets it is a few inches ahead of where you sit. What does this mean for us? It means that when women pee, we pee directly into the water, making it as loud and embarrassing an event as when men stand and pee in the US. I want to meet the brainchild behind this gem. What was he thinking? Or, was he?

I present to you, the German shelf toilet. Go ahead, google it. I'm not the only one with complaints!

3 comments:

Mahesh said...

The diversity of your posts amaze me... The one thing I like about toilets in Europe that I have seen is the two different types of flushes it supports... one type for well #1 and one for the other. nice water savings idea.

wildtomato said...

I hope that the shelf toilet comes equipped with a scrubbing brush, because that setup, without the right water velocity shooting over the shelf, can become really nasty.

Perhaps the idea is that people are more embarrassed about the "plops" versus the tinkle noises. Or something like that.

Some of the companies I've been working for do have the multistage flush. Pull the handle up for #1, and down for #2.

Meera said...

The shelf is slightly concave and there is a small amount of clean water there, minimizing nastiness.

I think dual flush is a great way to save water. We're starting to see a few dual-flush models here. Little button & big button etc (koehler makes those). There is also the kind where you can visually monitor how much you need and either press the flush button a second time or pop the handle to say "we're done now". Our master bath works that way, but not the guest toilet. I don't know enough about flushing technology to say more.