Free UHET Toilets Installed.

[HTSS_TR]

Just got 2 toilets installed for no cost last week by local water company, Irvine Ranch Water District. The limit was the house must be built before 1994 and the old toilets are the un-efficient 3.5 gallon per flush.

The toilets are Niagara Stealth UHET 0.8 Gallon per flush. MSRP is about $300/ea and actual retail is probably $200/ea, labor to remove and take away the old and install the new is probably $100 or more each. Since the water company pay for part and labor for several hundreds, may be several thousands, their cost per toilet may be less than $200 each.

Tried the toilets for a week, it flush very well on both liquid and solid waste. Looking at the tank(after removed the cover) looks like it use very little water, 0.8 gallon per flush is probably right.

I don't mind getting freebees from a government agency, we are Irvine Ranch Water District customer for 15+ years, once in a while they gave some freebees like water efficient shower head, water efficient sprinkler ...

 

[crazyoildude]

the government and pretty much anyone else never gives something for free unless there is something in it for them..

 

[yonyon]

The "something for them" part is the bit where you give up your old "push the handle once and it's done" 10 Gpf unit. A lot of people still seem to believe that these fancy low volume toilets actually use less water.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
The "something for them" part is the bit where you give up your old "push the handle once and it's done" 10 Gpf unit. A lot of people still seem to believe that these fancy low volume toilets actually use less water.

They do if you are willing to do some 'manual labor'.

 

[Rick in PA]

The "something for them" could easily be not having to build, or at least delaying building, new sewage treatment plants if they are at capacity. Plus it reduces load on the water supply systems. Not a bad deal.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
The "something for them" part is the bit where you give up your old "push the handle once and it's done" 10 Gpf unit. A lot of people still seem to believe that these fancy low volume toilets actually use less water.


They do with liquids which is the vast majority of flushes. The minority of flushes are solids and two solids flushes of less water still saves water when you take in overall picture.

 

[demarpaint]

Nice score! The only thing they give away free here is air, and if they could find a way to sell it they would.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

The toilets in our home move both solids and liquids on one single flush, and they are all water conserving 1.6 GPF toilets. It's one reason why our average daily household water usage is only about 50 gallons. Using water conserving toilets delays or stops the need to build additional facilities, so it's a benefit for the water district when people use them.

Originally Posted By: yonyon
The "something for them" part is the bit where you give up your old "push the handle once and it's done" 10 Gpf unit. A lot of people still seem to believe that these fancy low volume toilets actually use less water.


That's utter nonsense.

 

[Shannow]

When you guys fill the bowl with water, first, then try to get it to run away, there's now way that velocity will get the stuff moving, unless it's dense enough to be sunk at the start of the flush.

Our loos have a head tank, and a small splash area...head tank flushes waterfall fashion into the hole. Water swirls down, and send he poop towards the chute.

 

[Cujet]

Trust me, you paid for it. And, you paid too much...

I know you feel great about this, however, this is the reality of the situation:

You would be better off, with the utility charging you the proper cost for water and sewer with no "cushion" built in. Then with the money you save, do what you need to do with it.

 

[Coprolite]

I got two free toilets a couple of years ago in the same manor. They work so well that I regret having already replaced the one in the master bath. I would have bought a matching one in a heart beat.

It is pretty interesting how engineering can beat the old fashioned brute force high volume technique.

 

[Virtuoso]

That's awesome. With the price we get charged for water and sewer, I wish our utility would do that for us.

We recently replaced a 5gal/flush unit in our basement with a 1.3gal/flush piece. So far, it works as good as the old one.

 

[bepperb]

We have Kohler 1.2gpf and they will flush anything. I have three kids. Wads of paper towel, the core of the toilet paper roll, whatever.

There was a time when low-water use toilets couldn't keep up with 3.5gpf models. Nowdays Toto and others have caught up, and yes they do use that much less water.

Search MaP toilet performance testing if you're that interested.

 

[Coprolite]

An example of equating perception to reality:
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Trust me, you paid for it. And, you paid too much...

I know you feel great about this, however, this is the reality of the situation:

You would be better off, with the utility charging you the proper cost for water and sewer with no "cushion" built in. Then with the money you save, do what you need to do with it.

 

[rshaw125]

I replaced 3 10 year old 'low flush' toilets with 3 new Kohlers. The technology has come a long way. The new toilets work very well. The City sent me a check for $300. So I had to pay $150 out of pocket.
I could see a noticeable difference on my water bill. 12 months and I'll be in the money. Plus they work a lot better.

 

[PandaBear]

I don't think it is a government waste.

You need to check how much it cost to build new sewage plants and see that a reduction of some of the biggest water waster (pre 94 6-8 gal / flush) in the house to be very cost effective.

Look at your water bill, the sewage portion is probably $20/month, let's assume they charge the same sewage rate regardless of how much water you use. Then you'll see a toilet that use 10x more water (assume 60% of all household sewage come from the toilet) will means this is reduced by a huge amount. It could save them a lot of money than building a new plant to handle all the sewage.

 

[HTSS_TR]

My latest month water bill is $35.70: Water usage(9 CCF) $9.20, water service charge $9.30, sewer service charge $17.20.

Water bills in summer months are about $40-45 because I turn on lawn sprinkler more often.

The water rate is fairly low, but the fixed charges of $9.30 and $17.20 are fairly high, but nothing I can do about it. No other water supplier to choose from.

I think IRWD had surplus for 2-3 years because of high monthly service charges, they just like to spend some of that surplus, also reducing the wasted water now they may not need to expand or build a new sewer treatment.

Not all houses will get new toilets, only the ones that call a phone number on the flyer will get it, and they say there is a limit number of toilets they can install.

 

[mechanicx]

My water bill is around $120 per quarter. I don't even use much water at home. I drink bottled water, I'm not watering the lawn or washing my cars here. I wonder what it'd be if it was a family of four, or does the usage not even make much difference? I don't have a bill handy to break it down.

 

[tom slick]

Those toilets, shower heads, etc get paid for by assessments on building the new houses or adding bathrooms during a remodels.

It's done because Southern California pipes nearly all of its water, about 95%, from other places. Those pipelines have a finite capacity so if you add a toilet in one place you need to reduce flow somewhere else. In much of the rest of the state, aquifers are down and we've been in a drought. The previous town I lived in installed new toilets in an attempt to slow down water usage to slow salt water intrusion into the aquifer.

BTW, I installed new 1.2 gpf toilets and they flush much better than the old 5 gpf toilets they replaced. Not a single clog, I can't say that about the old toilets.

 

[Cujet]

I've got a well and septic. It matters not, how much water I waste flushing or showering. It goes right back into the ground.

The only way I can significantly waste water is by watering the lawn, which I don't do.

So, don't restrict me to 0.001 gallons per flush, or 0.2 GPM showerheads! I'm a feee man, let me be.