I can't believe I've never thought to do this.

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

mark_wpduet

mark_wpduet

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
2,649
Location
Lexington KY
two people live here. I use my bathroom and they use theirs. Me being a clean freak I have to clean everything so I clean their bathroom and it's always 10x worse than mine..I can clean the toilet sparkling, all around the walls, baseboards, the sides of the toilet back, and anywhere else... but I still smell that hint of pee around their toilet... I saw a video and they took the toilet seat off..WHY THE ? did I never think to do this. It's so freaking easy! You should have seen it... It was disgusting...I cleaned it in the bathtub.. sprayed it all over with cleaner and let it set then rinsed it off well,same with the nuts and bolts and put it back and the smell is totally gone.

I didn't think I was going to do mine but I went ahead and did it just to see and it was not that bad...but I cleaned it anyway.
 
When Dave was still living at home for nearly ten years after his stroke, I bought toilet seats that could be lifted off for cleaning.  With his regularly occurring accidents, the detachable feature made it easy to take the seat outside to hose it off, which took less time and was less disgusting.  These seats, just based on their design, have the added benefit of no wobbling, which was another good feature since Dave would tend to come down hard when he sat.

 

I still have the detachable seats on both toilets in the house, even though Dave went into assisted living and skilled nursing four years ago.  I wouldn't ever buy any other type of toilet seat.
 
 
Toilet seats should be removed for full access to cleaning as part of a normal routine, not necessarily at every cleaning incident but surely on a recurring schedule.  Note that males sitting for urination goes a long way toward eliminating the splattering issue and drips on the floor.  I initiated a discussion on the subject four years ago but it's in the green section so inaccessible to you (Mark).
 
We have those detachable toilet seats too Ralph. When we replaced the toilet seats a couple of months ago it was a snap to just remove the old ones, leave the attachment bolts in place and snap the new one onto the same attachment bolts. As it turns out they just happened to also be the least expensive ones at Lowes too.

Eddie
 
Another spot to check and clean is the gap between the toilet bowl and floor, that can hold some nasties. I use an old toothbrush (or a steam cleaner before it stopped working). depending on the type of flooring, you may also consider using a urine eliminator spray (for pet urine) on the floor around the toilet bowl.
 
ahead of you...I use a cleaning toothbrush around that area.. I bet you're right... that urine eliminator spray would work great... but I think the main culprit was the lid area that connects to the bowl, and the nuts and bolts.. I literally can smell zero pee now.. it literally looked like piss gel all in the nooks and crannies...

I'm not gonna lie... It was SOO satisfying cleaning that and making it look like new... disgusting as it was.

It would be nice to have a quick detachable seat, but this really took hardly any time to remove, put back on.
 
My toilet hangs on the wall, and has no tank, so it's relatively easy to clean. I remove the seat every so often, which makes the area at the back easier to clean well. The floor under is easily mopped. I just wish I'd had it located a few more inches from the side wall, which would better facilitate cleaning the outside of the bowl.
 
Another reason i miss the Brazilian bathrooms and the Brazilian way of cleaning. And it's also a "cliché" thing all Brazilian immigrants end up learning the worst way when they move here (usually destroying their first home the very first time they clean the bathrooms)

In my apartment back in Brazil i used a pressure washer to wash both bathrooms, from the ceiling to the floor.

It's easy, like washing a car... first the foam canon to make everything pink, yellow, or blue, then swap with that T-Racer (a nozzle that looks almost like a dishwasher spray arm).

After done, put a fan to circulate air and dry everything bathroom thoroughly washed in less than 5 minutes, no elbow grease.

Here, there was a tiny crack on the bathtub grout, enough to have water dripping downstairs.

Ok, we have excellent cleaning products here in the US that gets the job done with a simple spray and wipe, but still, it's not the same as a real washing.

Same with the kitchen. I have an excellent steam cleaner, but it's not the same as using a pressure washer to wash the cabinets, but again, theres no floor drain and the cabinets are not washable, the ovens are now waterproof, using a pressure washer to get rid of baked on stuff or that yellow yuck from the oven door is simply unthinkable.

Those are some of the very few things I miss from Brazil.
 
Reply #1 what is a detachable toilet seat? Not sure I've heard of such. Thought they all detached in a sense. If there's an easier way to clean it though I'm all for it. Also if they stay in place better that would be great for me because we go through a toilet seat every couple years. When I help my wife transfer from her wheelchair to the toilet and back, it's a different motion, more forceful I guess, than someone just sitting normally so it puts more strain on the components over time and the hinges eventually break. It never fails.

Reply #2 I've been sitting to pee for ages. When I was a little kid I had a lot of trouble learning how to stand and pee as a blind person I would get piss everywhere and cry from embarrassment. But I figured that was just what guys did so I kept at it until my dad finally said something along the lines of "bud it's okay if you don't want to do this anymore it's ok to just sit and pee. No one's gonna give a sh*t." So I've been doing it that way ever since and no more humiliation or mess. I don't think any male without vision should have to go through that while toilet training as it was actually kind of traumatizing.
 
Ryne,

We have the "quick release" type of toilet seats in our house, but I'm not sure how to explain it clearly.
As part of each hinge assembly, there's a little lever type piece that you just rotate, and the seat lifts off.
The bolts stay attached to the toilet.
 
A friend of mine shared with me that he sits to pee, but he sits backwards, facing the tank.  With knees bent, extend your feet as far behind you as is comfortable.  Everything flows much easier when using this method.

 

Like Roger, I do this at home and usually at female friends' homes, but in public restrooms that don't provide urinals, I stand.

 

 
 
Indeed a toilet is designed to be used seated. I always do so if I am the one cleaning it, or I simply care for the person that does. No matter how careful one is splashing happens. I rarely ever need to clean more than just the bowl and seat on mine.

As for the gap between the floor and the fixture, don't use caulk to seal it. While it would improve ease of cleaning, it also seals in any wax ring seepage should it ever leak. This insures the floor is destroyed before detection. Nothing more insidious than a slow undetected leak
 
I don't think I paid more than $40 for the Bemis seats, and probably the same for the one I recently purchased, which is a Kohler.  Both came from Home Depot.   Of the two, I think Bemis has a better system for fastening to the bowl.  Both of the toilets I installed have smooth sides, which makes for easy cleaning, but when installing seat hardware you're literally feeling your way through the tightening process.
 
Wax Ring seepage

I've actually seen that before... but it went away and I've never seen it again. I'm trying to remember, I felt like I would see a slight water from the bottom...but then it just completely stopped and never returned. Luckily, I'm on a concrete slab..and tile on top of that in the bathrooms.

I might check out those removable seats. My toilets are branded by the name of Mansfield.
 
Lift off toilet seats?

I need those! I had no clue this was a thing!
Our new house smells like pee in the bathrooms, and we have done everything other than replace the toilets. I will say, using a steam cleaner and cleaning around the bottom of the toilet does wonders! I think our issue is with plumbing or urine around the wax seal. Not idea.
 
Thanks for the link. They are not expensive, but after watching that quick video demo of remove/replace I realized that the nuts/bolts are still there.. the seat detaches from that but they stay fixed there and isn't that eventually going to have to be unscrewed and cleaned too... am I missing something? When I removed mine the nuts/bolts themselves were covered in what looked like a piss gel...it was sooo gross..had I had this removable seat, for example... removing the seat itself in my case wouldn't have been enough...I would have to take the bolts off too
 
Mark the plastic bolts and the attachment plate have no play in them once affixed to the back of the toilet, there’s no room for stray piss to become lodged underneath the attachment plate.

When I replaced both of our toilet seats a couple of months ago there was no odor of stale urine and no build up of piss around the attachment plate. I didn’t even bother to remove the old bolts and attachment plates, I just removed the old worn toilet seats and attached the new ones onto the clean fixture already in place, easy-peasy.

David thoroughly cleans both toilets once or sometimes even twice weekly. Because the bolts for these seats are plastic there is never any corrosion due to urine. Once discovering these toilet seats I wouldn’t have any other kind.

Eddie
 
Gotcha

another cool thing I learned that looks like common sense and has always bugged the hell out of me is toilet bowl brushes...the fact that after you're done, they're dripping wet and I feel like where they sit is a breeding ground in a someone closed up environment waiting for the next use....Well, in the video, you close the toilet bowl seat onto the brush holding it there above the water in the bowl to drip and air dry for a bit before putting it back into it's holder. Well, chalk that up to another thing I can't believe I didn't think to do.. It's so stupidly simple
 
We never use a toilet bowl brush. We use a scrubbing sponge dedicated to cleaning toilets only and get in there with our hands with either Ajax or Comet and use elbow grease to clean the bowl. After all, theres bleach in the cleansing powder and your gonna wash your hands anyway once the dirty job is completed. Then we leave the water with the Ajax or Comet in the bowl for a while to continue disinfecting the bowl.

I think toilet bowl brushes are nasty.

Eddie
 
Wall Mount Toilets

I forgot to mention that when I designed the new configuration for a tired old DIY bathroom that we were gutting and converting into a master bath, I was finally able to have the toilet of my dreams -- a wall mounted type.  I don't know why these haven't  become standard fare for new construction or remodels.  Particularly with Dave's disasters, mopping up was so much easier with nothing but tile floor under the bowl.  It also makes a small bathroom feel larger without the big footprint of a floor-mount type.

 

I found the only model that had an exposed tank.  The last thing I wanted was the tank behind the wall where it couldn't be accessed for the inevitable flapper failure or fill valve replacement.

rp2813-2023082317401407042_1.jpg

rp2813-2023082317401407042_2.jpg

rp2813-2023082317401407042_3.jpg

rp2813-2023082317401407042_4.jpg
 
Tom, a Sloan valve would have been a nice look, as I wanted an understated locker room feel.  A curbless shower with bench, wide door and grab bars was necessary for Dave, and that made mopping the whole room really easy.  Water pressure was sub-optimal at that house and the project went way over budget, plus I was looking for something quiet since I was turning it into a master bath.  I was just really happy to have managed a wall mount.  The contractors had never installed one, so it was an interesting job for them, too.

 

If anyone is considering a wall mounted toilet, you'll need to budget not only for the fixture itself, but also for the "carrier," which is the large cast iron sanitary fitting between the studs that the toilet bolts onto.
 
My basement bath has a wall hung toilet with a flush valve, it's great.  When we  added it I opted not to chop up the floor and had the sewer line brought in at floor level.  Over the years had 2 toilets with tanks down there Much happier with the flush valve setup.
 
I always remove the toilet seats while cleaning my toilets. I have an old Kenmore Elite, with an easily removable upper rack, hooked up in my garage that I use for utility cleaning. I wash the seats in there. It's also great for cleaning my cat's litter boxes. Good thing I don't use it for dishes, huh?
 
I wonder if that mansfield removable toilet seat link... I know there are different models of toilets...and since mine are from 2004 I wonder if it's universal or not...I mean it "looks" like it would fit" but you never know
 

Similar threads

mark_wpduet
First time I've ever called a plumber
Replies
23
Views
382
kenwashesmonday
K
mark_wpduet
I think I RUINED my laptop
Replies
2
Views
306
mark_wpduet
mark_wpduet
volsboy1
Can't beat Mini-splits for heating/cooling
Replies
18
Views
428
william8
william8
G
dishomat dreams and ideas
2 3 4
Replies
94
Views
2K
maytaga806
M
michaelz08
My thoughts on the Miele G7166
2
Replies
31
Views
985
foraloysius
foraloysius

Latest posts

Back
Top