Toilets of the world

[kenb]

After a long absence due to health and financial problems I'm back online and I just had to share a link that a friend sent me earlier today...after all we do discuss plumbing, heating and the like on here...but I've never seen a discussion on toilets!

http://jonathanstray.com/world-toilet-day

 

[ronhic]

I know it is all part of the travel experience, but give me a 'normal' western style loo anyday.

I don't care if it is Australian low level, German, British or American high level....so long as I don't have to do the 'squat' thing....

Here's the list of minimum requirements

- Loo paper
- seat...though the pan is ok if I have to
- No squatting
- preferably flushes

There are some roadside stops in Australia that do not have flushing loos...they are built over a holding tank and the bottom of the loo has a very lightly sprung metal flap...any weight and things just 'fall on through'....and here is the rather odd thing....they generally have less offensive 'odour' than a normal public toilet...

Go figure....

 

[dj-gabriele]

Me too!

Give me "normal" western toilets anyday!
Hopefully I never had to experience squat style toilets!

Anyway, other than what Chris said, I'd add the bidet, that's something that I can't be without and when I'm aboard I feel quite not confortable in not being able to use it after I do my "stuff", so I end up using half a box of wet-wipes... after the toilet paper of couse!

I don't care if there is high or low flush as 70% of the toilets here have a go/stop button to indeed stop flushing when the bowl is clean, very water wise and confortable too as you don't have to wait for the tank to refill if the first flush didn't clean the bowl ok. The remainder is either old water waster style or dual flush.

 

[mattywashboy]

As i am a very outdoorsy sort of person, i have experienced the lowest possible level of vaguely civilized toilets. They are known here as the 'long drop' or the 'drop hole'. Basically it is very much the same as ronhic was talking about. Its a normal toilet pan on top of a very big hole in the ground. They are commonly found in the middle of the bush at campsites and truck stops. The rule when u go camping and u have to visit ur long drop is to never shine ur torch down the hole....ever.

 

[gyrafoam]

Well, ah swanee, a "unisex" outhouse. And no half-moon carved in the door. I wonder if they are like the ones in the deep- suthun states , complete with venomous spiders? Pesky little Black Widows.

 

[hydralique]

No Southern Outhouse is complete . . .

without a vintage Sears-Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogue strategically placed just in case the t.p. runs out.

 

[rp2813]

Ken

Good to see you here again!

Love the choice of topics for your comeback. You are my kind of guy.

Ralph

 

[qsd-dan]

Years ago, I received an email to the following link in regards to toilets around the world. A little more different and comical than the above.

http://geekyrojak.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/unusual-toilet-around-the-world/

 

[whirlcool]

When I was doing my Asia-Pacific flying several years ago some of the hotels will ask you if you would like a "Western" or "Asian" room upon check in. At first I had no idea what they were talking about so onetime I asked for an Asian room. I got a squat toilet with NO TP! Only a rubber hose and sprayer.
Using one of those squat toilets for the first time is a major adventure in my book. I always asked for a western room after that.
What gets me in the UK is how small the loos often are. They can be tiny!

 

[gansky1]

A friend of mine went on a tour of Eastern Europe with a group of friends and one of the ladies bugged him to no end to take pictures for her. He finally relented and agreed to take her camera. At each of their stops on the tour, he took pictures of toilets and urinals. When she developed her pictures, she had nearly 50 pictures of potties. She's probably going to take her own pictures on the next trip.

When I was in Thailand a number of years ago, squat toilets were very common. My sister had a western-style sit toilet in her apartment but it was a manual flush style - just a bowl and drain. You bailed water into the toilet in whatever quantity needed to clear the bowl. Everywhere we went outside of her apartment was dominated by squat toilets. My Lonely Planet travel guide stated that "those who study such things claim that the incidence of hemorrhoids in "squatters" is far less than "sitters." ;-)

 

[gansky1]

Oh yeah, when we from Bangkok to Ko Samui, a tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand, they had western style toilets in the RR's on the train. Invariably when you'd walk in and look at the toilet, there would be footprints on the seats.

 

[petek]

Ah the squat toilet I remember from my tour de France back in the early 70's. I was staying at the youth hostel in Paris which was actually an old turn of the century house, walked into the washroom and there it was. Looked like a sink built into the floor with two metal "footsteps" to stand on/over.

 

[polkanut]

No thanks,

I'll take my 1935 American Standard "Modernus" toilet anyday. I'm not that into squatting.

 

[toggleswitch2]

AHA!

That explains why the Chinese in downtown Flushing Queens, NYC (yes, that is REALLY the name of the place!) are forever squatting when waiting, say, for a bus............

Yes, there were squat "toilets" outside of Athens, Greece in MANY public establishments in 1973. (I remeber as 10 year old having to go back to our hotel room to have a constitutional).

And the toilets on trains were exactly as described; a hole in the bowl with a foot-operated "flap". All you saw was the tracks when it was open. There was a sign that asked bowel-movers and tinklers to refrain from dumping ("flushing" really), when the train was stationary, at a station.

 

[mielabor]

Train toilets still dump their waste onto the rails in the Netherlands. The idea is that all waste will be distributed over a wide area while traveling at speed and you won't notice. Until some 20 years ago we had a railway bridge over a major street in Amsterdam that was open from the underside: you could see the sky through the tracks. When I had to pass it, I always looked first whether a train was approaching! I was never hit by waste, but I have had stained clothes from rusty water several times. Nowadays they have installed metal screens to protect cyclists and pedestrians. Trams and cars still have to pass under the open tracks.

 

[sudsmaster]

I ran across a squat toilet when I visited the Suzuka racetrack in Japan back in the 90's. Fortunately all I had to do was #1. All the hotels I stayed in automatically gave me a "western" style bath, so I never had to ask. I did like the Japanase bathtub. Short, but very deep, so you could immerse yourself up to your neck while seated in the tub. Plus plenty of hot water delivered at monsoon rate. The bath also had a floor drain so you could soap up outside the tub, rinse off, and then step into the clean hot "rinse" water for a relaxing soak. Heaven!

 

[sudsmaster]

Dual flush, anyone?

Was in Costco yesterday. They are selling a dual-flush low water consumption one piece commode for $150. Quite nice looking, actually, although of course it's made in China (Waterridge brand).

I wonder if Costco would honor their very liberal return policy and take back, ahem, a "used" toilet? LOL.

I also wondered if the thing can actually flush down a normal sized "load". I looked inside the tank and it seemed like it was just a gravity flush type, albeit a taller and thinner tank than most.

Right now my "dual flush" mode is simple: I have a spot in the yard for the "yellow" stuff. Good fertilizer!

 

[mielabor]

I made a picture of the (nowadays partially) open railway bridge on my way home today:

 

[foraloysius]

Older Dutch toilets are different from most common toilets. The toilet bowl is flat on the inside with the drain hole on the front side. So #2 is deposited on a flat surface. I was told by somebody doctors preferred this type of toilet bowl for being able to check #2.

Picture from the internet.

 

[mielabor]

Louis,

I have a similar toilet and when I told my upstairs neighbour that I wanted to replace it, I found out that he is a big fan of those toilets for that very reason: inspection! I never had that urge and it is also rather smelly.

 

[foraloysius]

Theo,

I have one of those too and I really hate them. But since I am in a rental unit and the toilet is very small it's not an option to replace it. Flushing directly after #2 has fallen, before wiping helps a bit.

 

[petek]

What are you saying Louis,, there is no water in that toilet bowl until you flush?

 

[foraloysius]

Just a tiny little bit, the flat surface is a bit hollow.

 

[whirlcool]

Just enough water in those to keep things from sticking to the flat surface. I've dealt with those too, they have those kind in hotel we stay at when flying into Schiphol.

 

[sudsmaster]

Louis,

Back in the 70's someone actually published a book about toilets - to be read in the bathroom, of course. Or maybe it was something Mark Twain wrote long ago. I forget which.

Anyway, I recall reading about the "typically Teutonic" toilet, where the "load" would land an a flat surface for "inspection purposes". I have to say I got a chuckle out of that information, but it does make sense from a medical point of view. Having had struggled in the past to get a stool sample for a lab test, I would imagine that the German style toilet would make that task much simpler. Never actually seen one, but then the closest I've gotten to Germany was Ireland, which has decidedly English/American style crappers.

 

[ronhic]

mmmmm

My partners grandmother had the same toilet in Germany....not my favourite loo I have to admit...

...but you can get around the...er....issue...by putting a couple of sheets of toilet paper on the surface first...

So when you flush, the paper has 'held' the business and the surface underneath is clean.....that solved my issue and may solve yours

 

[MrX]

Irish toilets

They're definitely rather boringly standard low water level type and have been since they were introduced in the 1800s.

The only differences you'd see is with old toilets (1920s era) the cistern is large and mounted at ceiling level with a chain. They flush with an almighty roar and gallons of water.

Post WWII the cisterns were all lower down (same as modern US toilets)

More recently you're seeing a move away from the traditional syphon flush mechanism towards more continental style valves. These usually have a push-button with I/II to reduce water wastage.

On trains in the past they flushed onto the tracks, the toilets were pretty standard flush type which looked like what you'd find in any restroom.

Modern trains (now pretty much all of them) use vacuum retention chemical toilets, similar to an aircraft. You push a button on the wall and 'woosh' everying vanishes and the bowl is topped up with some kind of a strange bluish green fluid.

Public toilets are usually the automated self-cleaning French style thesedays simply because they reduce problems with people 'hanging around'...

 

[MrX]

US toilets from an Irish perspective!

I have to say I found some American toilets weird. The high water level ones are a bit gross if you're not used to them. I also found your toilet bowls very low.

Many of the stalls are also very lacking in privacy, i.e. low doors, large gaps in the structure of door frames etc.

In general, I have to say, I didn't find US toilets (outside of homes and hotel rooms) to be particularly comfortable to use.

 

[sudsmaster]

Of course the worst toilets are ... in Mexico ... more like porcelain open sewers ... yeeech ...

 

[ronhic]

MRX....More recently you're seeing a move away from the traditional syphon flush mechanism towards more continental style valves. These usually have a push-button with I/II to reduce water wastage

You may say continental, I would say Australian - re flush.

...as Caroma invented the dual flush toilet in Adelaide...in 1980

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet