Cottage Q&A
QUESTIONWe're in the market for a new toilet for the cottage, and wanted some guidelines for buying the new "low-flow" (six-litre) versus the older 13-litre tanks. What effect do the new ones have on septic tank health? Does the low-flow model allow for a smaller septic tank and bed because it uses less water?
ANSWER
Your timing is great. If you'd been ready to invest in a low-flow toilet four or five years ago, you would have had trouble telling the good ones from the poor performers. In Ontario, low-volume or low-flow toilets (those that use six or fewer litres of water per flush) have been part of the Building Code since 1996, but a lot of low-flow toilets - whether or not they carried the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) stamp - required two, or even three, flushes to clear, effectively defeating the water-saving purpose.
Eventually, the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association tested hundreds of CSA-certified low-flow toilet models and published a final, exhaustive report, titled Maximum Performance Testing of Popular Toilet Models. Last updated in May 2005, it contains more than you ever wanted to know about toilet testing. But it does tell you, via simple-to-read tables, how much waste each model handled in a single flush. The differences are astounding: Some models removed far less than 250 grams of solids (the report's recommended minimum for certification), while others removed several times that amount. To see for yourself, go to www.cwwa.ca and click on the updated version of the report.
Dan Flynn, owner of ADF Plumbing in Dorset, Ont., warns that even after you've chosen a proven performer you still need to check (or have a plumbing professional check) that your cottage plumbing is up to the task. Potential problem areas - especially if your system is older or was a DIY job - include badly designed drains, improperly installed connection fittings, and a horizontal drain line with too little or too much slope. (The correct slope for a 3" or 4" drainpipe is 1?4" per foot.)
As always, the less waste water you send to your septic system, the better, so a low-flow toilet is good news there. However, each flush still sends out the same concentration of bacteria and other organics for the system to deal with. And you'll still be sending out the same amount of grey water from the other plumbing fixtures, such as sinks and showers, at the cottage. So the Ontario Building Code won't be cutting you any slack - you'll still need to have the same size of septic system.
* Published in the September/October 2005 issue of Cottage Life
