Friday, March 21, 2008

This Olde House - Failed Project: Dual Flush Toilet

I've been researching so called "dual flush toilets" for a couple of years. The short version is that the toilet has two buttons on it. Push #1 when you make #1. Push #2 when you make #2. Pushing the first button only users six tenths of a gallon of water. Pushing the second button uses considerably more, but the full 3 gallons that my current (50yr old) toilets use. And wasting 3 gallons of water every time I pee is a bit excessive. These dual flush units can reportedly conserve 60% of your water use each year. That's a good thing. I'm all about good things.

So I selected a unit from Caroma (in Australia) and found a semi-local distributor. (Semi-local meaning "in Florida.") I rifle through their catalog and work with the rep to make sure I have everything ordered correctly. We get all the paperwork setup and confirm everything is in stock. And then comes the disappointing part.

A normal toilet (ie: water hog!) goes for <$100. A dual flush goes for $350. I was going to bite the bullet and do the right thing. Until the rep contacts me and says, "the freight charges are $150."

The what are what?!?

So the "All In Cost" would be $500. For one toilet??

(insert long sigh)

Now I have to scratch that off my "to do" list. No way I can pay 500% more. Not on this renovation. Hopefully in a couple of years the dual flush solution will be more widely used. I'll adopy it when I build a house.

But for right now, it is too expense to do the right thing. At least for me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the higher cost it was going to be for you. I know Caroma is working to get distribution set up throughout the southeast, and recently set up a warehouse in Atlanta. Unfortunately, we only ship our toilets on pallets to avoid breakage and 1 toilet costs the same as several to ship since it takes the same amount of space. Please look for Caroma in your area.
Thank you,
Vince Stewart