photo credit: DDFic
The great frugal debate: high efficiency toilet (HET) vs. good old fashioned red brick. I have a toilet from 1975 in our guest bathroom that I want to replace with a new low flow toilet that uses 1.2 gallons per flush, or gpf to be technical. The 1975 American Standard toilet doesn’t leak, make noise, or look out of date. I hate getting rid of something that works, but it just wasn’t made for a home in a state that’s going through a drought. What are my options? Back in the 70’s or 80’s before low flow toilets, you could place a brick or large rock in your toilet tank that decreased water usage (Thanks Passive Grandpa for reminding me). What in the world would this do? The brick displaces the water level in the tank and your toilet uses less water. So, cost of new Kohler toilet $300 versus red brick $1.50? Actually, the red brick is free as I have several from an old project.
Visiting my county website I found rebate information and called to verify a list of approved HET toilets. The county is currently offering a $175 rebate towards a new Kohler HET bringing the total cost to $125. I received a quote for the installation of the new toilet of $300. The only items needed are a new wax seal and some plastic shims if the ground is not level. Total cost for the wax seal and shims are under $10. $300 vs. $10? Looks like I’m going to install this new Kohler myself.
Do you have a red brick in your toilet? How many bricks would it take to use 1.2 gpf for my current 1975 American Standard Toilet? I only have room for one and I’m still using over 2 gpf. So, technically the red brick would not match the water conservation of the new Kohler HET. But, the red brick is free and I would be using less water compared to the original 1975 American Standard.
Brick or HET toilet? Let’s say my current toilet uses 2 gpf and we use it 20 times a day. 40 gallons with brick vs. 24 gallons with Kohler HET. My current water usage rate per gallon is .0054. The HET toilet would save me 480 gallons a month or $2.60. With the Kohler rebate, it would take 4 years to recover the $125 cost of the new HET toilet.
Water drought. We are currently at 60% of normal rain and our water district has sent notice to customers that a new fee schedule may be adopted to encourage water rationing. What does this mean for our water bill? We don’t know. The rates may not go up this year, but they could in 2010. The Roi for the HET toilet could be more like 2-3 years.
The environment. Even if it doesn’t make financial sense to purchase a new HET toilet now, what about the impact on the environment? Using an additional 480 gallons a month can be considered wasteful.
So, what would you do? Red brick or new Kohler HET toilet?
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