HydroRight Dual Flush Toilet Conversion

[gasstingy]

I’ve been wanting to convert to dual flush toilets for a couple of years now, but when I tried to find a replacement toilet or conversion kit for my existing toilets I had no luck. Lately, I got to looking again, and found one in the Grainger catalog. I bought it (w/tax and S&H, $32) and put it in my master bathroom toilet. It didn’t take too long to install (15 minutes +/-) and it works great. Of course, I took no pictures and made no keen observations to try and compare the water usage before and after the conversion. I was so pleased that I immediately bought another of the same brand, but this time I did an internet search. For about the same money, I went to Amazon(dot)com and bought another one, and so I’d get free shipping, I bought a 1.5 gpm shower head at the same time.

A few details about the toilets. Both are American Standard, kind of an old fashioned look with the flush handle on the side, not in front. But the box said it fits ANY toilet, so I figured I could justify getting my money back if it didn’t fit mine. Got it and you’ll note in the pictures, the flush isn’t by a lever operated handle, but a cable operated push button. This toilet had an old style refill valve with the long arm and big float ball to stop the water. That had to be replaced in order to do the conversion as the arm & ball won't clear the biggest part of the kit. I didn’t bother showing pictures of how that’s done. The big parts are shown, and the biggest part uncouples into two pieces for easier installation. All told, I couldn’t even do the second one in ten minutes like the instructions say it should take. Probably not their fault, everything takes me a bit longer. Of course, I could blame it on stopping to take notes and pictures, and time the operation and swap the refill valve, etc. All told, I did all of that and finished in just under a half hour.

As for the keen observations to try and show how much water I’m going to save, I tried the old and new refill valves before converting to the dual flush and it took 55 seconds for the toilet to refill from the time I pushed the flush lever. Then I swapped to the new dual flush mechanism and tried again with the biggest flush. It took the same 55 seconds. Then, I decided to relocate that little tube that goes into the stand pipe to refill the toilet bowl. Instead of shooting into the pipe, I turned the clip around and it shoots down the outside of the pipe. The toilet bowl doesn’t get quite as much water, but it still gets plenty. New refill time, 40 seconds for the long flush. Refill time for the short flush is 18 seconds. I only timed the short flush with the toilet bowl refill tube on the outside of the stand pipe though. So there it is. The water ran 73% as long on the long flush, so about a 27% water savings on the big flush from relocating the bowl refill tube to fill the tank faster instead of wasting it in the bowl. For a short flush, it ran 33% as long, so we’ll save about 67% of the water compared to before when we choose the short flush.

The side benefit is that I’ve tried nearly every flapper in town to get both toilets to quit seeping water out, to no avail. This stopped the seepage, so all of that wasted water is halted as well. As for the 1.5 gpm shower head that I bought at the same time, I tried it out this morning and I like it. The spray pattern is good and the pressure is good. It's going to take time to get used to using the little button that reduces the flow to a dribble while I lather up. This shower head should lighten the load on my septic tank and hot water heater.

BlueSource HYR270 HydroRight Drop-in Dual Flush Converter by MJSI

[Daox]

Nice review. The price is great on that kit too, I might have to get a couple for my house!

BTW, what shower head did you buy?

[gasstingy]

I bought the conversion kit {$20.70} and "Ultra Saver Showerhead" {$12.25} from ProMax Commerce on Amazon. I liked that the shower head was all metal and Made in USA. The only thing that might take you back a bit is its size. It is barely bigger than the pipe that it attaches to. It looks so strange there compared to the big fat 2.5 gpm one I replaced. It operates fine though.

[Daox]

Well, I ordered two of the HydroRight drop-in dual flush converters. I'm hoping they actually arrive this afternoon so I can install them this weekend. I couldn't pass up on the $20 price. Last time I looked at dual flush conversion kits they were around $40.

[gasstingy]

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of them. I found them to be easy to install and I am very satisfied with their performance.

[Daox]

I installed one of the two conversions this weekend. Installation is pretty simple. The first one isn't a 15 minute job, but not much more as gasstingy pointed out. I'm still playing around a little bit with the adjustments on it to minimize water use as much as possible. Getting the toilet to actually flush with the #1 (small) flush is what I've been tinkering with. The full (large) flush works great and still uses less water I think. My wife really loves it as we used to do the 'if its yellow let it mellow' which sometimes creates an unpleasant odor if left too long. Now, we don't feel as bad flushing.

I plan on installing the second kit very soon. I just had a problem with the kit physically fitting in the tank. I'll get some pictures of it when I get it done.

Overall, I love it. The price is unbeatable too. This thing could very quickly pay for itself I would believe if I was paying for city water. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who does pay for city water.

[Daox]

Well, Higgy reminded me to post this as we were talking about it today.

I installed the second HydroRight conversion on my downstairs toilet yesterday. As I mentioned, I had some problems with it fitting. The tabs on the back of the clamping mechanism were too big to fit in the tank.





Not a real hard fix. I just chopped them off. After that, it dropped right in nice and easy.







I then replaced their tiny zip tie with a longer zip tie I had. I wrapped it all the way around the clamp to hold it. The kit also comes with a rubber gasket thing to hold it in place so I added that in there.





So, the install went pretty easy minus that little hiccup. However, the kit is not working very well on this toilet. It works amazingly well on my upstairs toilet, the quick flush (small one) has flushed down everything without any problems so far. On this toilet though, even the full flush will not flush the toilet properly. I went through all the troubleshooting tips in the instructions and will be calling the company today to see what else can be done.

Now, I have had a fair amount of problems with getting this toilet to flush properly (and not plug up) in the couple years I've had it. I believe the main problem is that this toilet doesn't have a water jet at the bottom of the bowl to help push the water/solids out the plumbing. In the picture below they call it a siphon jet. My upstairs toilet has this jet and works a ton better. If I had to guess, this would be what makes the difference.





One last thing to add, I think the downstairs toilet is already a less than 1.6 gallons per flush toilet. It has a plastic water tank inside the porcelain tank and it seems like the volume of water in that tank is much less than in my upstairs toilet. I will probably try manually adding water to see how much one flush is on this toilet as I can't find any numbers on the toilet itself to get specs on it.

[gasstingy]

I had to read that post through a couple of times and really look at the pictures to appreciate the problem you were having. {That because I'd already jumped to a wrong conclusion that I decided couldn't be right.}

I like your quick engineering solution, just cut them babies off! Looks like something I'd do.

[Brad]

I'm a contractor that handles many bathroom remodel projects. Every job I install MJSI toilet products. The HydroClean valve and HydroRight dual flush kit together save my clients money on their water bill. They seem happy to know with the new look of the bathroom, the toilet also is "new" and working great. I recommend everyone should look into a dual flush converter.

[Daox]

Okay, I finally figured it out. This morning I returned the toilet to the original setup shown below. On top of everything is plastic piece with a hole on the bottom. This is the key.





Here is a closer look at the plastic piece. The bottom of this protrusion is open. When the tank fills with water, some water goes up into this plastic piece storing water in it. As the tank drains when you flush, that water stays in there until the water in the tank goes below the bottom of the plastic piece. At that point (the every end of the flush) you get an extra rush of water to finish the flush and push everything out of the bowl. Unfortunately, the plastic piece and HydroRight will not fit in the tank together.




I also measured the water use of this toilet. First I turned off the water and flushed the toilet. I then filled the tank to the fill line with a gallon milk jug. It took roughly 1.1 gallons. I then allowed the tank to fill, but tubber tube used for filling the bowl into the gallon jug. It looked to fill a little under half, or .4 gallons. So, it looks like this toilet uses slightly under 1.6 gallons. I also tweaked the bowl filling rubber line to divert more water to the tank vs the bowl to save a bit more water now so it should use a little less. I'd guess I'm down to 1.4 gallons per flush roughly now. Nowhere near what the HydroRight does, but it works.