For a home, a toilet choice is pretty much a comfort issue since they all operate the same with regards to functional power. Especially given the fact that residential toilets are designed now with water restriction in mind for conservation, there is just enough flushing power with gravity to do the job.
However, for a commercial function, where there is heavy traffic daily, a simple residential toilet isn’t going to work. In fact, it will likely break fairly quickly. Instead, a business or facility needs an industrial grade toilet system that can provide enough power to move waste without delay, even if it is used 1,000 times a day.
Making Sense of Toilet Power
Toilet flushing power options come in two categories, gravity and water pressure format. There’s no question that an industrial toilet needs to function reliably with a far greater amount of use than will ever be expected from a residential unit. In that regard, it also needs to be built reliably as well as have capacity to handle long use.
Gravity-fed systems basically need enough distance downward to automatically draw the water and waste out. For a commercial application, that may work well when the toilet is on a floor that is fairly high up, at least two or three stories above ground. However, when the system is at ground level, gravity is not going to work so well after a couple hundred uses.
Gravity-fed toilets work well for water efficiency. They can be controlled by the amount of water used for the flushing, which reduces the overall cost of water utility bills over time.
Water pressure or pressure assist toilets have an added strength with a push capability that moves the flushed waste immediately. Water does not compress, so when it is moved through to drainage with pressure, everything moves with it. The benefit of pressure-assist toilets, otherwise known as power flush units, is that they tend to handle large traffic extremely well. However, these units don’t come at standard pricing of the average toilet. They tend to be expensive, and the plumbing connected to them needs to be upgraded to handle the pressure push as well.
Is Gravity-Fed Really an Option?
From a practical perspective, and given the amount of traffic a ground level commercial bathroom realizes, gravity-fed doesn’t make much sense. While these toilet systems tend to be chosen to save money, they end up causing a lot more in ongoing plumbing problems over time. It’s quite common to see their related drain systems block up and need serious, repeat repair. Instead, with power flush units, the repair issues go way down and the service capability is fully addressed.
However, where a building has multiple levels, pressure-assist units work particularly well at the bottom level or basement, and gravity-fed units can be opted for upper levels, assisted by natural drainage flow designs instead. Doing so can help with the budgeting of an overall installation.
Bring in Expertise Early
Given how much technical work can be involved with planning a commercial bathroom system, especially with multiple units on different floors, it helps to have a plumbing professional involved from the beginning. Doing so can catch issues early as well as make sure installations are in the right locations for the best efficiency needed. For example, primary high traffic areas make sense for pressure-assist allocations. Where the traffic is far less and infrequent, as well as above ground as mentioned earlier, gravity units make more sense.
Remember, planning for a facility is not just about the immediate need; the choices and construction needs to last for decades. By making decisions that incorporate long-term performance, plumbing will regularly perform as needed, and a facility will provides its greatest return in functional value.