More efficient toilet flushing

A third of water in homes is used to flush toilets. Until you limit the amount of water in the cistern, you could be flushing away a couple of gallons of drinking water every time you spend a penny!

Do you need to do anything?

Not if you already have the choice of a short flush or a low capacity cistern. Check whether:

• the cistern has two-buttons to give a choice of long and short flushes.
   

• the handle has two positions so you get a short flush when you only press it down a little way.
   

• you have a slimline toilet cistern installed since 1993 the flush is usually only 4.5 litres.
   

Put a hippo or save-a-flush in the cistern!

These small bags of harmless crystals reduce the amount of water used each flush — for larger cisterns installed before 1993. Make sure it doesn’t get in the way of the arm and float that operate the valve. Or simply fill a small plastic bottle with water and put it in the cistern — experiment until you find the right size bottle.

Adjust the amount of water going into the cistern

If you find that a hippo or save-a-flush doesn’t work well in your cistern, you could adjust the valve to reduce the height of water in the cistern — but be sure that there is still enough water to clean the pan.

Dual flush replacement cisterns

If you are replacing a toilet cistern, choose a dual flush model these use about 2.5 litres for the short flush and not more than 4 litres for the long flush.

FREE OFFER!

Free save-a-flush bags for Scottish Water households:

www.scottishwater.co.uk

Select Household, Water efficiency, At home

0845 601 8855

Check for problems in the cistern

If there’s a slow trickle into the bowl even after the cistern is full, try adjusting the nylon screw near the top of the float arm. If that doesn’t work, you may need to replace the rubber diaphragm in the flush mechanism, or the float-ball if its cracked.

Hippos are meant for larger cisterns with a flush of 9 litres or more — save up to 3 litres per flush.

Save-a-flush bags are meant for cisterns with a flush of 7 litres or more — save up to 1 litre per flush.

To measure how much water your cistern uses — remove the lid, mark the water level, turn off the water supply to the cistern, flush it, then fill it with water from a litre bottle.