Comments on: Auto-flush toilet has a mind of its own

By: yaikcergar

yaikcergar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:41:59 +0000

Does your toilet seem to flush on it's own every so often? Well it's annoying and, well it costs money. Why pay for the wasted water or a plumper to come out and fix it?

By: Kim R

Kim R — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:17:47 +0000

Out of the greatest frustration, that has built since I started working in this office in October 2008, I Googled "auto flush toilets" and found your blog. I wanted to know if anyone else felt the way I do about them. Then I find that we've had an almost identical experience; mine today was like yours in the airport. Let me clarify. All other experiences have been of me sitting and thinking about how I feel about it and not doing anything except trying not to move too much. Today, I had the hair-brained idea of turning around slightly and covering the damn thing - the sensor - with my right hand. That creates a whole other dilemma, let me tell you! Anyway, upon exiting (finally!) it did not flush. AND, it crossed my mind to test out the others for their sensitivity. We can get into the whole issue as well of just how clean they are when they spew up their water at you and "get you".

Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you that I think your blog is fantastic. It's too bad I hadn't come across it before last weekend as I was in NYC for my first time then.

Back to work now, for me.

P.S. Next time .... I'm going to take a Post-It Note with me and cover the darn sensor up until I'm done!

By: kallie

kallie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:57:20 +0000

Every now and then I get surprises too, usually malls, airports or other fancy public areas insist in bragging with newest technologies in toilets. I remember my reaction in the mall's bathroom when I saw few very stylish blanco sinks that had an automated mechanism for releasing the tap water, they also had a mind of their own only the first experiences can be a little bit embarrassing if there are other people around...

By: Whitney Hess

Whitney Hess — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:06:33 +0000

Ha, I never thought about that. I hope it hasn't caused irreversible damage!

By: Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:42:22 +0000

What parents know is that these autoflush things traumatize little kids. My daughter would not pee in a public toilet from ages 2.5 – 4 because of the violent, unanticipated flushing. I have other friends whose 5 and 6 years still won't go if there's any chance the thing will attack them. They're terrified!

By: Ford Ranger Forum

Ford Ranger Forum — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:29:14 +0000

i agree with you on this completely.visited your blog first time today.but will surely come again.

By: portorikan

portorikan — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:17:03 +0000

That’s funny but sucks at the same time.

I had a similar experience, surprisingly at an airport as well.

I was also trying to handle my business and pulled the little protective sheet out and right as I laid it down on the seat, turned around and began unbuttoning my pants, the stupid thing flushed with my fresh toilet sheet and all. I zipped up again, grabbed another sheet, placed it on the seat, turned around and right as I started to pull down my pantalones, it flushed again!

Growing increasingly frustrated I tried one more time with the same results (I don’t know why I tried again, I guess I thought I could beat it). So finally, I decided to ‘outsmart’ it since it apparently wanted to eat my toilet seat cover. I held the stupid sheet down while it flushed one more time and then sat down while it was refreshing itself.

Very annoying indeed.

By: Christopher Fahey

Christopher Fahey — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:50:28 +0000

Funny that an airplane commode would be preferable to a terrestrial one!

It’s a shame, too, that infrared auto-flushing as a solution to public-lavatory-dirty-flush-lever concerns has replaced a solution that has worked for probably a hundred years: the foot pedal flusher.