How do I flush this?

Harvey656@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 166 points –

I'm actually serious, which button is the right one? Why are there two?

Also should a Pic of a toilet be considered NSFW?

118

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/photo-stories/heres-why-toilet-flush-has-one-large-and-one-small-button/photostory/64540715.cms

IT IS FOR WATER CONSERVATION: The larger lever is to flush out around 6 to 9 liters of water, whereas the smaller lever is to flush out around 3 to 4.5 liters of water. Clearly, the larger one is to flush solid waste and the smaller one is to flush liquid waste.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_flush_toilet

That's very informative thank you! Might have to look into these myself for when/if I have the chance to buy a house in The future.

Get a bumgun/bidet hose, best thing ever for butt cleanliness and general ring health.

Gotta say if you're going far enough to do some additional plumbing, you might as well go the whole way and get a Japanese toilet.

No other toilet compares since

I still prefer the pipe, for flow and power alone.

It's quite difficult to find them in the west though. Depending on where you live.

ITT: A lot of Lemmy users showing their true colors. Someone asks for help, for information, and y'all decide to mock.

OP: one button does a full flush, the other does a half flush. In your picture, the button on the right, does the half flush. Button on the left, does the full flush. Full flush is usually just x2, though I don't think that's a hard rule.

Looks like this one breaks the rules. Only the big button works.

Actually the little button sends an SOS to local authorities, so chances are the little button works fine and you have an incoming SWAT raid with paramedics and police surrounding the building.

I explained it to my kids like this:

1 button for #1.
2 buttons for #2.

TIL, I always pushed both

The point of these things is to save water on a smaller flush when you only pee.

This is boringly not always true, for a while some genius, probably Elon Flush, decided to invert the functions so that when you pushed the bigger button you got the small flush.

ITC: username checking out. It was a really dumb question

A question is a question... Just answer the damn question without judging it.

Better let someone know what the thing does instead of forcing them to experiment with it and (possibly) break it.

It was a very low stakes experiment. I wasn't going to say anything until the high and mighty came to shame those razzing them about it

Ultimately I think my question, being smart or dumb is irrelevant, it brought activity to the community and that's a great thing I think. The bad thing was the memes. The 'how do I flush this' posts kinda got wild.

This is so wholesome, never be concerned about asking questions like this. Most folks are lurkers, I'm sure your question educated more folks than you realize. Be well out there.

Personally I think I could have worked out a 2 button system myself via trial and error. It's hardly a high risk activity.

Bigger button is for solid waste, smaller button uses less water for liquid waste.

Is that common?

Nowadays I just don't know anynore. I find toilets where it's swapped.

I also want to say that I grew up with toilets where the bigger button is the one for your more common usecase - liquid waste. Oftern the smaller button is set up to push the bigger button as well - to clean solid waste.

If using a new toilet, I always try out the bigger button first, since it's easier to press and typically uses less water.

The little one is impulse power, the big one is warp speed. Press both for Stargate.

You can also turn the knob to enter the nether for 8 times faster travel.

Yeah but which one engages the hyperdrive?

Only a filthy Star Wars nerd would want to use hyperdrive!

/uj Star Wars has some good and interesting themes, and none of it has to do with FTL technology. If you want a superior version of the same technology with more depth and dramatic implications, look at Halo. If you want what George Lucas was trying and failing to plagiarise, look at Dune. If you want to arbitrarily move around at whatever speed the plot demands or instantly, look at Stargate. And if you want a military fantasy, look at Star Trek. Hyperdrive is an inferior compromise between all four of these better written FTL techs that fails to execute any one idea well. Which is perfectly fine, because Star Wars isn't about hyperdrive. It's about taoist/buddhist philosophy, political commentary on fascism, and the power of individuals in the face of overwhelming systems and impossible odds. None of that has anything to do with how fast a ship moves, the hyperdrive is just a plot device that lets us skip the boring stuff and have more of the stuff Star Wars is actually good at.

The design couldn't possibly be more intuitive without a turd icon.

I find the buttons with a small and a large droplet on them a little more clear, though from experience i know the small button is usually peepee mode

So the smaller seashell shape makes a small flush. The larger seashell shape makes a bigger flush, and the combined seashell shape (both buttons) makes a huge flush.

I’ve had 3 of these toilets for the last 4 years and I never knew you could COMBINE flush?!

It’s only two flush sizes. Pressing both doesn’t do anything more.

People are joking about this but I have a toilet where the large button is for a half flush. Pressing the small button depresses both buttons performing a regular flush. I have never found another toilet like this, thank the stars!

I am also in the large button, small flush gang. I assume it's that way so the flush you use most frequently is bigger, but it does seem counterintuitive.

From my experience, the large button does the flush, but the size of the flush depends on how far you push it down. The small one simply pulls the large flush button down with it, but stops it from going more than half-way, resulting in a smaller flush.

Small flushes are more common, so it makes some sense to make that button larger.

I think your button had been rotated

Allow me to introduce you to the scientific method.

Observation: The buttons are different sizes. Hypothesis: The size of the buttons could indicate the amount of flushing that occurs when the buttons are pushed. Experiment: video record the amount of flow resulting from the pushing of the one of the buttons. Wait 60 seconds. Record the amount to flow resulting from the pushing of the other button. Wait 60 seconds. Record the amount of flow resulting from the pushing of both buttons simultaneously. Then compare videos. Conclusion: __________________

Are you american or what?

Yeehaw, I sure am.

Perhaps you could say how American toilets flush.. presumably they're sufficiently different that they don't work like what you posted ?

Lever on the side usually, internals for residential and commercial comodes are very different. Most arn't super water efficent, but maintenance can be done by just about anyone. (American here, Euro style toilets are just better)

This made me realise that this kind of flush must not be the defacto standard in some parts of the world

Even if it wasn't, it should not require instructions.

I can kinda understand. Perhaps op pressed the low flush button trying to get rid of a massive turd and panicked.

Welp. Isn't it obvious? The smaller one for your pee and the bigger one for your brown colored dump

But ONLY if it's brown. Any other color has a corresponding button under the tank.

Push both of them in and hold it until the flushing finishes

One extra feature most of these have is small=3L, large=6L, large but hold the button down=9L.

I hope those volumes are discharge and not....err... discharge

Test it out. One is less water and the other releases more water.

I just pushed both buttons because I didn't know how this thing worked

NSFW would be if you haven't closed the toilet.

Push both until the shit is ALL GONE. Don't be like my housemate :(

The ones I've seen have symbols like "I / II" on the buttons, so you know which is which. Others here have explained the purpose. I guess in your picture, the #2 button is the bigger one.

Small one is for #1, bigger one for #2.

It's a smaller button inside a larger button (sort of), the smaller (right) button you push to flush your urine and the larger (left) you push to flush your excrement. I've used these many times but if I'm honest I've never actually been sure if they work.

A lot of the comments are making the assumption that the buttons are telling the truth about being different sizes, but I've flushed plenty of toilets where both buttons do a full flush. If you can't tell the difference after experimenting, it might just be broken or cheap tat.

The way these flush mechanisms work is adjustable. It's entirely possible that someone adjusted them to have both have similar volumes for whatever reason

Actually, after using the toilet, only the big button works, the smaller one does nothing and both doesn't change anything.

Edit: Spelling

Seriously had to make a post to figure this out?

A man needs to know how to flush after a good log.

Sure, sure, I can respect that.

But when did "trial and error" go out the window for humanity in favour of "I should post about this"?

It's funnier to ask.

Fair's fair, that's honest and I believe you. I would probably also find some toilets somewhere in the world slightly amusing due to what I'm personally accustomed to.

I’ve seen those at people’s houses, but it’s inappropriate to sit there and play with their toilet. I press whichever button I hit first and if it works, I go about my business.

…. Having no idea whether it was correct

I never knew I would stumble upon these wise words on such a difficult night

I hope my wisdom has made your night just a little better.

One of the buttons might have been the "evacuate bowl onto floor" option. Aren't all toilets like this? Flushing was a fun adrenaline-fueled adventure the first time before I knew which button was which.

I read that as "evacuate bowel onto floor" and I was confused as to what sort of technology can achieve that sort of an effect.

Yeah I pretty much only see these nowadays. In my youth it was more common for there to be a knob you had to lift.

There is this other line of thinking. Most frequently used should be more easily accessible hence bigger. That is what is causing confusion here.

I say we should call this Game Cube controller's logic.

Hi!

It's a dual flush toilet! They give you an option to make the toilet do a full flush or a half flush. The smaller button operates the small flush, while the larger button operates the bigger flush! The smaller flush is better suited to use when you pee, since it requires less water to flush away.

The right one is on this side ➑️

Button press it! Which one you say? Any of the two if not enough press again the same or the other. hope it helps.

NSFW is short for not safe for work. The tag is to be put on pictures or texts that shouldn't be viewed when there's a chance of someone else glancing at your screen. I think a picture of a toilet while could raise some questions does not fall into that category.

The toilet I am currently sitting on has a very similar set up. The toilet came with the house, and I haven't been able to discern a difference in the 8 years I've lived here.