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This article describes the different types and models of toilets: historical or old toilet types, wooden high wall-tank toilets, conventional reservoir tank toilets, low-flush toilets, water saving toilets, back-flush toilets, up-flush toilets, and even chemical toilets.

For details about no-water toilets, waterless toilets, chemical toilets etc., see TOILET ALTERNATIVES. Also for advanced versions of toilets that do use water, see Toilet Types, Design Choices where we describe the different toilet flush designs: gravity, power-assisted, and vacuum assisted flushing toilets.

This TOILET REPAIR GUIDE article series discusses the cause, diagnosis, and repair of toilet problems (water closet problems) such as a toilet that does not flush well, clogged toilets, slow-filling toilets, running toilets, loose wobbly toilets, and odors at leaky toilets.

Here we explain how to diagnose and repair problems with toilets, leaks, flushes, odors, noises, running and wasted water. Our page top photo shows ugly staining in a toilet bowl - strong evidence that this toilet has been running, wasting water, possibly flooding the septic system, and sometimes giving bad flush performance as well.

Readers should also see TOILET ALTERNATIVES for a discussion of camping toilets, chemical toilets, emergency-use toilets, waterless toilets, graywater systems, composting toilets, home health care toilets, incinerating toilets, outhouses, and latrines. Also see WHAT CAN GO INTO TOILETS & DRAINS?.

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Types of Toilets - Water Closets, Elastic Valve Closets

All modern toilets receive human waste, urine, feces, and are intended to dispose of that matter in a sanitary fashion. By the late 1800's the development of the modern flush-toilet, replacing chamber pots and outhouses, toilets have relied on a dose of water to flush waste out of the toilet bowl into sewage piping or into a private septic system for wastewater treatment and disposal. Some sources refer to a toilet as a water closet. Thomas Crapper & Co. (London) called their scary-looking toilet contraption an "Elastic Valve Closet". Early flush toilets like this 1890 model used a high wall-mounted reservoir tank, typically wooden, to provide adequate pressure and flow rate to clean and empty the toilet bowl. Contemporary toilets use a tank attached to the toilet bowl itself, relying on improved flush valve controls to provide the water flow rate into the bowl to empty it and clean the bowl sides. We discuss onsite waste disposal systems - septic tanks, drainfields, separately at SEPTIC SYSTEM INSPECT DIAGNOSE REPAIR. Before launching into our series of articles on TOILET TYPES or our TOILET REPAIR GUIDE for diagnosing and repairing toilet problems such as clogged toilets, toilets that don't flush properly, running or leaky or noisy toilets, toilet odors, and loose toilets, take a look at the simple connection between a typical reservoir-tank toilet and the soil stack (waste piping) in the Carson Dunlop Associates sketch (above left).

Tank-Reservoir Flush Toilets and How They Work

Tank reservoir toilets like the toilet in the sketch at left and in our photo just below, have been in wide use in North America since the 1940's. While there have been improvements in toilet tank fill valves, flush valves, floats, and water savings, the design has remained about the same. A flush lever moves an arm to lift a flapper valve or tank ball to permit water to rush into the toilet bowl below, washing away waste into the sewer pipe. At the end of the flush cycle, a float arm, or a float moving on a vertical stalk (newer valves) drops to open a valve permitting the toilet tank to refill with water. When the toilet tank water level reaches the proper level, the float closes the toilet tank fill valve.

Tank Reservoir Toilet Type Variations - Top Flush Control

Instead of a flush lever on the front or side of the reservoir tank, some toilets employ a top-mounted pull-rod, or push-button to activate the toilet flushing cycle. Other contemporary low-water usage toilets such as this Thetford toilet model used in a manufactured home (doublewide trailer) combine a reservoir tank with high water pressure or a combination of air and water to flush waste from the toilet bowl while using a minimum of water. At TOILET ALTERNATIVES we discuss low-water, no-water, chemical, composting, and incinerating toilets, listing models, sources, and characteristics of each model.

Flush Valve Toilets & Back or Rear Flush Toilets Rely on Water Pressure, No Toilet Tank

Flush valve toilets, unlike tank reservoir toilets, do not include a reservoir tank of water. Flush valve type toilets rely instead on high water pressure, usually but not always from municipal water systems, along with a larger diameter water supply pipe, to clean the bowl and dispose of waste. Flush valve toilets have been in widespread use in North America since the 1920's. At left is a photo of a modern flush valve toilet installed in Molde, Norway. This toilet is also a back-flush model, sending waste out of the bowl towards the rear of the toilet and into a waste line in the building wall rather than in the floor. The flush control for this toilet is that round button just above the toilet tissue holder.

Back Flush Toilets Using a Reservoir Tank

Low Profile or Small Tank Toilets - Poor Flush?

Our photo, below, shows a low-profile toilet design that has been popular in some communities since the 1970's.

Basement Toilets Using a Sewage Ejector Pump

Bathroom fixtures including toilets located in buildings whose sewer line exits high on the basement wall need a means to raise the graywater (sinks, tubs, showers, laundry) as well as blackwater or sewage from a toilet up to a height sufficient to drain into the sewer line and leave the building.

A residential sewage ejector pump is the most common solution to this need. The sewage ejector pump combines a small reservoir tank, a sewage grinder pump, and piping to grind and then pump sewage and wastewater from (usually) below floor level (such as in a basement) up to an elevated sewer line that then leaves the building.

Our photo (left) shows a typical basement installation of a sewage ejector pump. The toilet connected to this pump is not shown, but was located mounted on the floor nearby. A drain from the basement toilet was routed below the floor slab over to the black plastic holding tank shown in our photo. The white valve in the photo center, above the sewage pump's tank top, is a check valve to prevent wastewater from flowing backwards into the pump from above.

In a plumbing system using a sewage ejector pump, typically all of the plumbing fixtures (sink, tub, shower, laundry sink, clothes washer) drain under the building floor by gravity into the sewage ejector pump reservoir.

When the wastewater level in the ejector pump reservoir reaches a sufficient level, a float turns on the pump, forcing the wastewater past a check valve, upwards to the building sewer piping.

Depending on the arrangement of building piping, we sometimes find sewage ejector pumps that are located with the top of the unit a bit above floor level - possibly reducing the available storage volume between pump operation cycles.

Watch out: in the event of an electrical power failure, sewage grinders or sewage ejector pumps won't be working unless you have a backup electrical power source. So don't count on continued use of plumbing fixtures connected to one of these devices when there is no electricity.

Graywater ejector pumps: Also, don't confuse a sewage ejector pump with a graywater pump or lift pump that is sometimes found installed to move graywater from a basement laundry up to the building sewer drain.

For more detail about types of septic system pumps see:

SEPTIC SYSTEM PUMPS
  SEWAGE EJECTOR / GRINDER PUMPS
  Sewage Pump Clog Damage
  Free-Standing Sewage Grinder Pump
  Septic Pump Alarm Systems
  Septic Pump Buyers Guide
  Septic Pump Duplex System Designs
  Septic Pump Inspection & Maintenance
  Septic Pump Installation Guide
  Septic Pumping Stations
  SUMP PUMPS

Readers should also see TOILET ALTERNATIVES for a discussion of camping toilets, chemical toilets, emergency-use toilets, waterless toilets, graywater systems, composting toilets, home health care toilets, incinerating toilets, outhouses, and latrines. Also see our detailed article about camping and emergency use toilets found at Camping & Emergency Toilets.

Questions & Answers regarding this article

Questions & answers about buying, installing, repairing, & maintaining all types of toilets

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• Carson, Dunlop & Associates Ltd., 120 Carlton Street Suite 407, Toronto ON M5A 4K2. (416) 964-9415 1-800-268-7070 info@carsondunlop.com. Thanks to Alan Carson and Bob Dunlop, for permission to use illustrations from their publication, The Illustrated Home which illustrates construction details and building components. Carson Dunlop provides home inspection education including the ASHI-adopted Home Inspection Training Program (home study course), publications such as the Home Reference Book, report writing materials including the Horizon report writer, and home inspection services. Alan Carson is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors.

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