Toilets

So the long awaited bathroom renovations have finally begun, and I am finally, after a very long and frustrating search, going to have a water saving toilet...

The government tells us we need to save water.  Dwr Cymru tells us to save water.  (Personally, I knew that I should be saving water anyway, even before I was told...)  So I'm redoing the bathroom and I know that my toilet is quite old and probably uses 11 or 13 litres a flush (yes, I already did the brick in the cistern thing...)  I want to put in a water saving toilet, but can I find one?

Went into my local builders' merchant and the guy there had no idea about the water usage of any of the toilets they sell.  So I went to the internet and learned all about the differences between valve toilets and siphon toilets.  As best as I can tell, and conversations with several plumbers confirm this, siphon toilets are so clearly superior to valve toilets that I'm baffled as to why on earth the UK government ever legalised them.  So I decide I want a siphon toilet -- but if you look on plumbing supply web sites at toilets, they give you options about style, cistern shape, matching sinks, etc, but I have yet to find a mainstream website that actually tells you about water saving toilets and how much water they use.

I rang Dwr Cymru and spoke with somebody who said that yes, they would suggest that I install a water saving toilet, but no, they can't help me find one.  Waterwise has a list of water saving products for the bathroom that includes some toilets, but when I followed the links for one of the toilets, it directed me to the manufacturer's web site which in turn asked for my postcode and then suggested that my local builders' merchant that I'd already been to stocked their toilets -- don't know if this is true as I didn't bother going back there and specifically asking for this toilet, but when I first went there and asked for a water saving toilet the guy looked at me like I was mad.

I eventually found the ES4 4/2.7 litre siphon toilet but only because I was previously aware of the Green Building Store from my quest to find non-toxic wood preservative for the shed -- but I had to be very determined in my quest!  Why is this information not more readily available for consumers less motivated than myself???  And why are leak-prone valve toilets becoming more and more commonplace when they are so clearly the worse option???

The above photo shows the new cistern, still in its box, sitting on top of the old cistern -- so if it's that much smaller IN THE BOX, imagine how small it will be out of it!  And how much my water bill will go down!