Updated 2016
Our toilet is no longer the mild-mannered everyday toilet that you’d assume it was. Thanks to being born on the planet Krypton two simple DIY projects that we tackled last weekend, our former Clark Kent of a throne now boasts two new superpowers. Can’t you just picture the comic book?
Here’s a rundown of the two blissfully “tool free” (more on that later) projects that we took on.
Converting Our Toilet To Dual Flush
The first was to convert our toilet into a dual-flush tank using a simple $25 dual flush converter kit that a reader mentioned to us (thanks Allison!). It works on any old, regular toilet, so anyone can install it about an hour.
Why Convert Your Toilet To Dual Flush?
If you find yourself thinking “whaaaa?” let me explain. Splitting the flushing power of your toilet is a water conservation trick that allows you to tell your toilet when you need either a little or a lot of water to, um, take care of your business.
Since flushing “liquids” doesn’t require as much water, a dual-flush toilet has a setting that uses a lot less of it. Word on the Interweb is that a dual-flushing function allows your toilet to use 30% less water, which can save the average household 2000 gallons of water a year. And the box that came with our dual flush converter states that the average family can save up to $100 a year just by adding one of them to one toilet in any household (which means it pays for itself five times in the first year alone). And just imagine how much you can save installing one on every toilet.
How To Install A Dual Flush Conversion Kit
Step 1: Remove the old flush handle
The box also claimed that this installation would be totally tool-free. But sadly we quickly required a tool to remove the tightly-screwed old handle. The good news is that it was still a super easy undertaking.
Step 2: Remove the toilet flapper
The next step of removing the flapper. That’s the gray thing that you can see a sliver of in the bottom-right, which was far less involved (no tools required at all). Oh and turning the water off was optional, but I did decide to do that so I didn’t have to keep sticking my hand into toilet tank water.
Step 3: Attach The Dual Flush Converter
With the old pieces removed, the first task was to slide the bottom part of the dual-flush tower into place where my old flapper had been.
Then I wiggled a tight, black rubber band over the fill tube to keep the dual-flush piece in place and firmly pressed against the opening. There’s also a zip-tie at the back of the piece that I pulled tight to help keep things in place. I had accidentally cut the tie off at first, thinking it was part of the packaging, but thankfully the kit actually supplied a back up! They must have known people would jump the gun like I did. Lesson learned.
Step 4: Install The Flush Tower
Then it was time to set the rest of the tower. It looks like quite a beast, but it clicks into place very easily with a simple drop-and-twist motion. You can see some of the technology in this shot – the adjustable blue slider is what helps to regulate how much water should be used in the quick flush function, and the green switch does the same for the full flush.
Step 5: Attach The New Dual Flush Button
My next task was to put in the new button where the old handle had been. I was able to securely hand-tighten this (again, no tools required). Oh and hand-tightening is always a good approach because over-tightening things can potentially crack the porcelain of your tank or bowl. Not good.
Here you can see what the button looks like. It’s split for what we’ve been calling a “single flush” (for liquids) and “double flush” (for, as the packaging describes, “when you need more power”).
From there you just pop the button device (the white box at the other end of the blue cord) onto the back of the button. And there’s no electricity or battery involved, despite the fact that it all started to look somewhat bomb-like at this point.
It took me about 20 minutes to get this far, but my eagerness to start flushin’ was damped by the fact that the buttons didn’t work at all at first. But through a few minutes of trial and error (which is pretty much how we do everything around here at Casa Petersik) I realized that the level of my blue slider was very important. If it was too close or too far from the water level, my button pushing wasn’t strong enough to lift the tower’s built-in flapper. Fast-forward about ten minutes and this John was happy with his john. Both buttons worked every single time once we found that magical placement of the blue slider.
Step 7: Observe Your Water Levels
To demonstrate exactly what this dual-flushing function means when it comes to saving water, check out the difference between how little water is used at the single flush setting, and how much more goes out on the full flush setting. There was definitely an obvious difference in the water level, and you could even hear the toilet working a lot quicker for the single flushing action. Score.
Update: We enjoyed having this dual flush converting installed on this toilet so much, we installed it two more times when we moved to our new house! Both in our guest room toilet and our hall bathroom toilet .
Installing A Cloth Diaper Sprayer
Our second potty upgrade was adding a Bum Genius diaper sprayer to make our cloth diaper clean-up a bit easier (that toilet add-on was $45, but we luckily got it as a shower gift). This task was so simple that it barely requires step-by-step photography.
The “Mini Shower” simply installs on the bottom of your tank right between your water line and the tank itself. Then a clear, plastic tube (which you can cut to a desired length) attaches with a firm push into the device on one end, and the sprayer on the other. Here it is installed – you can see it even comes with a handle to adjust the water pressure. Very handy indeed.
If you’re still wondering what the heck a diaper sprayer is (as I admittedly was at first) it’s supposed to be a huge help for cleaning cloth diapers. In fact, many of you even recommended it to us on this post. Without getting too descriptive, it lets you spray “stuff” off of the diapers and into the toilet so it doesn’t go into the laundry (which is then done at a certain temperature to completely sanitize the diapers for their next use). Here’s a demonstration photo (and yes, I did accidentally spray the ceiling while attempting to take this picture).
The kit even comes with a little sprayer holster that can be installed onto a wall, but we opted to use the more subtle hook that hangs on the side of the tank since it feels less permanent (hopefully we won’t be diapering for the next few decades). You can also see that we chose to run the tube behind our tank to make the whole thing less of an eyesore, and this way we can keep the sprayer on the right side of the toilet (which is virtually invisible from almost every angle of our bathroom- plus it’ll also come in handy on that side for two right-handers like us).
So here’s our pimped-out potty one last time in all of its super-charged glory. We love that the upgrades were fast (60 minutes max), easy (almost 100% tool-free) and cheap ($20 converter + gifted $45 sprayer). And since the changes are fairly inconspicuous, our little loo can still keep its secret identity mostly under wraps. In fact, our half bathroom will be getting the same dual-flushing treatment asap because we’re so in love with the eco friendly (and wallet friendly) benefits of such a simple $20 upgrade. Especially when you consider that people pay big bucks for dual flushing toilets and this kit allows you to keep the toilet that you have out of a landfill, but upgrade it with the same cost and water saving technology.
I don’t know if it’s the man in me, but the idea of an upgraded throne is actually quite appealing. It’s the whole “my toy is better than your toy” frame of mind. And since I’ll never win the award for the biggest flatscreen TV or the biggest biceps, at least I can brag that my toilet is smarter than my friends’ toilets. Have any of you tackled either of these john-centric projects (or others like ’em)? We’d also love to hear if you have other tips for conserving water, saving money with an easy upgrade, or heck, cleaning cloth diapers for that matter. Share and share alike.
The sprayer looks as if it could make a mess all over the bathroom! YUk! However, I know you guys will be careful. When mine was young we just left the diaper to soak pinned to the edge. After about 15 min it was all dissolved and flushed down with no need to rinse. Good luck with this.
That is amazing….I wonder if it would work for bathing my cat? LOL
What a clever thing for the cloth diapers! I never knew that existed!
Congrats on your little one! I had no idea that they made dual flush conversion kits. The first time I saw this was at Ikea! :-)
Wow I can’t believe so many people haven’t ever encountered a dual flush before! In Australia they’ve been standard in every toilet for many years, because it just makes so much sense. When I lived in the States I felt almost GUILTY using such an excessive amount of water everytime I wanted to flush my ‘liquid’ business! To answer a couple of questions, I haven’t ever seen a handle version, only buttons. As for the when to use half vs. full flush issue, it’s a game of chance friends :) If you uh… deposit… a ‘number two’… and it’s not quiiiiite your strongest effort, and you’re feeling daring, you can try and hit it with a half flush. If it actually goes down, you feel like you really helped the planet :) Congrats on the baby guys!
Man I sure could have used that diaper sprayer 27 years ago when we had our first child and elected to use cloth to go greener (even though green back then was only a color, we were on top of things :)
THAT is a wonderful invention. I remember dunking and flushing and dunking and flushing until most of the “stuff” was off the diaper. Ick.
those are both EXCELLENT upgrades! ever since my hubs and i went to germany for our honeymoon, i’ve wanted a dual-flush toilet! it just makes so much sense! in the mean time, we’ve simply adopted the old standby: if it’s yellow let it mellow… you know the rest.
and i’m so excited to hear about the daiper sprayer. maybe that’ll be enough to convince the hubs that when we eventually have kids, we should go cloth instead of disposable. he was super grossed out by the idea when i first suggested it. i hope this changes his mind (that and the potential money savings!)
Oh good, I’ve been wondering how the sprayer looks!
We took our honeymoon in New Zealand in January for several weeks and every single place we stayed at/ visited had the dual flush system. They are very environmentally friendly there.
Good question! We’ve only seen the chrome version but you might be able to google around for other offerings. Fingers crossed for ya…
xo,
s
I love the idea of creating a dual flush toilet out of your existing one for only 20 bucks. That’s just awesome! All of the fixtures (including the toilet handle) in our bathroom are oil-rubbed bronze. Do you know if they sell the conversion kits in different finishes?
I had no idea they sold dual-flush converters! We rent (and will be renting for a long long time since my hubby’s in the military and we’re constantly moving) but I’ve been wondering how much it would cost to buy two water usage-reducing toilets because I feel guilty every time I flush knowing I’m wasting a ton of water. Definitely heading out to buy two of these little babies this week. See, this is why I love you guys!
I love that you are going to use the diaper sprayer with the toilet. My friend recently told me that they have hosed their diapers in the sink and it grossed me out.
AMAZING!!! I want a dual flusher now too! This is weird to post here, but I think adults could also use the bum sprayer sort of the way they’d use a bidet right? I’m just sayin’… ;)
Nothing like a little potty talk :) But seriously good info!
-Cara
what awesome products. never heard of either one, but what great ideas. thanks for sharing.
Congrats on the baby girl! Do you know if you can use the dual flush conversion kit on an already low-flow toilet?
Hey Meghan,
Hmm, we have no idea. Perhaps it’s something you can ask the manufacturer? Maybe you can find an email or phone number for the one we linked to on Amazon (which is the actual one we purchased). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
OMG, we just installed our BG diaper sprayer the other night in our spare bathroom (the bathroom that will become our son’s bathroom when he gets here in July). Ever since, my husband has exclusively used that bathroom, and he uses the diaper sprayer like a bidet. I have never, ever seen a man so excited about a bidet, but I’m very happy that the sprayer is already proved useful :-)
My mum remodel the bathrooms some time ago and she bought a toilet with that system already instaled. It’s awesome and a good and simple way to save some water. How many diapers are you changing everyday? How many hours of sleeping?
Hey Begona,
We’re totally knocking on wood when we say this, but Clara is THE BEST baby! We get about nine hours of sleep each night (interrupted of course, with feedings worked in between the three 3-hour spans of time) but we actually have to set an alarm to wake her up for those feedings since she’s such a good sleeper. We keep waiting for our luck to run out but so far she’s just been a champ! And we even get to fit in a morning shower since I watch her while John takes one and then we switch. In the diaper department, let’s just say she’s very prolific… we easily go through 7-10 diapers a day (so we can’t wait to switch over to cloth) but it means she’s healthy so we wouldn’t have it any other way! And because my hubby is the best guy ever, he actually changes them all since he reasons that it’s only fair because I’m in charge of all the feedings. We’re so happy to be adjusting so well to life with our little miracle!
xo,
s
Haha, my boyfriend would LOVE this!
I have to send him the link!
Great post! I am totally going to install a dual flusher in our bathroom! And since we just bought a Bumgenius sprayer as well but haven’t installed it yet, it’s nice to see that it doesn’t ruin the bathroom with lots of cords, etc. Way to go green!
Did you guys order the dual flusher from Amazon (as per your link) or have you seen them at Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.?
Hey Mary,
We ordered ours from Amazon since we hadn’t seen them at Home Depot or Lowe’s- here’s hoping they get them soon though!
xo,
s
We actually just bought a dual flush toilet from Home Depot but unfortunately had to return it due to 2 hairline cracks in the bottom which caused a leak… (the first one we brought home was shattered) it was only $160 which wasnt too bad considering the other toilets we bought were $80. We opted for the toilet with what looks like a “trough” it uses only 1.2 gallon per flush and was rated 10 out of 10 flushing stars! Still a little sad about the dual flush toilet though!
Honestly, I didn’t think anything could top the post about your new baby. But this one may have done it. Nothing like a toilet upgrade or two to steal poor little Clara’s spotlight. : )
jbhat
Like many others, I never knew the dual flusher existed. For $20 bucks I don’t think we can go wrong. It’s ironic because my 6th grade daughter recently had a science experiment for school where she had to keep track of how many times we flushed in a 24 hour period. She might get some bonus points if she brings this gadget to the teacher’s attention.
Neat! Didn’t know they made such a thing. Score one for cloth diapers. Change the art from “Grand Central Street” to “Grand Diaper Station!”
Haha, we totally should!
xo,
s
My super easy and eco-friendly DIY toilet upgrade was to just fill two water bottles with water and stones (to weight them down) and plunk them in the tank. I found the tank contained way more water than I ever needed, but by just taking up some extra space in the tank limited the amount of water without having to purchase water saver kit or toilet. Plus this can be done when you’re just renting and not allowed to do anything more permanent.
Wow… who knew a toilet conversion could be so exciting! Seriously… I love the dual flush upgrade. I have been seeing these in public restrooms around town. I had no idea it would be so simple.
We have well water… so we don’t “pay” for water, but we do have to treat it heavily and run it through our septic system. So even if you don’t get a regular water/sewer bill in the mail… there is still a cost of maintenance etc – so this could save us a lot of money in the long run. I’l be passing this tip on to my husband… I’m sure he can’t wait to install FOUR of them in our house :)
Thanks for the tip on the dual-flush conversion! I want to run right out and convert all 3 of our toilets. :) Just wanted to echo the sentiments of others – breasfteeding “solids” really are not solid and wash up just fine in the washing machine. (If you have tough stains that bother you, set them out in the sunshine – it works wonders on breastfeeding poop stains!) And you will LOVE your diaper sprayer – we love ours. I posted a tutorial on how to build one from scratch – it cost about $25 and took me about 30 minutes to do. http://misseireann.blogspot.com/2009/11/diaper-sprayer-tutorial.html I also use it to spray down the shower when I am cleaning, which makes me wonder how I ever scrubbed showers and tubs before I had a diaper sprayer! :)
Happy diaper changing!
Wow!! How cool. Our downstairs bathroom will be getting one of these right away. We’re renting, but I think it’s worth it to put this converter in. Thanks for the great idea!! Love your site!!
And congrats on your beautiful baby girl! All the best!
Ok my googling skills aren’t cutting it! Our toilet has a flush actuator. It’s a knob at the top of the tank, right in the middle. To flush, you pull up on the knob. So I am thinking this is the one kind of toilet that can’t magically transform into a dual flush toilet, huh?
Hey Jennifer,
Hmm, we haven’t see anything that converts that type of toilet. Bummer, wish we could be of more help!
xo,
s
we have the bum genius sprayer too. and honestly don’t know what we’d do without it for those cloth diapers.
and we’re so checking out the dual-flush converter thingie. very cool!
Debbie – I had the exact same thought!
Ok, I’ve seen these before, like in Europe. But the sprayer, that was completely new for me!
That was a really neat find… can’t wait to install mine at home!
What an awesome post! You do often feel wastefull when flushing, and even more so because at the new house I have some water utility that isn’t part of a town, and I have never seen such high prices. Mostly fees more than the water, but growing up with a well I find it ridiculous.
I had planned to do a rain barrel at some point, but I’m doing this now, how awesome!
Of course, I also wonder why I pay so much for water when my crawl space seems to have plenty :O
You guys are the best!
Favorite line from this post: “Fast-forward about ten minutes and this John was happy with his john”. Too funny.
Wow, nice fix with the diaper sprayer! I didn’t even know said sprayers even existed.
Since you’re cleaning each diaper individually instead of tossing them as you go (kudos for making the effort to go green and cut cost), what do you do with them between the time you change your little girl and the time you wash them? How often do you plan to do your rinse/throw in laundry routine?
Hey Beylah,
We have an airtight, tin container for the dirty diapers to go in between changing her and washing them, that we we can save them all up and do a full load each time. We purchased a dozen diapers for now, meaning we’ll probably be doing a load of wash each day. We may invest in more diapers to cut down on wash frequency, but wanted to get a sense of Clara’s routine before buying anymore.
-John
Doubles as a bidet! HA!
Since he grew up on a farm, and I grew up with hippy parents, we’re kinda old school in our water conservation. We just don’t flush with every ‘liquid’ event (unless we have company). It’s probably kinda gross for some folks, but works just fine for us. I guess if our son grows up to be grossed out by that practice, we’ll look for one of these. Thanks for the idea!
I’m so glad you posted about the diaper sprayer! That’s on my “to buy before baby arrives” list too!
I recently found your blog and have really enjoyed reading it! Congrats on your beautiful baby girl! I was wondering if you could do a post on using cloth diapers, including what you feel are the pros and cons. Thanks!
Oh I’m super excited now (yes about toilets) because my family and I are moving to a new house in a month and here’s a project that is not only doable, not only economical but fun! My land is a land where buttons are fun.
No need for a diaper sprayer yet but what a great idea. Thank goodness for clever people in the world.
I love this. My husband and I love the dual flush toilets, but don’t need new ones. I didn’t know they had converters. That’s great!
Jennifer (sorry to butt in),
My friend had one of these on their new toilet they purchased, and it was at the top of the tank. So, I’m sure that it would work all the same, just as long as the “new button” is the same size as your pull-up one.
The diaper sprayer is so helpful. I am glad to see that you purchased one. As for the dual flusher, I hope it works out for you. There are so many mixed reviews about these things. People either LOVE them, or HATE them. Sing their praises or regret the day they purchased them. It seems that there are a lot of over flowing toilets when it comes time for needing the “more water” option as time goes on – never initially. I’m sure you guys did some major research, though. You always seem to :)
I was almost thinking you were using the diaper sprayer not to spray diapers but bottoms. Like an American alternative to bidet but realized that be way too cold on such sensitive areas.
My husband is a LEED certified engineer (the green building code) and I showed this post to him, and this is what he had to say.
‘FYI the dual flush retrofit kit they used was designed for use on a 3.5 gpf toilet (you hardly see those anymore, they have been illegal since 1992).
They installed it on a 1.6 gpf toilet. On a modern toilet, there is very little actual water savings. I would be surprised if it flushed correctly at a reduced flow. I believe that’s a siphon jet flush action and if you reduce the flow you defeat the “siphon jet.” Again, you have stumbled into my area of expertise. If you need more answers, I have points of contact at Toto and Sloan that you can call.’
we use the let it mellow conservation method at our house!
Hey Amy,
Thanks for the info! The HydroRight Dual-Flush toilet that we purchased from Amazon (the same one we linked to here in the post) says right on the box that it “works with ANY size toilet” and we can attest to the fact that there is a substantial amount of water saved with the upper button flush (see our photos of the water level in this post? there’s definitely a notable difference, and the toilet runs for a lot less time when you use that button as well). As for it flushing correctly at the reduced flow, we can assure you that we’d NEVER recommend something to all of our readers if it didn’t work perfectly for us (all that would earn us was a post full of comments about how it didn’t work well for anyone else). So we’re being 100% honest when we say that it works perfectly with every single flush (and we’ve had a ton of visitors this week thanks to welcoming our wee one and all that toilet traffic has really allowed us to see that it’s a great functional choice for our house, and we love how much water and mooloah we’re saving). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I was tickled to see your how-to on installing the diaper sprayer! We had one when our kids were in cloth diapers but my husband installed it and removed it so I was none the wiser.
Just a heads-up on the diaper sprayer: After a while the tubing gets old and brittle. One late night we heard a high-pressure spraying sound. Yep, the hose had burst! Thank goodness we were home and caught it early or we would have had a disaster on our hands.
And a tip: You probably don’t need to use the sprayer until Clara is eating solid foods… especially if she’s breast-fed. Until then, the poop is water soluble, very much like yogurt, and does not need to be rinsed off the diapers before dumping in the washing machine. My kids were breast-fed and, until they were eating solids, we never rinsed the diapers beforehand and the diapers always came out of the washing machine looking and smelling fresh & clean. (We mainly used pocket diapers and all-in-one diapers – we liked bumGenius and had quite a few of those!). You’re going to love cloth diapering! We thought it was easier than using disposable diapers and much, much easier than using flushable diapers.
Congratulations on Clara’s arrival!
I guessed the diaper sprayer thing correctly (I think I saw it on your twitter)!
Anyhow – I’m so glad to see you’re doing well with Clara. Newborns are the best. =] I know you want to keep the blog decor friendly, but I”m sure a lot of us would really enjoy it if you gave us monthly updates or something about your parenting journey also. =]
Thanks for a great post! I know it’s not directly related to the topic of the blog but I would love to hear how the cloth diaper thing is going in a few months! Are you guys thinking of a separate baby-related blog? You’re so talented I’m sure it would draw many new parents! Love the blog and congrats on Clara’s arrival!
Hey Nikki and Annamarina,
While we’re not planning to launch a baby-related blog at this point (there are only so many hours in the day), it appears as if a ton of people are interested in how the cloth diapering works for us so we hope to share some info with everyone after we’ve put them to good use.
xo,
s
I love the idea of the toliet shower. It makes me want to use cloth diapers when I eventually have children.
Are you going to clean the diapers yourself or will yall use one of those cloth diaper services?
Hey Christine,
We plan to do the washing ourselves, but thanks to our energy star washer we’ll be saving money/energy as we go. And we’ve already heard a rumor that babies require many load of laundry, so one more load of diapers shouldn’t be that much extra work. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Ohhh, the mini shower was a blessing for those poppy clothe diapers with my daughter. Definately need to pick one up for the new house before my son comes.
I like the dual flush toilet thing. Only problem is I probably be the only one to use it.
Now you guys need a soft-close toilet seat! they are the best invention ever. i’m personally one to always keep the top lid closed – looking at the bowl just isn’t very appealing (plus my cats would jump right in). So at Home Depot, or another hardware store, you can buy soft-close lid sets for maybe $10 more than standard toilet seats. Just a tap of the finger and the lid slowly goes down. Helpful for my man too as he’s such a good boy and put the seat and lid down every time!