Modern-day toilets come with two types of flushes, one is smaller than the other. They are called 'dual flush' toilets but ever wondered why are you given that option?
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..
- Press the handle to flush the toilet and you operate a lever (dotted line) inside the cistern.
- The lever opens a valve called the flapper (green) that allows the cistern to empty into the toilet bowl beneath through a mechanism called a siphon.
- Water flows from the cistern through holes in the rim so it washes the bowl as well as flushing the contents away.
- There's enough water flowing down from the cistern to flush the toilet around the S-bend (S-trap). This produces a siphon effect that sucks the bowl clean. It also ensures some water remains at the bottom of the bowl, which improves hygiene.
- The contents of the toilet are flushed down the main drain.
- As the cistern empties, the plastic float (red) falls downward, tilting a lever.
- The tilting lever opens the ball valve (ball ***) (green) at the base of the cistern (or on one side of it), which works a bit like a faucet (tap).