If you’re not mindful, that large bowl of water waiting to be flushed will take your money with it. 30% of the water used in your home is dedicated to the toilet alone.
To make matters worse, as much as 5-7 gallons of water could be wasted with just one flush! Toilets use more water than clothes washers, showers, faucets, and leaks! The average American uses 100 gallons of water per day per person. That means that an average of at least 30 gallons alone are being used on the toilet per day!
Luckily, we have 5 toilet water saver ideas to share with you:
1. Check for Leaks
The first step to saving water in your toilet should be to ensure you don’t have a leak. Approximately one out of every five toilets in the United States is leaking. Regularly testing for, and fixing, toilet leaks not only helps prevent water waste, but it also prevents a waste of money. Water that is lost due to leaks is water that is paid for, but never used. Toilet leaks are often silent, making them difficult to detect.
The most common way to check for leaks is through the use of a dye tablet, which can be purchased with pennies. Take one tablet and drop it in the toilet tank. After a period of approximately 15 to 20 minutes, if there is a leak the water will change color.
An estimated 55 billion gallons of water are flushed every day through toilet systems. That’s a whole lot of water, right? Installing a toilet water saver is a simple way to ensure there is less water being flushed away, or wasted, in your home. Toilet water conservation also helps reduce the impact our homes have on our local water supply as well as our monthly budgets.
- On average, an American household can lose up to 10,000 gallons of water per year due to leaks alone!
- Use toilet leak detector dye tablet in your toilet tank
- It is simple to use– all you have to do is drop the detection dye tablet into your toilet tank
- Contains a harmless dye that will appear blue or green in color
- If the color shows in the toilet bowl without having to flush, then you have a leak.
- By detecting the leak you save up to 500 gallons of water a day!
2. Get a New Toilet Flapper
Toilet flappers control the emptying of your toilet tank. They can be a major source of wasted water if they are improperly fitted, or if they start to wear out and crack with age.
- By getting a new toilet flapper, you can stop leaks and ensure your toilet flushes completely
- Adjustable to fit toilet properly
- Prevents toilet from running, a major source of water waste
Some toilets do not have the correct flapper in their tanks — by having the correct size flapper you can save as much as 4.4 gallons of water per flush.
3. Install a Toilet Tank Bank
The toilet tank bank is a displacement bag that is filled with water and placed into the toilet tank. It goes between the intake valve and the tank wall. There is a mounting bracket on the outside of the bag, allowing it to hang on the side wall of the toilet tank. This tool reduces the amount of water used with each flush by 0.8 gallons. It easily pays back its cost of $1.25 with the amount of savings realized.
- Toilet tank banks are cheap, easy to install, require little to no maintenance, and even help prevent odors
- All you do is hang it onto the inside of the toilet tank and add water
- Will save you up to 0.8 gallons of water per flush!
4. Install a Toilet Fill Cycle Diverter
A fill cycle diverter is attached to the fill hose to reduce the amount of toilet water used with each flush. To install, first pull out the hose from the overflow tube. Be sure to remove the hose clip if there is one. Next, the fill cycle diverter should be inserted into the end of the hose. Finally, the diverter should be clipped onto the overflow tube. One arm of the toilet fill cycle diverter should be on the inside of the overflow tube, and one arm should be on the outside. When installed, this $1.20 toilet water saver reduces the amount of water flushed by as much as one-half gallon.
- A toilet fill cycle diverter is installed on the end of a tank’s fill tube
- Allows you to redirect water that normally goes to fill up the toilet back into the actual tank
- Reduces up to 1/2 a gallon of water per flush!
5. Install a Dual Flush Toilet
A dual flush toilet is a toilet water saver that is a bit more complex than the previous ones we’ve discussed, and can save even more water, thousands of gallons every year. This style of toilet has two different flushing options: liquids and solids, or half and full.
Once it has been installed, an average-sized family of four can expect to save as much as thirty gallons of water every day. This type of toilet water conservation strategy reduces the amount of toilet water used by 30 percent to 50 percent.
Conclusion
Whether through installing toilet water savers or just making sure you fix leaky toilets, saving water can be a hassle free, cost-effective change in your home.