How toilets work - holding the handle down for more water

[Mitch_R]

I've seen many comments on here about holding the handle down to get more water in the flush. I think those comments were referring to Toto toilets.

Does holding the handle down have the same effect of increasing the volume of water with other brands. Specifically, I'm looking at the Kohler Santa Rosa (Model # K-10491-0) from the big orange store.

Thanks,
Mitch

 

[Terry]

That's pretty much the same for anything built after 1992.
Push and release gets you to 1.28 or 1.60
If you want something like 3.0 gallons, then you would hold it down.
Many of them will flush 1000 grams using only 1.28 gallons though.

 

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[Gary Swart]

Mitch, most toilets today do not need 3+ gallons of water per normal flush. In the early days of low flow, this was a problem with many toilets, even well known brands, but not so much today. I'd be a bit leery of some off brand toilet sold for cheap, those are what are called, builder toilets. Plumbers like Terry remove these on a regular basis. Spend a few dollars more and get one that will do the job every time with 1.6 or less water. Toto is still a very wise choice, but others have improved greatly.

 

[Jadnashua]

To help in the force of the flush, toilet manufacturers use the extra height of the water in the tank to provide more energy. If properly calibrated, they all stop the flow before the tank is empty. There is an exception - a pressure assisted toilet won't have 'extra' water to release if you were to hold the handle down - instead of the potential energy from the height of the water column (think water tower), it uses the water pressure to get things moving. That extra velocity dissipates quickly when it discharges into the MUCH larger pipe, so in the end, it often doesn't make a lot of difference. In the process, it's tank is more complex and expensive to repair, and is noisier, and can tend to shred things and send up a spray in the process.