I have asked for a duel flush toilet while at Lowe's home improvement before. The guy i asked looked dumbfounded, and he asked another guy and he said he had heard of them but it would be super expensive and have to be special ordered. America needs to get with the program, these have been avaiable in Europe for a while, not really new tech.

I've had a dual flush toilet for more than 10 years. They are everywhere in Europe where I live.
Marco

Hi, just to extend Marco's comment: In Middle Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany etc.) toilet flush mechanisms that only let you apply as much water as is really needed to wash away the remains of your bowel movement are a dime a dozen. More loos have them than not...

These have been available in Australia (home of Caroma) for about the last ten years. You pretty-much can't buy anything but dual flush toilets there. As an Australian living in the US, I've often wondered why they weren't popular over here. And then I remembered that Australia is the dryest continent on earth (outside Antarctica). Oh, and the Americans are wasteful.

I want a couple in my future house!

First time I read about these toilets was on the NRDC's website (NRDC.org); they use these toilets in their offices (along many other green building features.)

They are pretty common in China too

Yep you guys. Caroma is a great Aussie company and have been making duals for closer to 20 years by my faded recollections. Hey, in most things we Aussies aren't exactly pace-makers but with our lack of water we have to conserve, conserve, conserve.
I believe it's illegal to install anything BUT a dual flush in a new home now and has been for close to 10 years (in South Australia anyway)
Cheers

There are not new at all. Dual-flush toilet tank are manadatory in all new toilets in Israel. I've had one for over 10 years too.

Believe it or not, in the US, the radical right has politicized toilets. Bring up water efficient toilets with these wingnuts and you'll be accused of participating in a leftwing environmentalist plot to take away the trusty old 4 gallon models. There is even a market of rejuvinating the old ones for illegal resale in municipalities that require water saving toilets by building code. Some of this is in reaction to the first water saving models sold here, which where of poor design But romanticising a wasteful symbol of bad design: quite amazing. I stop short of Freudian explanation.

Funny - I was really shocked to see this featured, then read the comments from other Aussies. (Althought the driest continent/country, thanks to our industry usage, Australia actually has the highest per capita water consumption in the world!)

This old button design isn't the sexiest though. I like some of the European ones where you hold the button out for as long as you need - you can use even less water than a half flush. (Dutch toilet bowl 'inspection shelves' are all back to front nasty stinky business though - keep away from them!)

I was these all over Israel as well...

yep. israel has them everywhere..

they have em with two buttons, as well as with two levers, one big and one small.
theres also one, i think, that you hold down the handle either halfway, or all the way..depending on what ya got going on..

Yup, Japan too. Japan has them standard in all toilets ever since I can remember. Even the old school lever mechanism had dual flushing. Lift the lever up for #1 and for #2 push it down. Simple! no real need for two separate buttons. I imagine the mechanism could be retrofitted pretty cheaply to standard toilets.

Kohler the US bathware maker owns a subsidiary company called Sterling which makes a very nice looking nice dual flusher. The guy at Home Depot told me its in the US$350 range. Per Sterling's site streaming video content: average family (2.13 persons per household currently) would save 6,000 gallons per year with the dual compared to a single flusher. At my water rate of 0.6 cents (US) per gallon, the estimated savings would be $100 per year. Based on the other prices I'd seen, that means that the breakeven point on the payback for incremental added cost is about 18 months.

Here is a great site (Seattle area, US)that rates toilets and has some user reviews of the Caroma dual flush Caravelle model:
http://www.terrylove.com/wwwboard/messages2/50684.html

I really want to conserve water, etc. So, based on the research, I purchased a Caroma Caravelle. Unfortunately, I think I'll have to return it because installation is not that easy. US toilets have 2 bolts near the plumbing that secures the toilet to the floor and holds it in place. The Caroma has these 2 bolts near the rear of the toilet. So, to install it, I'm going to have to drill down through my newly installed tile floor (at risk of breaking the tiles) and through the cement in order to secure the toilet to the floor. This is rather than using the existing bolts that were from my previous toilet and are already drilled into the cement, just near the pipe rather than near the end of the toilet.

Anyone else come accross this problem or have any suggestions?

Are there any other good dual flush toilets out there that might not have this problem?

Terry,

It's worth buying the proper drill bits for the tile and cement and installing it. We had a serious drought resulting in water rationing here a few years ago. The city doubled the cost of water and threatened to double it again.

So after some research, I ordered a Caroma Caravelle 1-piece. I didn't have your tile over cement problem, as we have vinyl covering wood. The Caroma all but installed itself. It's been nothing less than perfect, and we really did begin to use 60% less water a month, according to the billing.

People up in years like us tend to need a lot more light flushes in 24 hours than younger folks, which accounts for our results.