In the past we had written about individual flush tank pieces. These are connected to the WC via a tube which carries the water from the tank and flushes the WC with some force. Today we show you a combo piece.

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Note that in the picture the flush tank is not wall mounted. Instead it is part of the WC itself. It looks elegant and doesn’t crowd the wall. The unit is seamless and has no joints that are visible. It really enhances the visual appeal. It would surely be more expensive than the individual units but if you have taste for aesthetics, this could be a choice.

Also note how dry the floor of the bathroom is. Ideally this is how all the bathroom surfaces should look like. They avoid accidents and reduce the chance of your floor developing leaks and cracks due to water seepage.

On the right is a normal toilet paper dispenser and on the left is the health faucet which we have already written about on aavaas. The place where the health faucet’s pipe meets the water supply, is also a regular tap for usage. One the left extreme one can see a dustbin. This is a very good practise. You can dispose of unnecessary stuff into the dustbin and not into the WC as some people do. This includes, shampoo sachets, pieces of soap, plastic covers and the like. The would block your septic tank and you would have to incur additional expenses in clearing these out.

We are equally pleased by the tiles on the wall. The texture is different and not the usual plain and boring type.

Yet another picture we would like to present and talk about. This time it is the shower and tap set which would go into the bathroom.

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The tap system you see at the bottom is a warm and cold water dispenser. It has two channels for letting water stream out. First is the tap below.There is a knob in the centre which can be shifted to either left or right. Left selects the dispenser to shower and right selects the dispenser to the regular tap. (can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer).

The warm and cold knobs can be seen in the picture. Usually the warm knob has a red ring to identify the same and the cold knob has a blue ring. The letters “h” and “c” are also found on some knobs. One can select the temperature by adjusting both the knobs accordingly.

Once the desired temperature has been set, one can regulate the water flow by the central lever. Note the stainless steel soap dispenser.

Also you might be wondering what the little steel plate next to the shower head is? It is a retractable cord which is used to support a bathroom curtain if required. on the opposite end of the wall, there would be a socket into which the nylon rope would fit in.

We hope you found this post useful.

This is the final part of the article. In the picture below you can see that the tank has been fitted on to the wall. There are two brackets into which the tank slides into.

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In the picture above you can see the stream of water gushing into the tank since the float is down and the valve is open.

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In this picture you can see two things. We have filled the tank completely and the float has effectively closed the inflow of water.

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We have also fitted the “bridge” before going on to close the tank.

This is an alternative view of the tank.

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Here the tank has been closed and now is fully operational.

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Some tips to ensure that your tank is hassle free..

• Periodically clean the interiors of your tank and remove debris, dirt from the interiors. 
• Check if the rubber washers are in a good condition. Replace them if they seem to have worn out.
• Once in a while let the tank drain out completely and let the unit dry for a while.
• Do not keep any heavy item on top of the tank lid.
• If any part is not operation – replace immediately as you can save precious water.
• Wipe clean the tank with a cloth to prevent salt stains.

Hope you found this article useful.

Yesterday we briefly introduced you to the parts within the tank. There is the main valve, the float and the operational handle.

The tank is made of plastic as you can see from the picture below.

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The hole that you see on the front is where the handle goes in.

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These pictures show you the lid of the tank and also what we call “the bridge”. The bridge is a device which is used to hold  the tank together when it is filled with water. It is am improvised design. Earlier tanks did not have this and as a result the tank would bulge one way due to the weight of the water inside and eventually break.

There are 4 openings in a flush tank. The first is something we already discussed. It appears in the front where the operating handle would be mounted. The tank has two inlet holes on each side. This is to give a generic design so that you can adapt the main inlet valve from either side depending on your bathroom’s design.

The last of the holes is at the bottom and this is where  the water is expelled out of.You can see the pictures below for the same.

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In the second picture the main valve has been fitted into.

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It is a simple twist and turn mechanism. The base however has to be screwed onto the tank. Believe us – no tools are required to repair/replace these parts.

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In this picture you can see that we have fitted the handle on to the tank with the lever attached to the main valve. when you turn the handle on from the outside you lift the main valve and “flush” the toilet as all the water goes into the WC.

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And finally in this picture you can see that we have fitted the float as well. The float is part of the inlet system. SO the main valve and the flush tank are connected to each other by means of a flexible pipe.

More in final part.

Ever had this flush tank which kept leaking all day long and kept you and your family away from a dry bathroom floor? Welcome to the club. Flush tanks are designed to last normally. But due to various factors we end up in a situation where the mechanism inside simply fails. What is even worse is that to prevent the leak we close the mains supply to the tank and end up with no water in the tank when we really want it to be.

This is the first of the a three part article which would give you some tips of repairing your tank on your own. Its kind of a Do-it-yourself article.

To understand the functioning of the flush tank, you need to know that there are only 3 vital components within. The first is the valve which releases water to your WC. The second is a float which regulates the flow of water into the tank and shuts it off when the tank is full. And the last part is the handle which is used to operate the tank from outside.

In the picture given below you can see the parts on the floor.

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More on this in the next part.

Many a times, we struggle to find the place to store towels in the bathroom. I have seen people throw the towel over the shower head or squeeze it into the door handle. Some people have the rods like the one shown below.

Image Courtesy : jaquar.com

Image Courtesy : jaquar.com

An alternate solution is to have a towel rack which also has the rod below. The rack can be used to store clean and dry towels whereas the rod below can be used to hang the towels in use. I think this is a great idea. Any comments?

While on a recent trip to Kerala, I managed to capture this picture from the hotel’s bathroom.

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The embedded flush tank is really a space saving technique. It also gives a wonderful aesthetic sense to your bathroom. The surface of the wall is smoother (finish), no dust accumulates behind the flush tank, or on top of it.

If you are already tempted to get this for your home, the you need to know the disadvantages of this as well!

For starters, the possibility of repairing and maintaining one is extremely tough. I really do not know how one would go about fixing the flush tank if it develops a leak or something. From experience I know that the parts used inside the flush tank are all susceptible to fault with usage. Areas having salty water or hard water increase the chance of your tank developing a leak or stop functioning completely.

From our recent articles, I am sure you would have imagined the importance of water conservation. So having an embedded flush tank is probably not the best of ideas.

On the other hand, if the manufacturer is a reputed one and guarantees certain number of operations without fault or leak, then perhaps you could still consider one.

On the picture you can also see the toilet seat and a hygiene faucet (health faucet). On the bottom right corner a small portion of the toilet paper holder can also be seen.

So what would you do? Would you go for the embedded flush tank or the conventional one? Do let us know your thoughts about this.

Most homes have a water heater installed in their bathrooms. And most people like to have a hot shower. But not too hot to scald your skin. It is a known fact that choosing the optimum temperature setting on your heater is a very tricky subject. What options we have?

a) Set the optimum temperature which meets an individuals needs.

Pros – Mixing of hot and cold water is not necessary. The heater doesn’t work overtime to heat the entire water and thus can save electricity. Chances of burning oneself is minimized.

Cons – All people may not have the same preference for the temperature. If too many occupants are there at home, then the heating of water can take a longer time because of frequent switching of the heater.

b) Setting the maximum temperature on the heater and then choosing the water mixer (hot and cold) to get water to one’s liking.

Pros – Individuals have their own comfort in choosing the heat levels of the water. Multiple people can shower with one time heating.

Cons – Mixing of water can be a tricky affair. Often you may end up getting too hot or too cold water. Electricity bills may be higher.

So we are just going to focus on the “mixing taps” option in this article. There are two types:

a) Individual taps for hot and cold water.

Image Courtesy : eparryware.com

In the type shown above, there are two taps for hot and cold water. There is a valve in the middle which can be used to regulate water flow either to the shower head or to the tap below. So people who want to use conventional methods of bathing, i.e. with bucket and mug can do so also.

b) Single lever

Image Courtesy : eparryware.com

In this type, you have one common level which when in its centre position and lifted up will give 50% of cold water and 50% of hot water (an ideal mix). The pressure is varied by the amount of lift you give to the level. When pressed completely into the wall, the shower doesn’t function at all and when it is pulled out almost 90 degrees, you get full pressure.

Similarly turning the level completely to the left will normally dispense hot water (100%) and cold water (0%) and turning the lever completely to the right will dispense cold water (100%) and hot water (0%). *

* – this can change from one model to another. Please see the accompanying instructions before and after installation!

So what are you going to choose for your bathroom?

We spoke about Toilet cleaners earlier here. Attached in the pictures below, you can find that the market has quite a few offerings in this product space.

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The product which are briefly discussing today is “Sanifresh”. You can see in the second picture on top, Sanifresh has atleast 3 different types of product in the toilet cleaner space. There is a Blue bottle, Purple bottle and also a Green. So we decided to search on the website for some details. Unfortunately the site has only one color listed – Blue.

http://www.dabur.com/EN/products/Home_Care/ToiletCleaners/default.asp

Image Courtesy : Dabur | Click on Image to enlarge

Product Details:

The new Sanifresh THICK is a specialist toilet cleaner which comes with a Guarateed germ kill formula containing ATAC that helps protect your family’s health while leaving the toilet sparkling clean and smelling fresh.

The product is available in 200ml and 500ml bottles. We will update the pricing once we have these details.

Product Ad from their website

When you try to access balsara.com , one gets redirected to dabur’s website. The reason is that , with effect from April 1, 2005, Balsara Home Products has become a subsidiary of Dabur India Limited.

However we can still access Sanifresh details on Balsara’s website:

http://www.balsara.com/product.asp?groupid=2&location=1&category=55

These seem to show the old product details including a “Green” bottle – Sanifresh Forest Dew

If you have some details about this product, please share it with us.

Health faucets or Hygiene faucets are the perfect match for today’s commodes. They are a better option than traditional bucket and mugs! For those of you who are still at a loss of understanding, health faucets are pipes which expel water with which one can clean up after using the toilet.

In India, the tradition has been to use water as opposed to toilet paper like western people. Installing a paper dispenser is also an option for home owners. Having both the faucet and the paper dispenser is a good idea. Just make sure that you have paper stocked up in the dispenser.

Quite a few companies in India manufacture health faucets. These are made out of plastic or stainless steel. Some of them give you an option to control the spray intensity too.

The faucet is held by a gripping hand kind of a fitting which is fixed on the wall. Some sample images are shown below:

Images Courtesy : eparryware.com

Prices vary from brand to brand. Featured here are two products from Parryware India. The first picture on the left is called “Hygi Spray” and costs Rs 635 in Kerala and Rs. 550 in rest of India. The second picture on the right is called “Johnson Pedder – Dura Spray “, and costs Rs 190 in Kerala and Rs. 165 in rest of India.

Please note that there would be an extra cost attached to the purchase of the hose and fitting on the wall which typically includes a tap. The main purpose of this tap is to give you control in case the faucet malfunctions or there is a rupture in the hose.

The hose from Parryware is available in two sizes. 1.5 feet and 2 feet. Prices for the hoses ranges from Rs 60 to Rs 100.