Toilet Cisterns

Flushing the toilet is something everyone does multiple times every day. But not many people think about how the toilet cistern works unless something goes wrong. Many people don’t even know what kind of flushing system they are using.

In the past decades, everything in our homes has gotten smarter. We went from rotary phones to smartphones, CRT televisions to smart TVs, incandescent bulbs to wi-fi controlled smart bulbs, and whatnot. This advancement is also reflected in our bathrooms. The toilet flushing system used to consist of an overhead tank with a lever to open the valve. But these days, you will find an automatic flush that cleans the toilet as soon as you get up from the toilet seat. Read this article to find out more about them. Having a better understanding of toilet cisterns will help you make better purchase decisions.

Different types of toilet cisterns

One of the essential parts of the flush system, besides the toilet bowl and toilet drain, is the flush system. While there are toilets that do not have a flush system, such toilets are rather inconvenient for the modern lifestyle. Therefore, people make provision for installing a toilet cistern during the designing phase of a house or a building. But you have to keep in mind that not all flush systems work the same way. Here is a list of four of the most popular types of flush systems out there. In this article, you will also find some wonderful tips that you can follow while shopping for cisterns online.

Ballcock toilet cistern

This is the earliest and most basic type of flush system and also the most common type. It consists of a combination of a ballcock along with a plunger. The ballcock stays on top of the water and keeps the tank filled with water all the time. As the ball drops when the water empties out of the flush tank, the rod that connects to the ballcock allows the water to fill inside the tank. It is the plunger that controls the flushing. Raising the plunger opens up the tank, and the water flows out into the toilet bowl. One common problem with this type of cistern is that the plunger often fails to create a proper seal and hence results in water leakage.

Flapper flush valve

The flapper valve is not very different from the ballcock system in its functioning. Instead of a ball, this system makes use of a flapper that floats above the water. And the valve that fills the tank with water opens and closes depending on the position of the flapper. The benefit of this system is that as the flapper does not take up as much volume as a ballcock, it is possible to make the toilet cistern more compact. But one downside of the flapper system is that they are really slow to fill up as the pressure exerted by the flapper will be significantly less than a ballcock.

Double Cyclone flush system

Both the flapper and ballcock systems simply use the power of gravity to flush the toilet. In this regard, they are very primitive and use up a considerable amount of water in the process. There has been a consistent effort to reduce the amount of water that the toilet cisterns consume. The double cyclone system makes use of the pressure difference to flush the toilet bowl effectively without using a lot of water. This system makes use of two separate nozzles that push water into the toilet bowl in opposite directions. This creates a cyclone effect in the bowl and flushes the system using less amount of water.

Dual system

While the double cyclone system reduces the amount of water needed for flushing, it is hard to find replacement parts for them once something goes bad. The dual system, on the other hand, uses gravity as the first two toilet cisterns. But in this case, there will be separate levers. The smaller lever is for non-solid waste and uses less water. The other one is for solid waste and works normally. The dual system allows the user to control water usage. These days, pretty much all toilet cisterns make use of the dual system.