Urinal smack--down

By Timothy Allinson, P.E.

Murray Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Since the year I was born, my father has been a member of a theatrical arts club in Manhattan called the Players. It's a wonderful place, occupying the former townhome of Edwin Booth, namesake of the Booth Theater on Broadway, also the brother of John Wilkes Booth -- a far less glamorous connection.

Booth, a successful actor and philanthropist, donated his townhome for the formation of the Players. It was incorporated by 16 icons, including Booth himself, Mark Twain and General William Sherman. In fact, Mr. Twain's pool cue is in a plague on the wall over the fireplace -- next to the pool table. You get a remarkable sense of history when entering this place that is rarely experienced in most of the United States.

In the Grill, just a few feet past the pool table, is a men's toilet with a sign over the urinals, probably older than I am, that reads, "Nature her custom holds, let shame say what it will, the more haste, the less speed." William Shakespeare. The old urinals are quite elegant, although not as grand as some others I have seen in New York City's older establishments, such as the original Macy's, P.J. Clarke's Pub and McSorley's Ale House. In one old pub there is a trough with water running through it on the floor around the bar; men could relieve themselves without the inconvenience of leaving their barstools. This amenity has, of course, been decommissioned since the bar became co-ed and since the Health Department was formed. But the trough itself remains as a reminder of days of old.

Since the early days of its creation, the once-grand urinal has morphed into a quite ordinary fixture. The first significant change was, perhaps, when it was reduced to one gallon per flush, making it less effective at passing cigarette butts. Since smoking is all but illegal these days, that is not exactly what I would call a controversial issue.

In more recent years, there was a brief attempt at creating the "she-inal," but a lack of demand from the female populace, coupled with user--unfriendly operation, caused it to fall by the wayside, virtually without the notice of the laywoman.

Enter the waterless urinal -- the first controversial change in this humdrum fixture in many years. Originally intended to save money by saving water, this fixture has become an environmental trademark for water conservation, green buildings and LEED solutions.

For those unfamiliar with the fixture's premise, as the name would imply, this urinal uses no water. The only plumbing connection is the traditional vented drain. The trap is created with a replaceable cartridge filled with a vegetable-oil-based fluid. Since vegetable oil does not evaporate and since it is less dense than water (and urine), the liquid waste drains though the cartridge trap without washing out its contents. The manufacturer claims that each cartridge is good for 7,000 uses, although many people familiar with real-world replacement needs claim that the cartridge must be changed far sooner than that.

The walls of the fixture are so slick that they do not hold any odor-retaining residue -- provided that they are cleaned properly with the recommended cleaning agents. Here again, many people familiar with the application of the product claim that the fixtures are not as slick as they are claimed to be.

Some municipalities have reservations about the waterless urinal. In Los Angeles, for example, when the fixtures are installed, a water supply must be capped just outside the wall in anticipation that the urinals might be replaced with conventional units in the future. Health issues, coupled with the potential for uric acid induced corrosion of the waste line, are the drivers of this anticipated replacement.

Other controversies associated with waterless urinals are the cost of the replacement cartridges and the suggestion that the chemicals in the cartridges are not so eco-friendly, making the fixture less green than originally thought. In response to this objection, one manufacturer has designed a dry cartridge that uses a coiled elastomeric membrane rather than liquid chemistry to maintain the trap seal. This dry cartridge has, however, created controversy of its own, with claims that it violates plumbing codes because it is a "mechanical trap."

Falcon, the founder of the waterless urinal, filed suit against Ecotech, the producer of the membrane cartridge. Falcon claims that the reason for their suit was the health risk associated with the mechanical trap, and Ecotech claims that they were sued in response to Falcon's loss of sales in replacement cartridges. The Echotech dry cartridge has a lifetime warranty. The result? Ecotech was forced to stop selling its replacement cartridge, and the suit was settled between the parties. Ecotech continues to sell its own brand of waterless urinals that use the dry cartridge.

Meanwhile, other manufacturers, such as Zurn, have focused their efforts on ultra--low flow urinals that flush with as little as one pint of water -- one--eighth the one--gallon standard. These high efficiency urinals work quite well and do not carry the potential drawbacks of the waterless fixture's replacement cartridges, chemical discharge and uric acid pipe corrosion.

The future of the urinal and the standard for its operation remains to be determined, be it the dry type or pint-flush or something else. Yesterday I heard about a new clothes washing machine being developed in London that operates with one cup of water -- half the amount used to flush the latest high efficiency urinals -- so who knows what technology the future might reveal?

Timothy Allinson is a Senior Professional Engineer with Murray Company, Mechanical Contractors, in Long Beach, Calif. Prior to entering the design-build industry he worked for Popov Engineers, Inc. in Irvine, Calif, and JB&B in New York City. Tim holds a BSME from Tufts University and an MBA from New York University. He is a professional engineer licensed in both mechanical and fire protection engineering in various states, and is a leed Accredited Professional. Tim is a past-president of ASPE, both the New York and Orange County Chapters, and sits on the board of the Society of American Military Engineers, Orange County Post.