7 ms·

I seriously have no clue whether you guys are being sarcastic, do you actually not close the lid before flushing? Also, public toilets with lids is the majority

• remedan 4y ago
  No, I don't, and I don't think I've suffered any negative consequences. But I've also never lived in a place that had the toilet placed in the bathroom. I guess if I were flushing the toilet next to my sink and my toothbrush, I might think differently about it.
  • christophilus 4y ago
    > I've also never lived in a place that had the toilet placed in the bathroom. Where is your toilet?
    • millerm 4y ago
      In the water closet, of course.
    • rootusrootus 4y ago
      Can't speak for OP particularly, but many newer houses in the US have the toilet in its own small room separate from the rest of the bathroom where the sinks, shower, and soaker tub are. Though in my household I can say the door to the small room rarely gets closed and I can't convince anyone else to put the damn lid down. Until slurp-slurp-slurp the dog starts drinking it, in which case there's a "stop drinking from the bowl!" followed by closing the lid. I'm not bitter. I try to choose my battles, and "turn the fan on when you poop" is a hill more worthy of dying on. Still haven't really succeeded with the kids yet.
      • roxymusic1973 4y ago
        > turn the fan on when you poop Windows also work well.
        • vel0city 4y ago
          A window might blow air out, but it also might blow air in. This would result in drawing your bathroom air deeper into the house instead of exiting it. A proper vent fan will undoubtedly move the air outside.
          • deathanatos 4y ago
            > A proper vent fan I don't think I have ever, in my life, been in a bathroom with a "proper" vent fan. AFAICT by observation, regulations must require a fan that makes seems to only make "chugchugchug" noises while seemingly doing nothing to the air.
            • vel0city 4y ago
              Lots of vent fans in houses tend to not actually vent anywhere, or they're covered up with insulation. I know I had to dig my vent fans out when I moved into my house. Uncovering them led them to be much quieter and actually exhaust from the bathroom. Good bathroom ventilation is important. Controlling humidity is a big thing, but also properly ventilating things like acetone or hairspray or other things along with bad odors is important.
              • rascul 4y ago
                > Lots of vent fans in houses tend to not actually vent anywhere, or they're covered up with insulation. I do a lot of house repairs. I don't think I've ever seen a bathroom fan that goes outside except in mobile homes. They just vent into the attic. Same with many kitchen fans. They should all go to the outside otherwise they could cause moisture issues in the future.
      • tsimionescu 4y ago
• sneak 4y ago
  Public/industrial/commercial toilets in the US generally do not have lids, only seats. They also seem to flush a lot more violently than residential toilets, relevant to the issue raised by TFA. It is strange to me that there are two parallel systems. I imagine the commercial ones require less maintenance but are more expensive?
  • hgsgm 4y ago
  • eru 4y ago
    > It is strange to me that there are two parallel systems. I imagine the commercial ones require less maintenance but are more expensive? There's a lot more laws and regulations for the 'commercial' toilets. Eg the U-shaped open seat is mandatory for public toilets in many places in the US. It's not a choice they make for commercial considerations. Btw, 'commercial' toilet is a bit of a misnomer: it's against the law to run a toilet business in most of the US. (Specifically paid toilets are outlawed.)
    • bombcar 4y ago
      Where is the "commercial toilets must have U-shaped seats" law found? Most "commercial toilets" are designed to be easy to clean and run off of "mains" pressure - commercial buildings have enough flow that they can flush directly without storing a buffer in a tank. And many commercial businesses have normal "home" toilets, at least around here.
      • eru 4y ago
        A tiny bit of Googling gives https://www.rd.com/article/public-toilet-seat-u-shape/ https://www.rd.com/article/public-toilet-seat-u-shape/ gives: > This is an open-front toilet seat, and thanks to the American Standard National Plumbing Code, it’s the go-to for most public restrooms. This code was created in 1955 and further cemented by the Uniform Plumbing Code in 1973 by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO). You can follow the links in the article I linked, or do a bit more Googling. It's not a single uniform law, but a code that then got (and gets) adopted by lots of localities using different legal mechanisms. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Plumbing_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Plumbing_Code
• eru 4y ago
  The US has some crazy toilet regulations and customs. No lids. In many places the law requires weird U-shaped open seats. Paid toilets are verboten in most places, too. And the cubicles of public toilets typically don't got all the way to the floor nor ceiling and even have vertical slits to peek.
  • brigandish 4y ago
    Apparently, the reason the doors don't go all the way to the floor is to meet stipulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act which are to allow wheelchair users to turn[1]. [1] https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/62354/19042 https://travel.stackexchange.com/a/62354/19042
    • guntherhermann 4y ago
      West europe uses a separate disabled toilets, typically much larger, have plenty of places to hold and grip, larger toilet seat, a "help me" cord to pull, friendlier taps, etc. An example: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VQ-IG8pFfcs/WQYWuWexVmI/AAAAAAAAd2s/lXJNgWUl7U4xP6YXEQotqObl_uKCjBSqgCLcB/s1600/IMG_1826.JPG https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VQ-IG8pFfcs/WQYWuWexVmI/AAAAAAAAd... No, too much work? Instead just infringe on the privacy of everyone else. Honestly...
      • kube-system 4y ago
        I understand we all have different cultural norms, but I have never felt that my privacy was infringed on by the potential that a stranger may see my shoes while taking a crap. But then again, I went to plenty of bars in college with trough urinals, so maybe I have a different point of comparison.
        • iso1631 4y ago
          That's what's really weird in the states - there's a partition between urinals, but turn around and there's half-inch gaps between the door and rest of the cubicle!
• OJFord 4y ago
  I hate it, but loads of people don't close the lid at all, it's just some sort of decoration to them, I don't know. You can often tell these people without ever sharing a lavatory with them - they'll joke about the woman/women in their life training them to 'put the seat down' (or similar from the female perspective) - as if that's all there is to put down, and consequently the women using it have nothing to close. (It sounds like a weirdly niche thing to joke about, but for some reason it seems to be popular. I suppose such people think it's very relatable, not realising how exposing or even class-determining it is.)
  • turboaspie 4y ago
    Ultimately the hygiene benefits of closing the lid when flushing are negligible in most situations. These studies always show evocative images of aerosol spreading from toilets when flushing, which understandably elicits a disgust response in certain individuals, but they fail to show that e.g. homes where the lid always stays up have higher rates of disease, or that the pathogen exposure from flushing has any real impact on health. Also given that the majority of people flush without closing the lid (I suspected this but just confirmed with a quick search) it's a bit weird referring to them as "these people" whose type you can tell. I don't think this habit is constrained to those who publicly joke about it.
    • OJFord 4y ago
      > Ultimately the hygiene benefits of closing the lid when flushing are negligible in most situations. I wasn't commenting on any supposed benefits for flushing, purely aesthetics and manners. > [studies fail to show they] have higher rates of disease, or that the pathogen exposure Nor did I claim anything of the sort. > it's a bit weird referring to them as "these people" Are they not people? They are certainly not all people. What would you have me say? > I don't think this habit is constrained to those who publicly joke about it. Nor do I, I said you can 'often' tell. The public joking happens often (enough for it to come to mind, evidently) and you can tell that about those people. I made no claim about the others - though if they're laughing at the joke that's probably a good indicator too.
  • 4y ago
• rootusrootus 4y ago
  A lid is not a panacea. The force behind a toilet flush, especially a commercial one, just blows the particles out the sides under the seat and lid. You pee on a metal sheet? Fascinating. Does nobody wear shorts in Sweden? ;-)
  • the-smug-one 4y ago
    >You pee on a metal sheet? Fascinating. Does nobody wear shorts in Sweden? ;-) Average bar urinal: https://www.sweppomn.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/14800038_001_Pissoaren-4-scaled.jpg https://www.sweppomn.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/14800038_... Also yes, we do wear shorts, that's how no one sees that we've peed on our own legs :-).
    • rootusrootus 4y ago
      Complete with art! Looks almost exactly like a bar I go to here (in Oregon), all the way down to the blue walls and graffiti. But most of our establishments have regular toilets, by far. Another local bar has a pretty spacious bathroom, the requisite graffiti and such, but a lone lidless toilet. Concrete floor and a drain, too, which is good because it seems that drunk people like to use the open toilet as a challenge, to see if they can hit it from afar. They often miss.
• a3w 4y ago
  About your later point: Isn´t pee supposed to be a mostly sterile liquid?
  • surement 4y ago
    it's not likely to be harmful but that it is sterile is a falsehood probably popularized by Fight Club
    • kwhitefoot 4y ago
      > popularized by Fight Club And Lawrence of Arabia in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In which the young men piss on wounds. "The other wounded men were seen to at the same time. Mifleh brought up the youngest lads of the party, and had them spray the wounds with their piss, as a rude antiseptic." Last paragraph of chapter 78: https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/seven-pillars-of-wisdom-ebook.html https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/seven-pillars-of-wisdom-ebo...
    • pengaru 4y ago
      No, this belief goes way back, like pre-WW2. My father would tell a story explaining why one foot was scarred and ticklish that involved the neighborhood kids pissing on his bleeding foot after stepping on a broken bottle while playing soccer barefoot in the plaza back home in Italy. All the kids knew to piss on the wound to sterilize it. He was born in '42.
  • devmor 4y ago
    Its not sterile at all. Why do you think they test it for bacterial cultures when you've got an infection?
• verdenti 4y ago