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"  At the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS)\u2014and perhaps, hopefully, only at KBIS\u2014dozens of spectators stop in their tracks to watch a public demonstration of a debut toilet. Equipped with notepads and cameras, the crowd gathers at Kohler&amp;#039;s lavish booth on April 16, the first day of the Chicago trade show. The man hosting the demonstration speaks at a staccato clip into his microphone, hailing the toilet&amp;#039;s new flapper mechanism. &amp;quot;This is the future of flappers, folks,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;This is the tower of power.&amp;quot; He&amp;#039;s referring to Kohler&amp;#039;s new cylindrical toilet-tank valve, which resembles a plastic Big Gulp cup without a bottom. Water fills the tank, leaving the cylinder&amp;#039;s insides dry. The canister tapers from 3 to 2 inches in diameter as it descends to the tank bottom, creating a cone effect. When the toilet flushes, the canister rises, ushering a 1.6-gallon vortex into the bowl. The plunging water accelerates as it passes by the cone on the way down to the rim jets. Unlike trap-door flappers, which open fully only after admitting a sliver of water through the opened crescent of the inlet, the tower of power causes an immediate 360-degree infiltration. The wide-open inlet gulps the tank contents, creating a sudden trap-door effect that sends a rapid infusion of water to the bowl.  To illustrate his point, the demonstrator chooses four lucky audience members, and tosses them the standard test contents of the toilet world: latex condoms filled with fifty grams of miso paste. The onlookers receive their yellow, blue, red and green condoms, then promptly chuck them back into the toilet bowl. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s a splasher!&amp;quot; the demonstrator says after one man&amp;#039;s long-distance toss. For any audience members unable to see the action, a camera aimed at the toilet bowl broadcasts its bobbing multicolored contents on a large television screen nearby. &amp;quot;Now, these are floaters, and everybody knows those are tough to flush,&amp;quot; the demonstrator says. This line actually elicits a bit of discomfort from the crowd. But, hey, they came to watch a toilet demo. He flushes the fixture, the miso rainbow washes down the drain and a satisfied audience applauds the gleaming white bowl. But there are no miso-filled prophylactics over at the Toto booth. &amp;quot;We keep it real-world,&amp;quot; Toto&amp;#039;s director of business marketing, Brad Sweet, says. The latex skin introduces a surface tension that just doesn&amp;#039;t exist in the reality of toilet performance, Sweet explains. That means loose miso samples tested Toto&amp;#039;s latest toilet, the Double Cyclone. Unlike the perforated series of rim holes common to the circumference of most toilets, the 1.28-gallon-per-flush (gpf) Double Cyclone washes the bowl using just two large openings, which shoot sideways in a watery corkscrew from opposite ends of the rim. The increase in size between these openings and a standard toilet&amp;#039;s rim holes is like the difference in diameter of a Porsche&amp;#039;s exhaust tailpipe versus a Hyundai&amp;#039;s. Sweet says the Double Cyclone has successfully test-flushed between 600 and 1000 grams of loose miso. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s pushing the extreme,&amp;quot; Sweet says. &amp;quot;The average amount, for a man, is around 200 grams.&amp;quot; Toto made some innovations in the tank as well. Its new Aquia in-wall toilet emerges on the U.S. market as the only product with a tank designed to fit within a 2 x 4 stud wall (previous versions have been available only for 2 x 6 framing). Foam insulation panels cushioning the seamless plastic tank prevent in-wall condensation, and a 3/4-inch copper supply line within the wall feeds fresh water into the tank&amp;#039;s top. The toilet&amp;#039;s drain recesses into the wall as well. All the user sees is a cantilevered toilet bowl projecting from the wall beneath a discreet steel plate with a large and small button (it&amp;#039;s a dual-flush, using 0.9 or 1.6 gpf). The toilet bowl contains an inlet for Toto&amp;#039;s quasi-bidet Washlet system, still a rare option in American bathrooms. &amp;quot;But people are starting to get it,&amp;quot; Sweet says. A similar new inlet appeared on debut products from Geberit, a company whose in-wall toilets have streamlined European bathrooms since 1964. But that company wasn&amp;#039;t emphasizing its in-wall models for 2 x 4 residential framing\u2014Geberit has more success with 2 x 6 studs, engineering manager Tim Dallas says. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re talking about putting a 3-inch drain pipe through a 3-1/2-inch footer,&amp;quot; he says. A quizzical expression reveals his skepticism\u2014Geberit&amp;#039;s testing at its own &amp;quot;wet lab&amp;quot; in Des Plaines, Ill., has revealed structural issues. Instead, the company has focused on the height question. Apparently American consumers are either asking for toilets taller than the standard 14-inch height, or they can&amp;#039;t use the 17-1/2-inch level required for fixtures in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Geberit&amp;#039;s new in-wall toilet can be set to any height comfortable for the user. &amp;quot;We can measure the height of the wheelchair and set the toilet to that. Whatever you need,&amp;quot; Dallas says. Back at Kohler, where the measured and bagged miso reveals just how much faith the product engineers have in their precision, infinitely adjustable height is not an option. Instead, Kohler came up with a &amp;quot;comfort seat,&amp;quot; product manager Steven Krause says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s either 15-1/2 or 16 inches as measured from the floor to the vitreous,&amp;quot; Krause says. Krause also reveals the truth about early high-efficiency-toilet design flaws. It turns out designers did shrink the trap-way diameter, from the established 2 inches down to as low as 1-5/8 inch, back in the early, unsatisfying days of low-flow technology. Anyone with harrowing memories of multiple flushes at friends&amp;#039; homes could have told them that. But a new demonstration is under way, and Krause and I step back as the toilets take the stage. With the cameras rolling and the onlookers gingerly accepting condoms still wet from the earlier presentation, the charismatic pitchman quells audience fears that this low-flow toilet can handle the imminent load. For the lucky few of us to have already witnessed the spectacle, there is little doubt that this commode can choke it all down. The flush succeeds. The demonstrator concludes the show, sending the crowd off with an obscure koan just waiting for the pages of Bartlett&amp;#039;s: &amp;quot;May your life be like a toilet paper roll,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;May it be very long, and when you get to the end, make the most of it.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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