• @[email protected]
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    116 days ago

    Toilets can appear to have flushed fully, but still have…material…stuck in the U-bend that hasn’t completely evacuated the toilet. A subsequent flush won’t work, even though the water in the bowl is clean.

    Ask me how I know.

    • @[email protected]
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      16 days ago

      Well, I suppose it is the kind of system where a lot of weird non-deterministic things can happen.

      What kind of sensor are we thinking of here? Optical? I know it’s a real issue to find something that doesn’t foul or misread even in the simpler application of an RV septic tank.

      I wonder if you could just put a window in the U-bend for manual inspection. It’s supposed to be full of “clean” water most of the time anyway.

      • @[email protected]
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        216 days ago

        Yeah, not to mention, adding any sort of electronic components to the thing would be dicey at best. A lot of bathrooms don’t even have power outlets anywhere near the toilet.

        I’d prefer some sort of pressure-activated valve or something, but this is an engineering challenge that’s beyond my meager skills.