Lo-flow becomes no-flow

Photo by BobbaLew.

Yesterday morning (Thursday, December 16, 2010; Beethoven’s birthday), as it occasionally does, Toto cried uncle and refused to compute.
Toto is our supposedly fantabulous lo-flow toilet (pictured at left) in our master bathroom.
It’s manufactured by Toto.
It replaced our original toilet, American-Standard, which had become dysfunctional. That toilet was almost 20 years old, and was semi-plugged with urine-salt deposits.
Well, I guess Toto is impressive for a lo-flow toilet.
It has worked consistently almost three months since it last plugged.
Our plumber suggested Toto was the best lo-flow toilet money could buy.
Well, fine; but he’s the same plumber that suggested the reason our previous toilet wasn’t working was because of our tankless water-heater.
A tankless water-heater doesn’t heat water in a holding-tank.
It heats the water as it flows through. —You can’t run out of hot water taking a shower.
Tankless water-heaters are allegedly more efficient.
It’s not keeping 40 or more gallons of water hot.
It only heats on demand, but I don’t think it’s saving natural-gas.
With constant hot-water, you lake longer showers.
I found our plumber’s contention rather interesting.
Far as I knew, our dysfunctional toilet wasn’t plumbed to a hot-water line.
Who was I, a mere customer, to question the venerable wisdom of someone equal to the Pope?
Toto may be a lo-flow toilet, but our water-use has significantly increased since it was installed.
You have to make allowances with a lo-flow toilet.
It has to be double-flushed with certain uses, plus it has to be flushed after every use.
Our previous toilet didn’t have such requirements, so used less water.
And if I use a bucket of tap-water to help it, that’s additional water.
That got it to compute. I didn’t have to plunge it, which it often requires.