MICRO ECO FLUSHER (MEF) – A BOON TO RESCUE WATERLESS URINALS FROM FOUL SMELLS, CUMBERSOME MANUAL CLEANING & HIGH COST OF CHEMICALS

Before we introduce MEF, let us know some facts about waterless urinals and where they fail in Indian conditions.

Waterless urinals are born from the idea of water saving which sounds very charming.

How do they work:
Waterless urinals look like regular urinals without a pipe for water intake. Men use them normally, but the urinals don't flush. Instead, they drain by gravity. Their outflow pipes connect to a building's conventional plumbing system. Some companies put a trap (it's a cup) in the drain, which they say stifles urine odors. Other companies with costlier model fill the trap/cup with water and a proprietary liquid - usually oil. The liquid simply has to float on the water. The urine sinks, and associated gases can't rise through the oil.

But do they really work? especially in a country like India with demanding conditions and tough weather, mostly humid in most of the part of the country?

We did a survey on facilities using waterless urinals within India and also across the globe and found that many facilities are fed up with high cost of maintenance and still their facility becoming a health hazard!!!

• According to website theswcsun.com, “Waterless devices retain urine, creating an environment that helps bacteria multiply, resulting in offensive odors. Savings in water costs are offset by the other expenses associated with waterless urinals. Chemicals for these urinals include sealer, primer and cleaner which sell for $75 a gallon and harm the environment. One of the two plumbers at SWC said he is not in favor of the waterless system. “The selling point was the 40,000 gallons of water,” he said.

• James Krug, CEO of Falcon-Waterfree Technologies and former Disney Channel vice president, said the waterless urinal is a good business invention because after every 7,000 uses the urinal requires a new cartridge that sells for about $40.

• In 2007 the U.S. Army contracted for waterless urinals in all its new construction, but later suffered problems with plumbing.

• The City of Chicago ordered all zero water urinals removed because concentrated urine caused severe damage to plumbing pipes at City Hall and the O’Hara International airport. Zero water urinals corrode pipes easily and are not made to handle coffee and carbonated drinks.

• SWC installed 30 new waterless urinals a year ago. These devices are a health risk because many are stopped up with urine and the odor is horrendous. Urinating at SWC requires a nose clip. This college needs either new ventilation systems for restrooms or a return to the water flush urinals.

• Another user says, “When I worked at Cox Communications in San Diego, they went through and installed Falcon waterless urinals all in the building I used to work in. Seemed like a good idea to conserve water, but the janitors were still spraying them with chemicals to wash them down, or people were pouring Mountain Dew, coffee, etc. into them, which ended up having this oil come out of the cartridge. This resulted in reducing the effectiveness of the cartridge, and the urine was crystallizing in the lines every couple of weeks causing it to back up.

Do you know how awful it is to walk into a bathroom where only the toilets work, because the urinals have backed up? Or even worse, that the plumbing is so screwed up that they’ve shut down the bathrooms and you’re forced to go use a “porta potti”.

Now lets pen down the facts proving that why waterless urinals fail their basic idea of maintaining a washroom odor free, cut down cost and save water:

• Urine traces in bowl: People supporting and marketing waterless urinals say that when urine comes in contact with H2O it produces ammonia that’s responsible for bad odor. They are true but they have forgotten the fact that in Indian conditions or facilities where moisture content is very high, urine traces in the bowl even in waterless urinals will automatically come in contact with moisture in air and will generate ammonia that is bound to smell bad. The condition is worsened by relying on the existing drainage infrastructure where trapped moisture crystallizes the urine sediments produces odor causing gas triggering further contamination of the structure and reducing the life of the pipes.

• Foreign particles: Waterless urinals are unable to deal with foreign particles like human hair, tobacco & pan masala spits, left over cigarette, etc. that damages the trap and its seal, thus adding to the insult. 

• High cost of maintenance: Waterless urinals need periodic replacement of expensive chemicals like oil or trap replacement every three months to 7000 flushes and need chemical spray (containing bio-organisms) for bowl cleaning, making it costlier than flushing.

• Cumbersome manual cleaning: A lot of manual cleaning of urinal bowl is required through the use of chemicals containing bio- organisms. This whole process again requires lots of training and skilled labor to undertake the cleaning process which is non-practical to sustain in long run with large number of urinals to maintain.

• Lack of ventilation: Most of the public washrooms in India are not designed according to ventilation required for waterless urinals. They fall prey to no-water flushing urinals once the fouls smells begin to generate & multiply, ultimately resulting in extremely unhygienic conditions.

• Absolute health hazard: As waterless urinals do not treat the urine traces and foreign particles in the bowl unless cleaned manually, they pose a serious health hazard to humans using them as contamination is bound to occur & multiply.

We have often seen cleaning staff pouring water through mug in the bowl to clean the stuff because water supply is already disconnected.
Now taking a step back and restoring the facility to manual flushing through water is not a good idea as it will waste water and will not guarantee hygiene in manual use.

We have designed a product that can maintain hygiene automatically by working in tandem with drain traps designed for waterless urinals and simultaneously save a lot of water by using around one-fourth of water every flush. Its known as ‘Micro Eco Flusher (MEF)’, an Automatic Sensor Flusher with eco mode to sense the user and flush only one-fourth water as compared to regular flush so as to clean the bowl (the main area where urine traces remain even in waterless setup). The minimal flushing produces just enough water that’s required to clean the bowl and drain urine traces & foreign particles, whereas the existing drain trap ensures that no more water is needed to stop foul smell coming back from the drain.

Requirement:
Water supply is needed for washrooms with no water supply and re-opening of existing water line is needed for washrooms with blocked water lines.

Advantages:
1. It eliminates the use of spray chemicals or manual process to clean the urinal bowl periodically (which is next to impossible).

2. It automates the cleaning process with no human intervention required and yet supports the water saving cause by saving substantial amount of water as compared to manual flushing.

3. Minimum maintenance of drain trap as water acts as a draining agent for urine traces and foreign particles.

4. An excellent amalgamation of two technologies to work simultaneously for a common goal of hygiene and maximum water saving.