How does a toilet work?

Question

Toilets are kinda cool if you think about it cause if there working properly they always have that same amount of water in the bowl at all times even when you pour a bucket of water in there it drains to that certain point. whenever you push the handle the right amount of water comes out all the time how does it do that?

Answer 1

It depends on where you live(England's are different than America/and Chinese are burried)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet

Answer 2

Toilet work on the principle that water seeks its own level.

The toilet is a bowl connected to the soil pipe 4" (11 cm) diameter, via a S channel   The S is sideways with the top at the bottom of the bowl and the tail at the soil piple

Air pressure keep the gases from flowing back into the bowl and as you add water the mass of the water and stuff is greater on the top then the bottom --- waste is then flushed to the soil pipe which is often a straight pipe to the sewer line. Waste line are graded at a 2% grade  .25 in per foot.

see below

Answer 3

The passageway of the toilet goes down, then curves out of your sight, then curves up, then down again into the sewer line. (That's two U-bends, the second one upside down.) That second downturn is why it never overfills unless there's a clog. To flush, an amount of water must be poured in so that its weight starts the whole thing (the whole water-and-poo mixture) flowing through the double curve. When the (out of sight) upside-down U-bend is filled with water, a siphon effect starts. Hydrodynamically that's equivalent to the bottom of the visible U-bend going straight down to the sewer line. Anything in the bowl gets sucked down. When air gets sucked in, the siphon effect is broken, and again, the water in the bowl and visible part of the U-bend settle into place. That water keeps sewer gas and stinks from coming into the room where you are.

Any amount of water, as long as it's more than a certain minimum, and as long as it is poured in fast enough, will trigger a flush. It's the siphon effect that's the coolest part, pulling the ... stuff ... up and over the second U-bend.

Answer 4

A toilet is constructed with a built-in "S" trap, which prevents sewer odor from coming out and maintains a water level in the bowl. When water (from a bucket) is poured into the bowl, the excess water will overflow the lip of the S trap until the bowl level is at the same height as the lip, then stops. In the tank, there is a fill valve and a flapper.  When the toilet is flushed, the flapper is raised and the water exits the tank into the bowl. To maintain the proper water pressure from gravity, a water level mark is inscribed on the tank wall.  The fill valve is controlled by a float, which opens/shuts the valve.  The floats are adjustable to set the proper water level. Coming off the fill valve is a tube which is inserted into the overflow pipe. As the tank fills, water goes through the tube, down the overflow pipe and into the bowl, raising the bowl level to the proper level. (Remember the S trap?).  When the water gets to that point, the tank float shuts off the fill valve. The flush and refill cycle is now completed.