Eli5: Why are most public toilets plumbed directly to the water supply but home toilets have the tank?
In: 4741
If you look at a commercial/public toilet in the US, you’ll notice that it’s fed by a 1-1/4″ or 1-1/2″ water supply pipe. That’s so it can supply enough water volume to forcefully flush. Most residential homes are fed by a main pipe that is only 3/4″ in diameter, and cannot supply enough volume to flush a commercial toilet. So, to work around that, residential toilets have a tank to store some amount of water, which on flush, drops into the toilet bowl with sufficient volume to flush the toilet, then the tank slowly refills for the next flush.
Latest Answers