Why are toilets not joined to the main plumbing via a dedicated, leak proof joint? Something that latches into the toilet and is sealed? Automotive, aircraft, and other industries have high pressure fluid lines. Could someone conceive of an improvement to the current toilet connection?
In: Engineering
Wax rings are relatively easy to install (and uninstall) compared to other methods. I’ve replaced a few toilets and it’s very easy thanks to not having to make complicated connections. Just scrape the previous ring off, put the new one down, then place the toilet and bolt to the ground. Bam, done.
I had to google what a wax ring is. My toilet goes into the wall with a normal PVC pipe and a gasket.
They’re cheap, they work, and they last long.
There’s nothing to fix here or that really needs improvement. It’s rare to hit a trifecta like that.
Something else to keep in mind is that the shit pipe isn’t (usually) pressurized with a traditional toilet you’d sit with a wax ring, unlike the examples you cited where they’re under pressure (even 5 psi is a lot to contain). All the wax seal has to do is keep the water from leaking out of the pipe, and the water and shit just kinda drains down with gravity.
The wax ring is 99% just to keep sewer gases from coming back into the bathroom.
Its not really sealing water/waste.
They do make a mess-free composite toilet ring that is quite nice and handy especially if you have to remove the toilet and reinstall for some reason(s) which does happen. They’re quite a bit more expensive but also more forgiving for rookies
It’s important to remember that these are NOT pressurized lines. If everything is working right, the contents just flow downhill via gravity at a relatively low speed. If you’re seeing leakage from that wax ring, it’s because there’s a blockage downstream that you need to get fixed. Water shouldn’t be standing in that pipe if everything is working properly.
“Why are toilets not joined to the main plumbing via a dedicated, leak proof joint?”
Here in Britain they are fitted with a proper pan connector with a series of fins on the male part and a rubber seal on the female end. This wax ring business is an American thing as far as I understand.
https://www.masterflow.uk.com/image/cache/catalog/products/WPCST124%20Small-500.png
Source – Am plumber.
Being UK based, the wax ring arrangement always struck me as a lot of trouble compared to what we do over here, which is just push a pan connector with integral rubber seal over the spout on the porcelain.
I guess the difficulty the US would have moving away from the wax ring is that it would involve the waste pipe ceasing to be part of the floor and changing the pan design to have the spout for the pipe to fit onto.
Both of these would be huge changes to the buildings and to the sanitary ware factories and thus impractical.
By the sound of it, the wax ring is mainly effective but I can’t help having a slightly ‘urrrgh’ feeling about the sewage soaking between the ring and floor if the seal degrades over time.
I didn’t think the wax rings made any sense in this modern world until I actually removed a terlet and remodeled. Any other method *might work in very specific circumstances, but the wax covers many plumbing sins past present and future. Protip: use two wax rings especially for weird tricky places.
We don’t use wax rings at all in the UK, as far as I know. Was really confused when I accidentally watched some American DIY videos about fixing the toilet!
Latest Answers