conuly | Ask a Manager is collectively losing their shit over how people flush toilets

With or without feet.

There's a few people in that thread adamantly going up and down asserting that, duh, how could the rest of us be so dumb as to not know that certain types of toilets are specifically designed to be flushed with the foot. None of them have provided any sort of evidence for this claim, which makes me think that their evidence boils down to "Mommy told me when I was a kid" or "Well, I flush with a foot so I just sort of assumed", and - man, I hate when people do that. Fucking back up your claims, or at least qualify them. "I was told by my preschool teacher, but I've never verified it" would be a lot more honest and less annoying.

Anyway, I have emailed the manufacturer most often mentioned in the comments to ask for their opinion. Mostly because that is how things ought to be done, but also because if these flushers are designed to be flushed with the foot, great, but if not then we have to ask if the other contingent, which is equally vociferously asserting that foot flushing increases wear and tear on the mechanism and causes breakdowns, needs to be taken seriously. Because what's really not okay is breaking the toilet for everybody who comes after you - and sure, you'll say that you are not the sole person responsible for breaking the toilet that much faster, but c'mon, everybody says that.

So let's see what we see, and in the meantime, let's also all wash our hands. With soap and water, thanks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sovay

Anyway, I have emailed the manufacturer most often mentioned in the comments to ask for their opinion.

I will be fascinated to hear the results. I have seen toilets which flush by floor pedals, but I gathered that was not the style of toilet under discussion.

(In order to contribute properly to this flamewar, I absolutely do not believe that the standard-issue public toilet is designed to be flushed by stepping on the lever at more or less hand-height just because the maneuver is not necessarily accessible, but I have also never heard that it would break one to do so. My personal beef is with the kind that have sensors because in my experience they never actually flush when they are supposed to and you have to trigger them anyway.)

Edited Date: 2025-05-19 09:42 pm (UTC)

From:

conuly

I have also never heard that it would break one to do so.

The people making this claim all say they work in repairs. I don't think any of them are saying that one (normal) foot-flush is enough to do it, just that the mechanism can only take so much cumulative force, so if (using fake numbers) it could withstand 10,000 normal hand flushes it can only take 7,700 foot flushes. Or whatever, I don't know what numbers we're working with.

From:

sovay

Or whatever, I don't know what numbers we're working with.

I understand the theory is that even if flushing by foot is not equivalent to putting one's entire body weight on the lever, it's more pounds per square inch than pressing or pulling with the hand. Maybe the manufacturer will give you numbers. I really hope they respond.

(I remain fascinated that this argument is even a thing.)

Edited Date: 2025-05-20 09:11 am (UTC)

From:

ethelmay

When I touch a public surface differently than a private one, I try to do so with something less gross than a shoe might be. I use knuckles or elbows for walk-light buttons, for instance, and a knuckle on the touch screen at the public library or an elevator button. I'll press a door lever with an arm, maybe, hold it open by leaning on it, that kind of thing. The knuckle thing is because a knuckle is less germy than a fingertip (especially if I wash hands before leaving home), so I am spreading fewer of my germs, and I am also less likely to put my knuckle in my mouth or eye, so whatever germs I pick up are less likely to get anywhere dangerous. And I don't think anyone is more grossed out by knuckles/elbows than fingertips, while I'm very aware that lots of people find shoes more inherently disgusting than I do.

Toilet handles/buttons and restroom door handles I don't worry about as much, as I'm just about to wash my hands again anyway. I do sometimes press a toilet handle with my knee, I think. I don't recall ever getting noticeably sprayed.

Since Covid started, I have tried to keep the habit of washing hands just before I go out and just after I get back, as well as at the obvious times like using the restroom. I also carry my own soap most of the time, because I used to avoid public restroom soap as it nearly always smelled horrible.

From:

conuly

Also, presumably you're less likely to use too much force when using a knuckle or even an elbow than when, as so colorfully put by supporters, "kicking" the button or lever.

From:

lilysea

I've been known to

a) flush toilets and
b) push crosswalk buttons and
c) push elevator/lift buttons and
d) push the door open buttons on trains
with the tip of my golf umbrella.

Not only because of germs, it's also often more ergonomic if you have hand/wrist pain that makes it hard to generate enough force to push a tiny button with fingertip alone.

From:

magid

Do you use the umbrella as a substitute walking stick at times? If so, then whatever would be on the soles of your shoes would also be on the tip of the umbrella.

From:

lilysea

No, I use the umbrella when I am out in my power wheelchair,

and I am either holding it above my head to keep the sun off/prevent people from walking into me because they're not looking where they are going

or rolling it up and pressing buttons with it

or rolling it up and having it sit in my large handbag hanging off my wheelchair (neither the tip of the umbrella nor the handle of the umbrella touching the ground)

It also gives me more reach, which is important - I would not be able to press the lift door open button and get into the lift before the lift door closes without that extra reach

or press the train door open button and get into the train before the train door closes without that extra reach

From:

magid

The only reason I thought of it was b/c my mom has a tendency to push elevator buttons with the ground-end of her walking sticks, and I told her how unsanitary I found it. (I tend to use my knuckles, to avoid touching the buttons with my fingertips.)

From:

rebeccmeister

I am just here to chime in that I now love your umbrella. Yay!

From:

sovay

with the tip of my golf umbrella.

That is incredibly handy and dexterous of you.

From:

lilysea

The golf umbrella tightly rolled up / tightly furled at the time

It means I can exert a lot more force with my arms instead of my fingers

a lot of toilet buttons and elevator/lift buttons require a fair bit of force to work - more than I can safely generate with my fingers alone

(I could generate that much force with my fingers alone in a true emergency like "press this button to open the emergency exit door", but I'd be in pain for days afterwards)

From:

sovay

The golf umbrella tightly rolled up / tightly furled at the time

I didn't figure it was open! I would find it difficult to manipulate a button with an umbrella no matter what and appreciate that it works for you.

Edited Date: 2025-05-20 06:51 pm (UTC)

From:

ethelmay

I was most flabbergasted by the people who said they were taught the habit in preschool. The idea of telling a class of four-year-olds to please kick the toilet handle...

From:

cimorene

That sounds like it could be an episode of a cartoon actually.

From:

sovay

I use knuckles or elbows for walk-light buttons, for instance, and a knuckle on the touch screen at the public library or an elevator button. I'll press a door lever with an arm, maybe, hold it open by leaning on it, that kind of thing.

Same, and for much the same reasons.

From:

movingfinger

The only toilets I've encountered intended to be flushed by foot have foot pedals.

The people using their foot to push the hand lever on the toilet are being kinda gross and don't want to admit it, because they're germaphobes who, apparently, don't want to wash their hands.

From:

conuly

Ah, well, there's a vocal contingent who insist that because they can flush with their foot, therefore, the design is clearly intended to be used that way.

From:

altamira16

This conversation is a little moot now that we have a lot of toilets with light sensors that flush as soon as you get up. They make it so you don't have to touch the various things.

From:

lilysea

I've never seen one of these in Australia - they might be more common in Japan or Germany/France

Edited Date: 2025-05-20 01:38 am (UTC)

From:

altamira16

The most common place I see them in the US is probably airport bathrooms.

From:

gatheringrivers

They're in many other workplaces too - I see them in grocery stores and other megamart types of stores.

What I find annoying is their tendency to flush 5 times before I'm DONE, and then NOT flush after I stand up, so then I have to turn around and find the manual button ANYway, which defeats the purpose, IMO.

From:

sovay

What I find annoying is their tendency to flush 5 times before I'm DONE, and then NOT flush after I stand up, so then I have to turn around and find the manual button ANYway, which defeats the purpose, IMO.

+1. The ones that flush when you turn around from closing the door are just insulting.

From:

conuly

Presumably they're set that way so that they don't flush before you get up, but omg.

Why can't they be weight sensitive instead? Surely that'd be somewhat less prone to false positives?

From:

ethelmay

They're extremely common in the US. Enough so I can't offhand recall which of the public restrooms I frequent have them and which don't. I do remember my kids' elementary school had them, resulting in at least one parent saying they'd essentially trained her kid to not flush.

From:

conuly

D'oh!

From:

cellio

I take it we're talking about (what I understand to be) normal western toilets with the handle at the top of the tank, not floor pedals (which I have seen occasionally)? It never would have occurred to me to use my foot for that. And if the concern is hygiene, well, you're in a stall with an accessible, disposable barrier that you can place between your hand and the handle, so...problem solved? And also, you are going to wash (with soap!), right? I don't understand the problem Poopfoot's mother was trying to solve.

(I did not read the comments.)

I'm curious what you'll hear from the manufacturer.

From:

conuly

We specifically mean this sort of flush, which somebody linked to and said that the design is to be foot operated, and they never looked at the product information which says hand operated.

So honestly, I suspect the manufacturer will tell me that they're wrong and these handles are for the, uh, hand - but who even knows? Who even knows.

From:

gatheringrivers

That design happens to BE easy to operate with a foot, which comes in handy if you're juggling 3 or 4 bags, a coat, and who knows what else in a shopping mall or one of those food-and-convenience-shops highway rest/truck stops.

(That said, I don't stomp on them when I have my arms full...)

Edited Date: 2025-05-20 09:32 am (UTC)

From:

pwcorgigirl

I'll have to go read that. It sounds epic.

As most of the public toilets I come across have a handle like a home toilet, what I do is to flush using my hand, but I put a couple of squares of toilet paper between the handle and my fingers before doing so. The commercial ones with a straight rod as a flush handle, well, I have been guilty of using my foot. That's the kind my elementary school had and it was common practice to do the foot flush on them.

From:

conuly

If it's true that foot flushing is worse on the mechanism than hand flushing then you probably want to start not doing that.

But I don't have any metrics here, so.

From:

rebeccmeister

...you elevated this topic to where we all get to join in on the animated conversation!

:^D

And I am 100% with all the people who detest the automatic sensor flushers.

I wonder why it's so hard to resist chiming in on this topic. Universality of experience?

From:

conuly

Auto sensors would be great if they worked properly.

From:

cesy

I am also fascinated by the discussion about spray, and that aerosol is once again a bigger germ vector than contact.

From:

conuly

Tangent: Just as I don't understand where people are getting "you'd have to be a contortionist!" from, I also don't understand the foot flushers' insistence on "you have to bend practically in half to flush with your hand! with your face right over the bowl!"

I mean, I generally flush as I stand up, so I'm facing away, but even if I'm facing the toilet I don't have to bend that much? And while there's certainly people taller than I am, I'm definitely on the taller end of average height for an American woman of my age cohort.