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

[conuly]

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.

Comments

[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.)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

I'm just glad that...

[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?

[cesy]

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

[minoanmiss]

I am delighted to find out that that post was just as spectacular a dumpster fire as I thought it would be.