Should I Put Bricks in the Toilet to Save Water?
Toilets account for nearly 30% of household water use, according to the EPA , which means replacing old ones with newer, more efficient models could seriously cut your water bills. Unfortunately, the significant up-front costs are a bottleneck for many people, forcing some to use creative water-saving solutions such as bricking a tank.
The idea behind this classic homemade hack is simple: laying bricks in the toilet cistern takes up a lot of space, reducing the amount of water used for each flush. When done right, it does work, but if you’re not careful, your smart, low-flow installation can either do nothing at all or seriously damage your toilet and plumbing. Here’s what you need to know to get it right.
Determine your baseline
If your toilet was manufactured and installed after 1994, it is already quite effective. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (which came into effect in 1994) established a federal standard of 1.6 gallons per flush (GPF) , which is still in effect today. Toilets before 1994 can be used more than three times as much, and this does not take into account age-related disadvantages such as leaks and slow filling.
On the one hand, the older your toilet is, the more you can save by reducing your water consumption. On the other hand, if your toilet is 30 years old, you (or your homeowner) should really just replace it. Modern high-performance models use 1.3 GPF or less, and no amount of displacement can allow the toilet to come close to that amount. At best, this will save about 0.25 gallons per flush – better than nothing, but not exactly a drastic reduction.
Skip the brick and use the bottle
While this is a common suggestion, putting bricks in the toilet is not a good idea. Bricks are dirty from the start and will deteriorate over time, potentially contributing to all kinds of debris entering your toilet flush mechanism. Wrap the brick tightly in one or two plastic bags and tape, but it’s best to fill a 2 liter plastic bottle with water, rocks, or sand and use it instead. It displaces water just as well as brick, with much less risk of causing serious damage to your toilet.
Placement matters
Whether you are using a brick or a bottle, your displacement object will do nothing if it is below the bottom fill line of your tank. This is how SFGate Home Guides explains it :
“Before flushing the toilet, water fills the tank up to the upper water mark. … As the rinsing progresses, the water flows down to the lower fill line and then slowly begins to fill until it reaches the upper fill line again. If your brick lies in water, completely submerged under the low fill line, [it] does nothing to save water. “
Keep in mind that you are not displacing a whole brick or a whole bottle with each flush – you are only displacing the volume above the bottom fill line. If your bottle reaches this line at the neck, then you only save water per bottle. For maximum efficiency, position the object so that most of its volume is above the bottom fill line.
Always think long term
The bottom line is that replacing toilet water can cut it, but not by much. If you are serious about making your home more water efficient and can upgrade your toilets, this should be your ultimate goal. Until then, think of your toilet brick (or bottle) as a plaster, not a medicine – and remember to remove it before you move.