By TIM
O'RILEY
DAILY
RECORD
Hanover - William Cutler leaves no one guessing about his feelings. "The flapper is the Antichrist, the kiss of death for water conservation," he said in a critique of conventional toilet design. " We've been making flappers in this country for 100 years, and we still haven't perfected it." So much does he believe that he world would be better off with-out flappers that he has sunk $2 million into developing a toilet that eliminates them, a huge sum for Niagara Conservation Corp. which has about 15 million in annual revenues primarily from selling kits to cut water and energy use.
"We bet the farm on the flapperless toilet," said Cutler, owner and president of the company. "I put a lot of my personal wealth into this project."
Now he faces the challenge of transforming his fervor into a marketing strategy that appeals to consumers who, to the extent that they think about it at all, often associate water conservation with government mandated standards that don't work in the real world. Moreover, time is not necessarily on his side. Cutler, 56, would like to cut back someday on his year-long regimen of 60-hour weeks. Yet, it will take a huge investment of time to dislodge the flapper from it's decades-long perch in the industry standard. "I've been in this business for 40 years and seen many types of designs come along and then just peter out," said Marty Dinzes of General Plumbing Supply in Morris Plains. "In the end, it always seems to come back to the flapper as the best."
Cutler believes that economics will drive the breakthrough of the flapperless toilet. By eliminating any kind of rubber or plastic seals, his design can significantly reduce water leakage compared with worn-out flappers or ill-fitting replacements, he said.
The combined savings from fresh water and sewer bills can be enough to pay for the cost of the toilet, which he has priced $80 at wholesale, in a year or so. "The flapperless toilet cuts water consumption 50 percent without cutting the standing of living" he said. "You don't need double flushing." Toilets with tanks use gravity for their flushing power. Pushing down the handle lifts the flapper, a round seal with a hollow bulb on the underside, allowing the water in the tank to flow through a duct into the bowl with enough force to wash away everything in the bowl. When the water level in the tank drains to a certain level, the flapper then drops and seals the duct, letting water refill the tank for the next flush.
While no one disputes that the design works well, problems arise when the flapper wears out and no longer seals the duct. The constant seepage of water will trigger the continual refilling of the tank, even when it has not been flushed, or let the tank level go low enough to require double flushing. In particular, plumbing supply experts strongly recommend that people avoid using various drop-in-the-tank cleaners. While the chlorine in them shines the porcelain bowl, it also eats up the flappers far faster than plain water.
Cutler's solution externally appears the same and uses the same duct patterns as conventional toilets. However, he directs the initial flow of water not into the tank but into a plastic barrel cut in half lengthwise. Pushing down on the lever turns the cylinder upside down, sending the water coursing through an always-open duct to the bowl. Eliminating the flapper as a seal eliminates leaks, Cutler said.
Drew Nastus, owner of Madison Plumbing Supply, agrees that bed flappers can squander huge volumes of water. Many people don't help themselves mush by replacing old flappers with generic ones socked on the shelves of mass retailers. "There are very specific designs for a lot of the newer toilets," Nastus said. "But it is very simple to find them by looking them up on the manufacturers web site or going to a plumbing supply store as opposed to one of the chains." Buying a life's supply of new flappers will often cost less than a new toilet.
For vindication of his approach, Cutler points to a toilet performance study conducted by the research arm of the National Association of Home Builders. Many of the 52 models tested used significantly more water, as much as quadruple the volume after the flapper was replaced. "Because flapper valves typically require replacement several times during the useful life of a toilet fixture and the likelihood that the consumer will install a generic replacement flapper, water efficiency of many of the tested models could significantly degrade over time," the report concluded.
Niagara's toilet, on the other hand, maintained a constantly level of water usage. At the same time, the report gave the Niagara toilet a high flush performance index, the industry's answer to the NFL's quarterback ratings, as measured by how many small hollow balls it could handle without clogging.
No money for marketing... The toilet has gone form nothing to about 30 percent of Niagara's revenues in the past two years, and Cutler expects the rapid growth to continue. He has confines his efforts to selling to large apartments owners but will try to hire a direct sales force and to find retail outlets, typically a daunting task for a company with no consumer recognition or marketing budget to build it.
Since he started Niagara in 1977, selling early generations of low-flow showerheads out of his garage to utilities and government bodies, Cutler has adapted his strategy to fit changing markets. Over time, the low flow heads acquired the reputation, popularized by an episode of "Seinfeld", of being to stingy with water for the users to get completely clean. About the same time, government standards compelled toilet makers to limit flashes to 1.6 gallons, often less than half volume for models then on the market. The early efforts didn't work well, many in the industry concede, driving some consumers to buy unregulated toilets in Canada.
"Conservation has become a negative in the minds of many people because of so many bad products," Cutler said. At one time, he pushed strongly into electricity conservation, selling various divides, such as low-consumption light bulbs, to power companies. That line faded, he said, as industry deregulation caused many utilities to slash their conservation budgets.
Improved designs, particularly for the water products, kept the company going. Finding a five-year flapper started him thinking about striking in new direction. "My wife has been nagging me to get into the toilet business six or seven years ago, but I never did anything," he said. About three years ago, he decided that toilets could help Niagara grow far faster than any other product line, and he began the engineering and testing. Manufacturing is contracted out to countries in the Far East. He does not intend to stop at going flapperless. In one part of his Cedar Knolls warehouse, he is tinkering with a variable flush toilet. "A number one would be a 1-gallon flush and a number two would be for 1.6 gallons," he said.
However, it could take years of social conditioning to sell consumers on the idea of pushing different flush buttons depending on the bodily function, he concedes.
Published by Daily Record December 10, 2002