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How do airplane toilets work?
Airplane toilets use an active vacuum instead of a passive siphon, and they are therefore called vacuum toilets. When you flush, it opens a valve in the sewer line, and the vacuum in the line sucks the contents out of the bowl and into a tank. They can flush in any direction, including upward.
Why are plane toilets so powerful?
So why are aircraft toilet flushes so loud? Simply put, the flush’s loudness is due to a partial vacuum that sucks the contents of the toilet bowl down into the aircraft’s waste tank.
Why do airplane toilets have so much suction?
When the flush button is pressed, a valve at the base of the toilet bowl opens, a small amount of blue disinfectant liquid (known as Skychem) flushes through, then the contents are sucked out of the bowl by suction. This is the ‘whoosh’ sound you hear when flushing. This suction works by pressure difference.
How does the toilet work on an airplane?
They only use a fraction of the blue sanitation liquid that they used to, and use a vacuum system to siphon waste into a tank rather than leave the work to gravity. That big, clattery whooshing sound you hear when flushing the toilet is created by the difference in atmospheric pressure outside the aircraft and the cabin pressure within.
Who was the inventor of the airplane toilet?
Inventor James Kemper got the patent on these babies in 1976, and they’ve been on commercial flights since Boeing adopted them in 1982. There hasn’t been much innovation in the field since then, mainly because the technology works so well.
Why does my airplane toilet keep clogging up?
Usually when technicians encounter problems with the newer systems, it’s because passengers abuse them. Miller says when airliners experience clogs these days, it’s usually because someone tried to flush a diaper. Miller and his crew have to physically remove the tank and retrieve the rogue Pamper just to get the system working again.
How many gallons per flush on an airplane?
The 230 gallons of waste from an average long-haul 747 trip equates to 0.55 gallons per flush per passenger, which is significantly less than the 3.5 gallons land-based toilets go through per flush. But it’s still nearly one ton in extra weight, or thousands of dollars in overweight baggage fees.