Product Review - HydroRight Dual-Flush Toilet Conversion Kit

As a part of my recent interest in conserving water in the midst of California's worse drought ever, I decided to install dual-flush conversion kits on our toilets.  There are at least 4 different brands of dual-flush conversion kits on the market, but I went with the MJSI HydroRight HYR460.  This kit is actually two products in one, the HydroRight HYR271 dual-flush converter and HydroClean HC660 toilet fill valve.  In addition to being sold on Amazon, you can buy these kits locally at Home Depot and Lowes.  There are at least 3 versions of these kits, the difference being the flush actuator.  One has push buttons, the second has a a hanging flush level, and the third has a standard looking flush lever.

These dual-flush conversion kits are a class of products that I had no idea existed.  I assumed if you wanted a dual-flush toilet that you would have to buy an entirely new toilet.  In a typical home the toilet is the single largest use of water, so making your toilet more efficient goes a long way to saving water.  This kit saves water in 3 ways.

1. On average 4 out of 5 flushes are liquid/paper only - solids only account for 1 in 5 flushes.  The toilet does not require as much water to flush liquids, but with a standard toilet there is no way to account for this.  With this kit you can select small flushes for liquids and paper, and a large flush for solids.  The water savings here are obvious.  You can expect to save between 1 and 2 gallons of water each time you use a small flush in place of a large flush.
2. The second water savings is harder to explain.  Inside you toilet tank is a fill valve (a tall tower with a float attached to it).  The fill valve has two jobs; it refills the tank when the toilet is flushed, but it also refills the toilet bowl.  Think of it this way, when you flush the toilet all the water in the bowl goes down the drain, yet the next time you use the toilet there is already water in the bowl before you sit down.  That water got there because of the toilet fill valve.  The problem with standard fill valves is the tank takes a lot longer to fill with water than does the bowl.  Once the bowl is full, water keeps flowing into the bowl until the tank is completely full.  But the bowl can only hold so much water, so all the excess water literally flows over the trap and down the drain.  Because you can't see this water going down the drain, very few people know this even happens.  And we're not talking about a small amount of water either.  I recently measured a real toilet and it was wasting just shy of half a gallon of water per flush.
3. The final way this kit helps to save water is by fixing leaks.  On average leaks account for 15% of all water use inside a home, and the toilet is going to be the single largest source of these leaks.  This kit replaces all the parts inside a toilet that typically leak so it should prevent further leaking.

In case you can't tell, I'm a big fan of this dual-flush kit.  The water-saving potential is very high.  I wish I could recommend everyone install these on their toilets... but I can't.  There are just some issues that keep me from blindly recommending it for everyone.  Allow me to explain.

First, you need to know this kit won't fit all toilets.  If your toilet tank has a 3" opening into the toilet bowl this won't work.  Also, if you're existing overflow tube inside the tank is shorter than 6", it won't work.  Now the good news is 99% of all toilets do meet these requirements.

Beyond that, there are issues with the installation.  Here is a picture of the kit installed on one of my toilets.  This single picture shows most of the issues with this kit.

1. The first issue is space.  I have 1.6 gallon low-flow toilets, which means the tank is smaller.  As you can see the blue fill tower (left) is very close to the actuator button and not far from the overflow tube (middle).  This makes putting your hands down into the tank for installation difficult.
2. The flush button is blocked by the toilet lid when the lid is raised.  So if you're sitting on the toilet and need to flush then you must lean forward to move the lid to be able to flush.  Again this is because our toilet tank is a smaller low-flow tank.
3. When raised the toilet lid comes to rest on the flush button and not the porcelain of the tank itself.  Since the button is plastic my prediction is in a few years of kids raising the toilet lid that the button will break.  Fortunately you can buy just a replacement button, but still.  Again, this is because we have a low-flow tank that causes this.
4. It's hard to see in the picture, but the water level is at the very top of the overflow tub (middle).  I had to adjust the water level as high as it would go, plus adjust the small flush as large is it would go just to get liquid-only flushes to work.  And even then, sometimes liquid flushes don't properly flush.  Solid flush always works, but sometimes the liquid flush doesn't properly swirl the water and go down.  Yet again, this is caused by the smaller size of our low-flow tanks.  [Update: I eventually got the small flush to work 100% of the time, but I had to buy a new taller overflow tube at the hardware store, installation of which required the toilet tank to be removed.]
5. Adjusting the kit is not a simple process.  There are 5 separate adjustments that need to be made to the kit during installation; 1) the height of the fill valve, 2) the float level height, 3) the small flush size adjustment, 4) the full flush size adjustment, and 5) the amount of water send to the bowl from the fill valve.

Because of these issues, I cannot recommend this kit for everyone.  Here's what I would suggest.  If you currently have a low-flow toilet, buy just the HC660 toilet fill valve - that is unless you're determined to make the full kit work (I was and once it's working properly it's great).  If however you currently have non-low-flow toilets then buy the full kit.  Many of the problems I ran into were because I installed this kit onto low-flow toilets, so if you don't have low-flow toilets then you should definitely install the full kit.

You might be asking, how do I know if I have a low-flow toilet of not?  There are several easy ways to tell.  First, just look at the toilet.  If the tank is about the same width as the toilet seat then chances are it's a low-flow toilet.  If the tank is noticeably wider than the seat, then most likely you have an older non-low-flow toilet.  You can also look inside the toilet tank.  There's a good chance the size of the toilet is stamped in the porcelain inside.  If it says something like "1.6gallon" then that's a low-flow toilet.  Lastly, look for a date stamped in the porcelain inside the toilet tank.  If your toilet is dated 1994 or newer then it must be a low-flow, but if it's older than 1994 then chances are it's not a low-flow.

Finally I wanted to give a few tips on the installation of this kit should you decide to install it.

1. The dual-flush base is held in place with a zip-tie.  I read a review online that said his zip-tie broke after several months.  And I can see why, the included zip-tie is thin and flimsy.  Before installing this kit do what I did, cut this zip-tie off and replace it with a new larger zip-tie.  I used the largest zip-tie I could find that fit through the holes.
2. The aforementioned dual-flush base is installed by pushing it down onto the overflow tube.  When tightening the zip-tie, push down on the base harder than you think would be necessary.  The first time I installed this kit that seal was leaking so I had to remove everything and start over.
3. The dual-flush unit has two adjustment levers, blue for the liquid flush and green for the solid flush.  If your toilet is a low-flow toilet then push both of these adjustment levers all the way down before installing the unit.  If your toilet is not a low-flow toilet, then push both adjustment levers to the top or near the top.  After installing the entire kit you'll need to adjust these some more to fine tune the kit for your specific toilet.  But these are good starting points depending on what type of toilet you have.

Although this dual-flush kit is not perfect, once the kit is installed and properly configured it's great!  Not only are we saving a ton of water, but toilets are actually flushing better than before.  Before installing the kit our toilets would clog on average 3 or 4 times a month.  In the 2 months since installation our toilets have not clogged once.  I think this is because of how the dual-flush kit works.  How well a toilet flushes is dictated by two main factors; the amount of water and how fast that water is delivered.  This kit delivers the same or less water as before, but I believe the design delivers the water quicker.  Older flappers are hinged so when they raise up water can rush into the opening from 3 of the 4 sides.  But the dual-flush kit uses a valve that raises straight up which means when the toilet is flushed water can rush in from 360 degrees around the opening.  It's this faster delivery of water is why I believe our toilets flush better.

Well there you go.  My review of the HydroRight dual-flush toilet conversion kit.  A great product that saves a lot of water and money, but may require patience when installing and adjusting.