If you are looking for a Christmas gift for the person that really has everything
Kohler recently revealed its new toilet called Numi and it is simply going to blow your mind. There is no doubt that this toilet is a mind blowing product, but the $6,400 price tag is something that may come as a big surprise.
It will be interesting to see how the target-market responds to Kohler Numi because for this amount one might expect to buy a home theatre or even an used car.
What can this costly toilet can do for you? Well, it has integrated deodorizer, air dryer and a bidet. Then you have a lid that is automatically opened or closed , a music system so you listen to something nice while you are doing your stuff, a foot warmer, and a touch screen remote.
What makes Numi stand out from the rest is that it brings everything that you have or haven’t imagined. It looks like a fancy waste bin, which includes a self-enabled lid that can open or close on its own. It means you don’t have to touch the lid whenever you need to use the toilet. Cleaning is also done automatically because of the self cleaning bidet that includes the power of adjustable controls to maintain appropriate pressure and temperature of water. You have a foot warmer with heating elements to keep your tush and toes toasty. It just provides amazing comfort.
If you use the loo at night, there is an illuminated panel to provide a perfect ambience for that night time visit. Kohler Numi also loads an integrated speaker that is connected to a remote docking station to make sure no one else except you know what you are doing.
This big ticket item is truly a luxurious toilet experience, Numi has deodorizing elements and a charcoal filter to release fresh fragrance into the air and suck the dirty air from the bowl.
Kohler Numi is no less than a high-end gizmo and it would not be complete without a touchscreen. The toilet comes with a remote that includes a touchscreen panel so that you can easily set your specifications like water temperature and pressure, your preferred seat height or even your music and radio station settings.
Kohler Numi is perfect for those users who want to have a toilet like you might find in a sophisticated hotel suite.
What a great Christmas gift..and what a way to improve your bottom line!
I wonder if it replenishes the toilet rolls or dispenses with the empties…..
Julius Caesar had a weekend native-bashing excursion to Britain in 55 BC. But I guess he didn’t enjoy the damp boarding houses with their fierce landladies, for he quickly went back to Rome, naturally claiming a great victory. Almost a hundred years later the emperor Claudius sent a powerful invading army, and the Romans then occupied Britain for the next 350 years. What did those Romans ever do for us? (more…)
I had to share this.
Whilst enjoying the 15th annual Sculptures by the Sea on the world famous Bondi to Bronte walk last weekend, I was thinking about taps and changing tap washers.
Like most things, changing a tap washer is pretty easy, if you know how.
I’ve never thought of taps as a big problem if, like most of our household plumbing they are maintained.
Then I walked around Mackenzies Point and saw this………
Ahhhhh plumbers paradise.
It confirmed what I already know.
That taps are to be treasured and treated with respect, loved and caressed. Because if we don’t, they won’t do as they are designed to, deliver us water when we need it!
Our next post will get you started on how to change your tap washers, and some insight into our upcoming taps tutorial at The Lone Drainer and Pronto World Headquarters.
We will feature WSDs, What? you ask. Yep Water Saving Devices.
Plumbing is very cool isn’t it!
This sculpture by Simon McGrath is The Sydney Water Environmental Sculpture Prize winner for 2011
In this internet age when we want it, we want it NOW!
If you have a plumbing emergency and you need it fixed fast, we need great suppliers to support us deliver to our clients.
This image sent to me by Marc Dussault shows the great lengths that our industry brothers in Thailand are going to so they can deliver to their clients in an emergency.
It is still early spring, yet we had our first bushfire of the season in the Blue Mountains yesterday and with summer approaching and the days already growing hotter, water conservation will soon be a priority for us all.
Todays post is on our early water supply.
The eastern suburbs of Sydney has had it’s water supply from various sources since our settlement in 1788 and I will share some of that history over the next few weeks.
Back when Sydney was first settled, the Lachlan Swamp (eventually to become the site for Centennial Park) was the closest swamp to Sydney in the chain of swamps known as the Botany watershed. Drought in 1820 forced water carters to sell barrelled water from the swamp to supplement Sydney’s water supply from the polluted Tank Stream. An enquiry in 1825 was conducted into the source of a permanent water supply for Sydney. Mineral surveyor and civil engineer John Busby (1765-1857) selected the Lachlan Swamp, reporting on the excellent quality of the water, believing the supply to be sufficient to service the predicted increasing Sydney population.
Busby was commissioned to design a new water system, which involved driving a bore from the Lachlan Swamp in Centennial Park into a reservoir at the Oxford Street end of Hyde Park. The tunnel (to become known as Busby’s Bore) was “2 miles, 8 chains long” through mostly solid rock and constructed using convict labour. Busby’s Bore passed under the Showground, Victoria Barracks and down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. Work commenced late in 1827 but progress was very slow. It was reported that Busby was reluctant to deal with the convict workers and was a generally poor supervisor. From 1830 water was flowing in the tunnel, although it wasn’t finally completed until 1837. In 1833 water was diverted through pipes to Circular Quay to be used in shipping.
Drought in 1838 demonstrated the limitations of the tunnel being the sole source of water for Sydney. The Council of the City of Sydney took control of water supply in 1842, but proved to be poor managers. It was also proving difficult to maintain the quality of the water from the Lachlan Swamp – pollution from dumping and blockages, and the location nearby of industries such as wool scouring, were constant threats.
The Lachlan Swamps remained Sydney’s only water supply until the Botany Bay Swamp Scheme in 1858. The original Botany Swamps were dammed in 1815 by Simeon Lord to run his flour and wool mills. In 1855 after a severe drought the Water Board resumed 75 acres of Simeon Lord’s land to establish the Botany Bay Swamp Scheme, which became operational in 1859. Water was pumped from the engine pond, built by convicts earlier in 1838, to the Crown Street Reservoir and later to Paddington. The Botany Bay Swamp Scheme expanded to meet Sydney’s growing population and supplied fresh water until the late 1880s when the Upper Nepean Scheme was created. Most of the Botany pumping station was dismantled in 1896, although the stump of the chimney-stack still remains.
List of References
Dan Hutton The BeastPaul Ashton and Kate Blackmore, Centennial Park: a history, UNSW Press, 1988
It was just like flushing money down the toilet……
We’ve all used this expression more than once, and in our life as plumbing professionals we see people flush all sorts of items down the toilet, in effect flushing money down the toilet by not thinking before they flush.
We have retrieved all types of unusual things from sewer pipes, including underwear, gloves, a 2 litre Coca Cola bottle, dental floss, sanitary napkins and tampons, even a piece of construction scaffolding???????
Well, this one was unusual, this client actually did flush his money down the toilet.
Yes, he flushed his wallet!
I have a few of these unusual things to show you and will over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
Being called out to this plumbing emergency brought an unexpected surprise.
Our client had a blocked drain and when we had just about completed that repair, cutting tree roots from her sewer pipes, she called out, needing a hand in her back yard.
A mother duck that had been nesting in her dense rear garden had chosen today to take her babies for their first swimming lesson.
The ducklings took to the water like ….. well, ducks to water. Only problem, was the water level in the pool was a little low and they couldn’t get out of the pool and were getting very tired.
Our attempts to rescue them by hand and with the pool scoop brought a tirade of squaking and flapping of wings from the mother duck.
She didn’t want us anywhere near her babies!
We found a plank in the back shed and put it in the pool and then put an old towel along the length of the plank.
Then stood back.
When mother duck settled down she could see we were trying to help.
Mother duck led the baby ducklings up the plank and after checking they were all out, she herded them back to the nest in the dense undergrowth.
She gave us another flurry of feathers when we tried to check on the babies.
This post was brought to my attention by the ever vigilant Richard Piper. When you ring our office for help you may speak to him. Tell him you enjoyed this post, I did!
Sewage powered VW Beetle hits the road in Bristol
A Volkswagen Beetle powered by gas from sewage has taken to the road for the first time in Britain.
This converted Beetle car runs on methane gas. The Bio-Bug was launched on Thursday by Wessex Water, which is generating methane from human waste at a sewage treatment works near Bristol.
The company claims the prototype is able to cover 10,000 miles annually on the waste from 70 households.
If the trial proves successful, Volkswagen will consider converting some of its fleet of vehicles to run on biogas.
Mohammed Saddiq, of GENeco, a Wessex Water subsidiary which runs the biogas plant at Avonmouth, said: “Our site has been producing biogas for many years, which we use to generate electricity to power the site and export to the National Grid.
“With the surplus gas we had available we wanted to put it to good use in a sustainable and efficient way.
“We decided to power a vehicle on the gas, offering a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels which we so heavily rely on in the UK.
“If you were to drive the car you wouldn’t know it was powered by biogas as it performs just like any conventional car. It is probably the most sustainable car around.”
The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association said the launch of the Bio-Bug proved that biomethane from sewage sludge could be used as an alternative fuel for vehicles.
Lord Rupert Redesdale, the association’s chairman, said: “This is a very exciting and forward-thinking project demonstrating the myriad benefits of anaerobic digestion (releasing energy from waste). Biomethane cars could be just as important as electric cars.”
Last month Volkswagen announced plans to conquer the green market with a new generation of hybrid and electric cars.
Barcelona 2010
To visit Park Guell and see the home and creative brilliance of Antonio Gaudi is a special treat.
Gaudi created Park Guell for the citizens of Barcelona. It has gardens and homes and a view of the city and the Plaza.
The plaza is a meeting place for the people of the city and the brightly coloured mosaic seating around the man made plaza had a secondary purpose.
The dry Mediterranean weather usually meant excess water used on something as soothing as a fountain for the citizens and visitors to the city was a waste of water.
That didn’t phase Gaudi.
The water catchment created by the plaza was a brilliant idea to collect any rainwater that fell and through an underground filter and the storage system the rainwater was then piped to the mouth of a Mosaic dragon lying in a garden with a fish and lily pond at the bottom of the beautiful staircase.
The ergonomic design of the seating around the plaza beautifully decorated in mosaics was incredibly comfortable to sit back and relax, talking with friends and family.
Gaudi’s design allowed any water from those brief showers to fall to the back of the seating and then get channelled off quickly into a gutter on the outside of the seating and then dispersed to the dry garden areas below through a series of “spitters” hand carved in stone.
Absolutely Beautiful
In previous blog posts on urinals and toilets, I showed you a field goal in a urinal to reduce spillage as well as the infamous fly in the urinal at Schiphol Airport. So once again, courtesy of Exponential Growth Strategist (http://www.ExponentialPrograms.com) Dr Marc Dussault (http://www.MarcDussault.com) here is another photo, this time of an unknown location in Amsterdam. This is just another example how we can all take life a little less seriously and enjoy ourselves a little more.
The next time you come across an interesting bathroom or other plumbing related installation, please take a picture and forward it to me – this blog is a collaborative effort from people travelling all over the world to bring you a mosaic of photos, articles and facts that are curious, intriguing and fun.
