It’s time to talk about the hardest-working and most underappreciated piece of porcelain in your home.
 
Your toilet.
 
Most of us don’t give much thought to the toilets in our homes, until they stop working. Yet the toilet plays an essential role in keeping us healthy by safely and efficiently removing harmful waste products.
 
The flushable toilet does its job so well that historian’s credit its invention in the 18th century for changing and saving lives, but its basic design has remained largely unchanged in the years since.
 
What has changed are the technology and features available with today’s toilets.
 
The technological evolution of the toilet began in 1994, when the Energy Policy Act went into effect. Passed by Congress, it made 1.6 gallons per flush a mandatory federal maximum for new toilets. Before that, most toilets consumed 3.5 gallons per flush, and some used up to 5 gallons.
 
The change, although well intended, left many manufacturers unprepared. To meet the new requirement, they simply equipped new toilets with valves that shut off water to the toilet after 1.6 gallons were released.
 
Consumers weren’t happy with that makeshift solution, as many on the staff at Longley Supply Company remember. Homeowners with early-model 1.6 gallon toilets complained about waste remaining in their toilet bowls after one or more flushes.
 
To fix the problem, manufacturers re-engineered the toilet.
 
Today, some new toilets use as little as 1.28 gallons of water per flush; dual-flush toilets can use even less. Dual-flush toilets allow the user to choose how much water to use – more for solids and less for liquids.
 
Water usage isn’t the only thing that’s changed about toilets. At Longley Supply’s showroom, you can see how far toilet design has come. Longley offers models from American Standard, DXV, Gerber and Mansfield with porcelain bases that fully enclose the supply line and plumbing.
 
A sleek style by DXV is mounted to a showroom wall, with no pipes showing at all. This model can be mounted to the height that the homeowner prefers and is easy to clean under and around.
 
Then there’s the VorMax, by American Standard, which promises the “cleanest flush ever engineered” with no splatter.
 
Even more advanced is the AT200TM SpaLetTM from American Standard. It offers a seat warmer, deodorizer, night light and a two-temperature spray that’s adjustable for either male or female use. It even has a lid that opens automatically when someone stands in front of it and closes after the person leaves.
 
Longley Supply also carries toilet seats that are far from typical, including heated toilet seats, bidet toilet seats, and heated bidet toilet seats with built-in night lights. If you need a no-frills toilet seat, but in a vintage color, bring in the old toilet seat to match it to about 40 different color chips in the showroom.
 
When it comes to new toilets, the top-selling colors at Longley Supply are white, linen, bone and black; very few manufacturers stray from those basics. Longley Supply carries toilets from well-regarded manufacturers including American Standard, DXV, Gerber and Mansfield.
 
The Longley Supply showroom is a great place to see the latest in toilets and just about anything else needed to equip a bathroom. Longley Supply also carries a wide range of plumbing, kitchen, electrical, and heating and air conditioning products. No matter what you need, Longley’s experienced and knowledgeable employees are happy to answer any questions you have about your project.

Longley Supply Company’s Wilmington showroom is open to the public and conveniently located at 2018 Oleander Drive. Showroom hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. After-hours and weekend appointments are also available by request. Visit www.longleysupplycompany.com for a list of other showroom locations in the Carolinas.