Because porcelain, in the shape of a bowl, is incredibly good at staying relatively clean and being easy to clean when it eventually does get dirty. Those are the most important properties you want for something that you literally shit into.
Yeah, you can buy metal toilets. They have them in prisons and public restrooms, usually. I think people don’t buy them because they don’t like the look. I certainly wouldn’t want a metal toilet.
Metal toilets would be much harder to keep clean than porcelain. The main reason porcelain is used is because the surface is extremely flat, on a microscopic level, and extremely hard so it resists scratching. Its also impervious to most cleaning agents.
You can get metal really smooth, but compared to porcelain it’s like sand paper up close. And most of the affordable stainless stuff is fairly easy to scratch.
Tell that to the hard water in my town. I’ve tried everything short of a water softener (rental) and basically all it does is delay the rings from one week to about 2 1/2.
That I don’t know, other than we have a large aquifer under the county that serves basically just our county, that has a cap of clay over it. Supposedly we have some of the best tasting water in the country but it is very heavy.
But no, I said I haven’t gotten a water softener, because I live in a rental. But I’ve done the little hangy things, the blue pucks in the reservoir, even this damn device that works like a bidet for the toilet that shoots an amount of cleaner with every flush. Nothing works. A water softener likely would.
Edit: ok so it’s not a large aquifer. It’s actually very small now that I think of it lol
Because porcelain, in the shape of a bowl, is incredibly good at staying relatively clean and being easy to clean when it eventually does get dirty. Those are the most important properties you want for something that you literally shit into.
Couldn’t enamled metal work just as well? It’s not like you shit into bare porcelain; it’s enamaled.
Enamel can get chipped and scratched, and if you don’t clean it regularly it will stain and disintegrate.
Source: rented places with enameled bathtubs and sinks.
You can get them clean again, but I think you basically have to scour them with pumice, which you can probably only do so many times.
Edit: Oh, you’re talking about enamel, I’m talking about porcelain.
They’re the same thing. Enamled in this case means there’s a porcelain coating.
It’s the smoothness of the surface that’s ultimately responsible for the acoustics. That’s why walls are typically textured to some degree.
Part of me thinks metal would.only transmit sound even better than porcelain.
Yeah, you can buy metal toilets. They have them in prisons and public restrooms, usually. I think people don’t buy them because they don’t like the look. I certainly wouldn’t want a metal toilet.
They said enamled metal, like a non-plastic bathtub. Basically metal with a porcelain coating.
Yeah, I understand. I don’t know if they’re enameled, but you can buy metal toilets.
Metal toilets would be much harder to keep clean than porcelain. The main reason porcelain is used is because the surface is extremely flat, on a microscopic level, and extremely hard so it resists scratching. Its also impervious to most cleaning agents.
You can get metal really smooth, but compared to porcelain it’s like sand paper up close. And most of the affordable stainless stuff is fairly easy to scratch.
It also usually self-cleans quite nicely through the flushing mechanism. Hence the noise, since it pushes water down the sides to clean it.
Tell that to the hard water in my town. I’ve tried everything short of a water softener (rental) and basically all it does is delay the rings from one week to about 2 1/2.
I’m surprised the water softener didn’t help more — is there a specific mineral that is extremely present in the water?
That I don’t know, other than we have a large aquifer under the county that serves basically just our county, that has a cap of clay over it. Supposedly we have some of the best tasting water in the country but it is very heavy.
But no, I said I haven’t gotten a water softener, because I live in a rental. But I’ve done the little hangy things, the blue pucks in the reservoir, even this damn device that works like a bidet for the toilet that shoots an amount of cleaner with every flush. Nothing works. A water softener likely would.
Edit: ok so it’s not a large aquifer. It’s actually very small now that I think of it lol
You might be able to get an inline softener for just the toilet. I know they make them for shower heads too.
Really?!? Thanks for the info. I’ll have to look it up. Thanks!
Also, vinegar is great at removing hard water stains, if you haven’t tried it.
I did not know that, thanks!
Nah, that’s important for something you eat out of.
Something you shit into can be dirty. It doesn’t need to be clean to accept the next shit.
You don’t eat out of your toilet?