@3, not everyone on the City Council uses that urinal. There are women on the Council, including one who's an actual elder who managed to get elected in our youth-obsessed world, and another who will certainly be mayor some day if she wants the job.
@4 - As I understand it, the waterless urinals are an oil system where the urine penetrates the layer of oil floating in the catch basin area under the cover trap and utimately is siphoned off. As suggested @2, they tend to stink - probably because there isn't a cascade of water to wash the urine down the front of the unit. The design is nice, the execution sucks.
@13 Yeah, that's the mechanism. If the filtration membrane (the "oil system" you mention) is replaced at least once a week, and if the bowl is wiped down with a deodorizing cleaner on a daily basis, the odor problem can be minimized. That's the main drawback: additional maintenance cost. We have one in the office, and it costs an extra $80/month in labor costs to maintain, plus the cost of the filtration liquid, which if I recall correctly averages a couple hundred dollars a year. So you're looking at up to around $1200 annually to maintain one fixture in good working order. Plus, they periodically have to snaked due to uric crystal buildup.
@14, that's outrageous! We must immediately install indwelling catheters and receiver bags on all government workers, make them pay for same, and board up the restrooms. How else will we be able to afford another round of tax cuts?!
I notice the Mayor's has a hand washing reminder, and the council doesn't...so, either someone has a hard time remembering to wash their hands, or someone doesn't at all...all I do know is that my faith in the hygiene of my elected officials just diminished a little bit.
@18 Care to back that up? I provided the numbers for my case study.
I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just really curious how it *is* possible. A different approach or type of maintenance regimen might be a little more economical, and if you include water savings in your calculations (I did not) you would see some offset, but I still don't see how it would actually be cheaper than conventional fixtures.
@19 to be fair, you just pulled numbers out of thin air and threw them up on the internets. it's not like you cited sources and provided corporate financials.
@20 We mitigated the smell by installing one of those Pacific Breeze air fresheners. It's only mildly less obnoxious, but I'll take artificial fruit smell over stale piss smell any day.
@21 What I posted are close to the exact numbers of the cost per year to my company for maintaining the one waterless urinal we've had since 2007. I see the invoices every month. I am curious how the UW manages to determine a cost savings from something that has only cost my company extra money since we had it installed.
@22 Good points. We're talking one fixture in a 30-person office that doesn't own the building its housed in vs. hundreds of fixtures among thousands of UW employees in UW-owned buildings.
Also, presumably the mayor has a place to poop, too.
I'm really enjoying the photos of urinals, by the way. I never knew there was such variety. Toilets in women's restrooms are boring in comparison.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Dis…
The article doesn't mention plumbing fixtures.
Also, did you Photoshop out the bottom of the mayor's to hide cigarette butts or sumpin'? It looks like there's no drain.
I notice the Mayor's has a hand washing reminder, and the council doesn't...so, either someone has a hard time remembering to wash their hands, or someone doesn't at all...all I do know is that my faith in the hygiene of my elected officials just diminished a little bit.
@17 because everyone knows the Council will do the wrong thing anyway, so if they remind them to wash their hands, they won't. See #tunnelofdeath ...
I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just really curious how it *is* possible. A different approach or type of maintenance regimen might be a little more economical, and if you include water savings in your calculations (I did not) you would see some offset, but I still don't see how it would actually be cheaper than conventional fixtures.
Maybe ask one of the MBA teams to check it out.
@21 What I posted are close to the exact numbers of the cost per year to my company for maintaining the one waterless urinal we've had since 2007. I see the invoices every month. I am curious how the UW manages to determine a cost savings from something that has only cost my company extra money since we had it installed.
A great article on the subject
Taint are you being critical of their "Golden Shower" program for City Workers?