UPDATE: This issue is fixed, please read below for the background. Post #25 shows a properly functioning system: Brand New Urinal, No Siphon, How to Troubleshoot?
I built a brand new bathroom near my outdoor pool. It's all brand new plumbing, and as part of the project I wanted to add a urinal. I purchased a Kohler Dexter that has a "siphon jet". I purchased a Sloan 186 with 1gpf diaphragm.
This was installed by the plumber who did all the plumbing for the bathroom. I purchased the urinal and valve, and he admitted to not having a lot of experience with urinals, but he's a master plumber and compared to the rest of the job, this seemed trivial. However, the urinal doesn't work great. It does flush, but it flushes only because it fills with so much water that gravity sort of just whirlwinds it down. Here's a video of it:
The main issue is that the volume of water becomes so high it splashes out of the bowl (not a ton, but enough to be bothersome, especially when it's pee). Trying to slow down the water flow, I did try a 0.5 gpf diaphragm and that made the situation worse (not enough water to get the entire body to flush). I've also adjusted the control valve to every imagineable position and now have it right at the minimum needed to get it to mostly clear the body of water (as shown in video). Any more and it's just more water, any less, it doesn't fully flush.
In troubleshooting, I tried putting my finger over/around the siphon jet port and during flush I feel NO pressure/flow out of that hole. Not even a little. I called Kohler and spoke with a lady in CS there, I don't think she knew what she was talking about as she kept saying air should come out of that and kept pointing the blame to clogged drain venting, but this is a brand new build and my other toilet works and I did run the hose through the vent pipe, I just don't buy that. I'd also think the siphon jet would work and that'd I'd just have slow draining in this case.
I don't know what to try now except possibly replace the urinal. Is there any way I can troubleshoot this? I did stick a small plastic wire through it to see if anything was blocked, I got it in a few inches and nothing obvious happened. I couldn't get the piece to bend beyond a few inches. I don't know how the siphon system works in terms of the porcelain plumbing and design, but I assume it feeds just through its own channels just like the top four flush jets do? I blocked two of those jets to try and increase the pressure and still nothing coming out of the siphon. The Kohler lady kept reminding me nothing can go wrong with a purely porcelain urinal and that it's just a piece of china. She kept pointing to venting or slope angle being my issue, but I still think water should be felt out of that siphon. My buddy has an older dexter and you can really feel the jet pumping out.
Any help? Anything I should try. I can get a new urinal and then return this one to Lowes if needed, but before I just want to know if there's anything else I can try to narrow it down.
Finally, thank you so much for taking the time.
I built a brand new bathroom near my outdoor pool. It's all brand new plumbing, and as part of the project I wanted to add a urinal. I purchased a Kohler Dexter that has a "siphon jet". I purchased a Sloan 186 with 1gpf diaphragm.
This was installed by the plumber who did all the plumbing for the bathroom. I purchased the urinal and valve, and he admitted to not having a lot of experience with urinals, but he's a master plumber and compared to the rest of the job, this seemed trivial. However, the urinal doesn't work great. It does flush, but it flushes only because it fills with so much water that gravity sort of just whirlwinds it down. Here's a video of it:
The main issue is that the volume of water becomes so high it splashes out of the bowl (not a ton, but enough to be bothersome, especially when it's pee). Trying to slow down the water flow, I did try a 0.5 gpf diaphragm and that made the situation worse (not enough water to get the entire body to flush). I've also adjusted the control valve to every imagineable position and now have it right at the minimum needed to get it to mostly clear the body of water (as shown in video). Any more and it's just more water, any less, it doesn't fully flush.
In troubleshooting, I tried putting my finger over/around the siphon jet port and during flush I feel NO pressure/flow out of that hole. Not even a little. I called Kohler and spoke with a lady in CS there, I don't think she knew what she was talking about as she kept saying air should come out of that and kept pointing the blame to clogged drain venting, but this is a brand new build and my other toilet works and I did run the hose through the vent pipe, I just don't buy that. I'd also think the siphon jet would work and that'd I'd just have slow draining in this case.
I don't know what to try now except possibly replace the urinal. Is there any way I can troubleshoot this? I did stick a small plastic wire through it to see if anything was blocked, I got it in a few inches and nothing obvious happened. I couldn't get the piece to bend beyond a few inches. I don't know how the siphon system works in terms of the porcelain plumbing and design, but I assume it feeds just through its own channels just like the top four flush jets do? I blocked two of those jets to try and increase the pressure and still nothing coming out of the siphon. The Kohler lady kept reminding me nothing can go wrong with a purely porcelain urinal and that it's just a piece of china. She kept pointing to venting or slope angle being my issue, but I still think water should be felt out of that siphon. My buddy has an older dexter and you can really feel the jet pumping out.
Any help? Anything I should try. I can get a new urinal and then return this one to Lowes if needed, but before I just want to know if there's anything else I can try to narrow it down.
Finally, thank you so much for taking the time.
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