Norway-based Jets Vacuum is a company that makes vacuum-based toilets for ocean vessels and offshore platforms. After enlisting the help of Norwegian design consultancy EGGS Design, they expanded into the on-land market with the Jets Pearl, intended for domestic applications where water is too hard to come by to flush down the toilet (think cabins and remote locations).

"Their vacuum flush systems use 90% less water than any conventional toilet, therefore creating less sewage," explains EGGS Design. Beyond the environmental advantages, the consultancy sought to make the toilet user-friendly—even for those not using the toilet:

Jets also offers a floor-mounted model:

And while incorporating a vacuum toilet into a home of course requires installing a vacuum pump…

...it also opens up design possibilities for the architect or designer. The vacuum pipes are narrower in diameter than standard toilet plumbing, and you no longer need to consider gravity when choosing the bathroom location. "The piping can be installed vertically in thin walls and in ceilings, because vacuum systems are able to lift sewage upward from the toilet," Jets explains. "You can even install a vacuum toilet in locations without running water or mains electric power."

Our sewage infrastructure is not designed for toilets like this.  They are designed with solids being conveyed by liquids.  Remember the first law of sewerage design: never let your liquids outrun your solids.  Without liquid to keep the solids moving you have blockage.

They, the most robust ones, have been in use in large vessels for a long time but their maintenance is hell and are prone to failure (due to vacuum filters becoming clogged). That is the reason it haven’t made a dent in places conventional toilets work fine (straight gravity pull and water). This is just one with an slicker slicker external design that should only be used in land where there’s a lack of running water.

So when your toilet goes out you just have to wait a few months for a new vacuum pump to come in and open up the wall it sits behind, replace it and patch up the hole. Livin' the dream. 

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.

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