Sterling “Karsten” DF Toilet
Alright, I’m not sure this is the way to set the “green” tone of our home-life, but here goes.
We’re very conservative with spending dough around the house, with a start-up business and other volatilities in life, we try to operate efficiently. This means that we have been living with what we have, and not upgrading to Paperstone countertops and Expanko Cork flooring… yet.
My wife’s birthday was this past week, and I got her the Sterling Karsten toilet. (yes, very romantic!) I know, I know… but you should have heard her surprised squeal-with-delight when she got home and noticed a shiny new Dual-Flush toilet in her bathroom! About two weeks ago the 20 year old plastic handle broke on the dinosaur 3.0 gallon flush model we had. Hmm, $8 handle or sexy new dual-flush, water-saving hot-rod?? It was time to upgrade.
So far it’s a great thing. It installed easily and quickly, nothing out of the ordinary. It is quiet, fills quickly, uses very little water. So now we can choose Two flushing options. One small .8 gallon flush for, well- number one. And the larger 1.6 gallon flush for number two flushing. The inner workings are of European origins and seem to be very well designed. We both really like the button-top design and the simplicity of the shape. It does stick out an extra inch or two into our tiny bathroom, even though we went with the roundfront bowl, like the old one.
There are a number of Dual Flush toilets on the market these days… There’s the Caroma line (from Australia). I remember these form my first trip down-under in 1991. They make some in lightweight plastic, others with a built-together tank bowl, and just recently began making them look like “traditional” US toilets. TOTO, is another manufacturer in the Dual Flush world. They are more known for commercial and higher end products and recently have been producing more affordable residential toilets.
The reason we went with the Karsten was totally financial. It retails for about $250 and is available through local distributors. I ordered it monday and had it delivered to Greenovate on Wednesday. That evening by 7PM my buddy and I were standing in the bathroom- cocktail in hand- test flushing!
We’ll be sure to review it over time, or if you’d like to swing by to use it feel free to drop a comment. 
Now we have to figure out what to do with the old one… I see a flower planter yet to be born.
(update: I tweaked the flow a little bit, now half-flush is .5 gallons. Even with that adjustment I have yet to need to push the full-flush button. The half-flush does-it-all. Maybe too much info, but the toilet works very well).
