New Type of Waterless Urinal Cartridge Focus of Lawsuit

The underside of the Ecotech cartridge for waterless urinals shows the elastomeric membrane, which curls open to allow urine or water to pass through and then curls back up to prevent sewer gases from entering the restroom.

Waterless urinals like those from Falcon, Sloan Valve, and the Waterless Company don’t require flushing or an integral water-filled trap because urine flows through a replaceable trap, or cartridge, filled with a vegetable-oil-based fluid. However, customer dissatisfaction over the need to regularly replace those cartridges has fueled demand for a new elastomeric trap made by Ecotech Water. In turn, Ecotech’s technology has been the focus of a lawsuit by Falcon as well as criticism that it violates plumbing codes.

The selling point of Ecotech’s cartridge is its lifetime warranty, which gives it a projected lifetime far beyond that of Falcon’s cartridges, which need to be replaced every 7,000 uses, according to the company. (Some customers say the cartridges need to be replaced in a fraction of that time.) Unlike the cartridges that require vegetable-oil sealant, the Ecotech cartridge relies on a membrane that opens in response to fluid, letting urine pass through, and then curls closed to block sewer gases from entering the restroom. The seal is made from an elastomer, a rubber that maintains its shape as well as its resiliency. Ecotech sells its own brand of urinal that uses this cartridge, but until recently many of its cartridges were sold as retrofits for Falcon and Sloan waterless urinals (Sloan licenses its technology from Falcon).

Ecotech has been forced to stop selling its retrofit cartridge for use with Falcon and Sloan urinals, however, after Falcon sued Ecotech, and the two parties came to a legal settlement. According to Terry Janssen of Ecotech, Falcon’s lawsuit was a nuisance suit to protect Falcon’s business, which Janssen portrays as being built on selling cheap urinals and expensive replacement cartridges (Falcon sells a single cartridge and sealant together for about $40, compared with Ecotech’s cartridge for $159, or the Waterless Company’s $6.50 cartridge, plus $18 for a quart of BlueSeal). According to Janssen, Falcon customers tell him, “We’re spending more on cartridges than we’re saving on sewer and water.” Ecotech’s cartridge is an antidote to that problem, but not one that Falcon’s business would tolerate, says Janssen.

Danny Gleiberman of Falcon, however, says that Falcon sued Ecotech because the elastomeric trap isn’t sanitary, and Falcon didn’t want it used in Falcon urinals. “Plumbing codes mandate liquid trap seals, and every single code also prohibits mechanical traps,” Gleiberman told EBN. “Why? Because they can fail, and then people using the bathroom have a major health risk on their hands.”

Sewer gases, which are not only unpleasant but also potentially toxic, can leak through an improperly functioning seal of any sort. Liquid seals, like those used in conventional water-using and waterless urinals, are unlikely to fail under normal circumstances. Mechanical traps, however, are prohibited by plumbing codes because of the perceived likelihood that, like any mechanism with moving parts, they will fail over time.

Janssen denies that the elastomer used in the Ecotech cartridges is a mechanical seal and prohibited by codes—“All it does is expand and contract,” he said. “[There are] no moving parts about it.” Gleiberman sees it differently: “Something that opens and closes, to me, is mechanical.” G. J. Garrow, the Vermont State plumbing inspector, told EBN that regardless of how Ecotech defines “mechanical,” the State plumbing board looks at mechanical traps as “anything that can fail—and this can fail.” Garrow said that due to a number of installations of Ecotech cartridges in the state that suffered problems, the products aren’t allowed.

Bill Gauley of Veritec Consulting, a water-efficiency expert, said that traps like Ecotech’s “have been considered mechanical seals, so they don’t generally meet the code requirements.” Gauley says that even though the traps work, they could still pose sanitation issues. “It’s not a question of whether they work when they’re new, but when they fail and what happens when they fail.”

Another company, Caroma, appears to recognize the code issues and has taken a more cautious approach in introducing a new waterless urinal that uses an elastomeric trap. Based in Australia, Caroma is bringing its H₂Zero Cube urinal to North America (see EBN Vol. 16, No. 10) but isn’t yet selling it widely. Caroma’s Derek Kirkpatrick acknowledges that plumbing codes limit elastomeric seals like Caroma’s, but, he said, “It’s being reviewed as we speak.” The H₂Zero urinal puts the elastomeric seal in a replaceable cartridge (sold for $45–$55), and Caroma recommends replacing it within about ten months, depending on usage, in contrast with Ecotech’s lifetime warranty.

Gauley said that he is not against elastomeric traps on principle, but he believes they need to be better tested and that standards need to be developed to provide quality control and guidance to manufacturers and users, something that hasn’t happened yet. Gleiberman agreed, saying, “We should all be receptive to new products,” but manufacturers with new types of products “should develop a standard and go through a testing period.” Although Gauley said that his firm will soon begin collecting data on the performance of several urinals, including ones using mechanical traps, he predicts that long-term development of the technology will be stymied by advances in conventional flushing urinals. “The economics, rather than the technical aspects, are going to drive the mode of the market,” he said. “With the introduction of high-efficiency urinals that use a pint of water per flush, the cost savings of a no-water urinal are reduced significantly,” compared to a decade ago when almost all urinals used a gallon of water per flush.

– Tristan Roberts

For more information:

Ecotech Water, LLC
St. Pete Beach, Florida
877-341-9500
www.ecotechwater.com

Falcon Waterfree Technologies
Grand Rapids, Michigan
866-975-0174, 616-954-3570
www.falconwaterfree.com

Waterless Company
Vista, California
888-663-5874, 760-727-7723
www.waterless.com

Correction: When this article was first published, the price of a Waterless brand urinal cartridge was incorrectly listed as $10. As of October 2008, it is $6.50.

April 1, 2008

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