maintenance matters Innovation For Cleaning Toilets Simple tools like toilet bowl pumps can cut costs and reduce cross contamination. One other manner involved a wet vacu-um to remove water, then empting and cleaning the wet vacuum. All of the traditional method-ologies are labor intensive and not as user-friendly as we would like. By: Les Ollinger W We all have toilets at our campuses and businesses and we have read articles and attended seminars on how best to clean them. If toilets are not clean, the rest of your restroom will not look its best and will become a source of customer complaints. If your cleaners are using the “glug, glug, swish and flush” method, then they should stop immediately. They are wasting two of your most valuable resources — labor and clean-ing supplies — by not using them to their fullest potential. Take Advantage Of Technology With pressures to keep operational costs down, we need to find ways for custodial staff to work faster and easier, giving them the opportunity to be more productive. Given the limited and often non-prefer-able ways to lower or remove bowl water, a device was needed that could be easily used, was portable and serviceable, required no electricity or compressed air to operate and was compact enough to fit on a custodial cart. After researching the market, such a tool was not found that fit the requirements. This unmet need led to the development of a very innovative product category: Hand-held toilet bowl pumps. With product technology today, you can now effortlessly lower the water level in a toilet bowl in sec-onds. With one or two pumps of the handle, these lightweight, portable devices remove water from the bowl quickly and easily, without a splatter or splash. In terms of ergonomics and safety, you do not have to lean down over or reach inside the toilet — unlike using a bowl mop as a plunger — which reduces worker strain and reduces the risk of muscu-loskeletal disorders (MSDs). Traditional Methods New advances in product tech-nology are saving time and money and are undoubtedly more environmentally friendly. Toilet bowl cleaners call for low-ered or empty water levels in the bowl. In the past, lowering the water level in the bowl has been achieved by various means. One way, using a short-handled bowl mop to push water down in the trap, required bending over, reaching down inside the toilet and moving the bowl mop up and down in the trap area of the bowl. Another method was to pour a bucket of water quickly into the toilet bowl, which started a siphon action to drain the bowl. This required carrying a bulky bucket to the site and increased water consumption. The Results Are Beyond Appearance With modern tools, as seen here, clearing toilets does not have to be expensive, harmful or downright nasty. The advantage to using such a device is that cleaning and disinfectant chemicals 40 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • August 2009
CMM – Archives Aug 2009: 40
