Airplane Bathrooms, How Do They Work?
A typical toilet has a water-filled bowl; when you flush the bathroom, the siphon starts, pulling the water out of the bowl. Gravity then carries it into the septic tank or sewer system. Yet, there’s no sewer system to be had when you look at airplanes. So, how do they remove waste from the plane?
Almost every plane has a bathroom door you can open while in flight. Most are located behind the cockpit. But, they’re not quite like the toilets, you know. Let’s all get acquainted with airplane bathrooms. It’s a necessary part of traveling life, after all.
How Are They Different?
The problem with using a water-emptying bowl in a moving vehicle is that the motion makes it hard to use gravity or a siphon to empty the bowl. That means there’s no possible way for a plane to correctly empty when considering turbulence. So, these days you can find vacuum toilets on transport services. And when we say transport services, we don’t just mean planes – That’s right, there are even vacuum toilets on the bus now!
A valve inside the sewer line sucks all the bowl’s content out into another specialized tank similar to a septic tank. This tank needs to be emptied on arrival at a treatment plant. Or, if you’re on a plane, the debris falls from the aircraft as it flies, making your trip greener. It’s like using a bathroom on the ground, with no water tank to store your waste, and the “flush” isn’t connected to a sewer system.
How Effective Are They?
The vacuum created by the valve makes a loud humming which you might recall; that’s the vacuum itself removing any waste in a sanitary fashion. While it takes about 1.6 gallons of water to flush a vacuum toilet, it takes nearly half a gallon to wash a low-flow siphon model. In contrast, older, inefficient models can use 5 gallons or more per flush! The vacuum takes all the work, so it takes very little water (or sanitizing liquid) to clean the bowl for the next person.
Closing of Airplane Bathrooms
So there you have it! Traditional toilets use water and gravity to clean the bowl; airplane and train bathrooms are vacuum-connected, so they don’t have to rely on water sloshing around. Since you’re forced to use them, knowing how they work can put your mind at ease and dispel any myths surrounding them.
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