How does an airplane's toilet work?
The bathrooms of the airplanes happened to be a luxury in the first years of the aviation to become a necessity nowadays. Although in virtually any modern commercial aircraft you will find one, it remains a mystery to many its operation.
Oddly enough, the toilets on airplanes have fairly advanced physical principles. According to the American engineer, James Le Bouthillier : "Its operation is so complex (of toilets), that it even has laws of physics more advanced than those that make the plane fly".
Although, there are many myths fed by popular belief, such as the famous "the toilet is just a hole where the debris falls as rain from the sky" , is not really a topic that has deepened much as with other airplane systems. That's why today we bring you where we will explain how the toilet on the plane actually works .
American Standard 3717B001.020 Cadet 3 FloWise Right Height Round Front Toilet Bowl Only in White
How does it work?
When you press the button to pull the toilet, a valve opens. This valve is connected to a vacuum system that causes waste to be sucked into a storage tank (located in the cargo compartment). Although in theory these toilets can work without water, to avoid clogging the pipes and keep it clean, a liquid disinfectant solution is used (hence the blue color of the water).
This system is mainly designed to save resources and, therefore, reduce the weight of the aircraft as much as possible . Even the pneumatic system to create vacuum is connected to the pressurized air system of the aircraft (the same one that uses air conditioning).
Another interesting detail is that the toilets are coated with Teflon . This, in addition to facilitating the cleanliness of the airplane, means that even less water is used.
The basic principle of aircraft toilets
Unlike the typical household plumbing that works with gravity, the entire bathroom of the plane uses vacuum as a fundamental physical principle in its operation: from the tap to the toilet .
Why do they use 'emptiness'? It is true that 'on land' with gravity is more than enough for toilets to work well, however in the air - as well as on buses and trains - the movement and weight of water can cause stability problems. For that reason engineers since the 40's have looked for a way to avoid major problems. Among those solutions they found that having a pneumatic vacuum system helps in:
- Save large amounts of water
- Decrease weight since narrower pipes are used
- Avoid unpleasant odors
- Distribute all the weight in several tanks distributed by the plane.
Do the debris fall from the air?
This idea has become popular thanks to the children's cartoons but no , the waste is not discharged on the flight.
The only way to empty the septic tanks is by means of hoses and pipes on the ground. By the way, to access the valve of the tank has to enter the cargo compartment of the plane (ie it is impossible to have a "rain of human waste" caused by the toilet of an airplane).