Installing a bathroom where plumbing doesn’t exist sounds like a daunting task. Locating sewer lines, digging drains, and placing piping implies a full-on renovation that perhaps is not in the cards. What if you could install a toilet on a flat, cement, basement floor? Sound impossible? Luckily, there are many upflush toilet reviews that show people doing just that. In fact, this is just the sort of placement that upflush toilet systems are designed for.
What Is An Upflush Toilet?
Upflush toilets are exactly as named; instead of the toilet flushing and the waste and water being directed downward into the plumbing and sewer system, the flushing action flows out the back of the toilet and upwards into a macerator and outbound pipe.
It is the pump and macerator that make upflush toilets possible. Upon flushing, the pump takes the wastewater from the toilet bowl into a macerator unit. Essentially a blender, this macerator breaks the waste down into a slurry which can then be easily pumped through a narrow pipe connected to the black water system and out to the sewer or septic field.
So, while a water source and discharge pipe are still required, the need for an in-floor drain is eliminated which means an upflush toilet system can be installed almost anywhere in your home.
Upflush Toilet Systems
An upflush toilet system consists of a rear discharge toilet (rather than a traditional s-trapped toilet), a pump/macerator unit, and pipes to connect to the black water discharge in your home.
It’s even possible to connect a sink and/or shower drain to the outflow system allowing you to build a complete bathroom where no plumbing exists!
This video from the classic This Old House series demonstrates the upflush toilet system:
Upflush Toilet Reviews
Turns out that building upflush toilet systems is a bit of a niche in the toilet/plumbing industry. There are only a few companies that are producing toilets that don’t require existing plumbing and so can be installed in a variety of non-standard locations. Our upflush toilet reviews, therefore, are limited to these manufacturers; although there are a number of models to choose from.
Saniflo Upflush Toilets:
Saniflo is the old guard in upflush toilet systems having created the toilet macerator in 1958. This revolutionized bathroom installation, allowing toilets to be placed where traditional plumbing doesn’t exist. Their complete systems include a rear-discharge toilet, a pump and macerator (which allows for inclusion of sink and/or shower drainage also), and piping to connect to black water out flow plumbing.
