Saving the planet's plumbing, maximising water value.

Fresh water is one of the world's most precious and increasingly scarce resources.

Not only is this fresh water drawn from dwindling natural resources, it is also collected, treated and delivered at an increasing expense to the end user.

It makes sense then to use the same water that we discard at the kitchen, sink, bath, and washing machine to substitute the fresh water that would otherwise be wasted in transporting toilet and other solid waste matter in the drain pipes.

In developing Drainwave® Ducane Australia considered the interests of the consumer, sewer infrastructure owners, operators and broader interests of Governments around the world to limit the impacts of climate change; save water and while maintaining efficient water bourne sewer waste systems.

Ducane Australia took the view that consumers would support such a product if it could be integrated into new homes/buildings at minimal cost or if it could be easily retrofitted. The ability of consumers to utilise the functionality of their toilet without any diminished functionality was also considered of paramount importance by Ducane.

A major problem with recent trends towards reducing the amount of water used per flush is; that a much lower amount of water is travelling through local sewer systems every time the toilet is flushed which is a major cause of blockages as solid waste is "bunched" within pipes designed to be flushed with much more water than low flush toilets use. This problem is further exasperated by the length of drains the waste has to travel.

The most commonly mentioned technical barrier to introducing more efficient toilet classes into Australia was drain line carriage.

(Schlunke, Lewis and Fane, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Analysis of Australian Opportunities for more water efficient toilets, Sydney, 2008).

The Drainwave overcomes this problem by capturing grey and black water from all plumbing installation points, storing it temporarily, and then discharging at a predetermined volume to create a substantial pulse flush. This combined storing and subsequent flooding overcomes problems caused by low water flows in sewer pipes, typically caused by reduced flush toilets and other water saving devices, thereby paving the way for the introduction of ultra low flush toilets utilising less than 2.5 litres per flush.