Ok maybe the flushing part is a bit overkill and mostly a joke, but a toilet that can deliver notifications like if it's clogged for example before you use it and make it worse would have fantastic utility IMO

[–] mj_marathon@programming.dev 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This makes zero sense. If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl. Why the would anyone need a notification for that?

The ONLY utility that I could see here is if the notification logged who did the clogging so you could give them shit.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Toilets can appear to have flushed fully, but still have...material...stuck in the U-bend that hasn't completely evacuated the toilet. A subsequent flush won't work, even though the water in the bowl is clean.

Ask me how I know.

That said, this could almost certainly be better-solved in other ways. Maybe by preventing the tank from refilling if there's still something in the u-bend (then you'd know it needed attention because there'd be no water in it)?

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How do you know?

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Let's just say this happens a lot in my house.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A little display or indicator light somewhere on the toilet itself would be better than connecting it to some IOT app

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Oh, absolutely. I was responding only to "If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl."

An app for a toilet is a stupid idea, full stop.

[–] mj_marathon@programming.dev 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We don't know that the toilet has this sensing capability.
If it does, the actual fix is the same as if it were a regular toilet.

This just isn't an issue that needs technology as a solution.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

125% agreed. I was responding only to "If it's clogged, you'd know beforehand when you look in the bowl." I think there's potentially an engineering solution--a fluid dynamics engineering solution--but definitely not an app.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

One word.

Toddlers

[–] dontpanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago

But in this scenario don’t the toddlers need phones? Wait do toddlers all have phones now?

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I guess, but I've never heard of a toilet clogging before it's used.

There's other better examples, though. Smart thermostats get plenty of use from the people I know with them. A fridge that tracks how long stuff has been inside would be dope. Smart lights have uses.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Toilets can appear to have flushed fully, but still have...material...stuck in the U-bend that hasn't completely evacuated the toilet. A subsequent flush won't work, even though the water in the bowl is clean.

Ask me how I know.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Well, I suppose it is the kind of system where a lot of weird non-deterministic things can happen.

What kind of sensor are we thinking of here? Optical? I know it's a real issue to find something that doesn't foul or misread even in the simpler application of an RV septic tank.

I wonder if you could just put a window in the U-bend for manual inspection. It's supposed to be full of "clean" water most of the time anyway.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, not to mention, adding any sort of electronic components to the thing would be dicey at best. A lot of bathrooms don't even have power outlets anywhere near the toilet.

I'd prefer some sort of pressure-activated valve or something, but this is an engineering challenge that's beyond my meager skills.