Tuesday 23 September 2008

Long Time No See

Well, as the title says, long time no see. Time for me to get this up and going again. As most of you reading this go on my YouTube Channel you will know I can update this a lot. 

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Extremely Rare "armitage"

I can't believe it, I found an "armitage", I'd only seen these in Australia on YouTube.

I was in a holiday shop, got bored and had a feeling about the toilet being good, after a while I asked, and got to go to it.

I walked upstairs and looked for the toilet, found it and walked into the cubicle. I thought it was TWYFORDS at first, but realised it was "armitage". You should have seen my face, I was so happy.

I checked the sink to see if that was the same as I had slight suspicion of missing Shanks part, but nope, same.


The bowl I've never seen before on, even with the newer batches. It looks similar to some I have seen though.


As you can see, no faded Shanks below or beside it.



What made it even better was the cistern handle, side and rare and old.
Notice the water pipe in the bottom right-hand corner? It made me think the cistern isn't original, but the building isn't old enough to have an older one, plus it probably went up and to the side, the current one comes down to the side.



Flush power is very good, length, and sound. Enjoy the video. 


Saturday 5 April 2008

A Rare But Neglected TWYFORDS, Make Music

Found in Make Music in Kettering, this neglected toilet is very rare, it's a TWYFORDS with Viterious China below the logo.

Before you go "Yuck! Oh my God!" That in the bowl is just limescale. I know it's worse than Subway but this is a music shop, not a food establishment.
But it is dirty and I didn't want to be in there long but I had to take the chance and shoot the video and pictures.
Design I don't love nor hate.

Now here's the rare logo, never seen it before, it's quite unique. The words are curved when they'd usually be straight.


The cistern isn't the same as the one on the Shires from the dental centre.
It says: dauntlessELITE.
Yet again, I think it's another 9 litre cistern.
The button squeaks a lot when it's pressed, probably hasn't been used in a while.
Sound and pressure are good, though pressure would be better slightly higher but this toilet is very old.

Enjoy the video:

Subway, A Place That Doesn't Like To Clean Toilets

Well, if you haven't already seen my video about the state of the toilets, here's a blog post about it. (And the toilet bowl and cistern itself)

Kettering has two Subways one on Dalkeith Place and their toilets are pretty crap but these were the worst.

I walked in and found a very dirty sink with something looking like someone had taken a shit in it and removed most of it but left some, the cold tap was surrounded by who know what, soap dispenser had soap but that was probably over a few years old, all the floor was dirty and messy, hand dryer covered in yellow watermarks and things atleast it worked, hot water heater wasn't so bad but it wasn't very clean, the radiator was rusty, dirty and probably broken, paint peeled off everywhere and that's just in the area that you wait for the cubicle or wash your hands. In the cubicle, the floor is still dirty, mould behind the toilet on the waste outlet pipe, mould on the door, dirty yellow seat, dirty toilet bowl, dust covering everywhere still ... I wonder why they bother having the toilet brush if they don't use it? And I did complain, I'm going to go back and see if they are cleaned, if not I'll complain again.

Here's the video showing all this:




Now the toilet bowl was Shires, a older batch I believe.
I think it looks just about the same as the newer batch, except the rim slides in a bit if you look at this next photo:
The logo starts with a larger letter and ends with the same unlike the other logo all in lower-case and same size.
The cistern I'm not sure what it's brand is, probably Shires and the handle looks replaced as I have seen it on modern toilets before. The cistern can be tempermental to get to flush as you will hear in the video.
Sound is good and the pressure is reasonable, flush isn't very long though.

Thursday 3 April 2008

Shires At The Shires Dental Centre

Yes, a very ironic toilet. It's a Shires in The Shires dental centre!

This toilet bowl is quite rare to see here, yet I saw this and another one of these but older batch.

The logo is a dark blue, printed off-centre.

The cistern is very big, I think it's one of the older 9 litre ones. To flush the toilet you must push the button sticking out the top, and what I like about these is that they are unique and use a syphon that gives a good sound and pressure, unlike the valves used with buttons nowadays, to tell if a toilet is a syphon flush, listen at the end when the water stops, if you a rumbling like sound and the water gets more powerful then stops, it's a syphon. To tell if it's a valve, at the end it will make a thump as the valve falls and the water will just stop with no gurgle or anything.

Here's a close-up of the button.

What is different about the syphons with these buttons is that if you press the button down again when it's flushing and it stays down (As it goes back up if you press once) The end of the flush is different.

I like the sound and flush for this one shame these buttons are becoming rarer. I've only seen about 3.
Enjoy the video.

Sunday 30 March 2008

Another Batch Of My Favourite Armitage Shanks?

This one, from London Natural History Museum looks very similar to my favourite Armitage Shanks.
The hole that the rim forms is the same yet the water hole is longer. Logo is the same too.
And instead of being found with the Armitage Shanks sensor I found it with this sucky button.
The flush sound isn't much different though, pressure is good.
Enjoy the video.

Older Or Newer? Twyfords

This one was found in the toilets of Marks And Spencers, Leicester.

When I first saw this, it looked like the newest batch of something.
But don't be fooled, like the say, don't read a book by it's front cover. Or at least I think that's how that saying goes ...

Anyway behind the seat and lid, I found the logo, it's a Twyfords, a batch before the newest.
I was very suprised, I was expecting Twyford or Armitage Shanks, mostly Twyford though.

The handle I believe is a Armitage Shanks, I think, might be DVS as the taps were DVS.

The flush sound is the usual sound for this batch of Twyfords. Pressure is good.

Enjoy the video.

A Rare One, Barrhead

Barrhead, I've only ever seen it once, how about you? I saw this one at the Victoria And Albert museum in London, near the entrance in the underground subway from the tube station.

This was the only cubicle with it, the rest had older batch Armitage Shanks as usual, in a new toilet I check all vacant cubicles, and this was the odd one out.

It looks very similar to Armitage Shanks doesn't it? though on the outside you can see the rim while the others you can't. I suspect the reason this is in here is that either there was an Armitage Shanks here before that got broken and they replaced it with this because it looks similar or they were all Barrhead and the Armitage Shanks replaced them.

The logo looks quite unique, I wonder what it is supposed to look like.

The handle I have come across several times yet I don't know what brand it is, I'm thinking an older Armitage Shanks.

Sound and flush are good, nice pressure.
Enjoy the video.