"Replacing Old Toilets with Water-Saving Models Saves 100,000 Won Annually"

Recovery of Purchase Cost Within 4 Years
Differences in Cleaning Functions by Product

It has been found that replacing old toilets with water-saving models in homes can reduce annual water bills by up to 100,000 KRW.

On the 25th, the Korea Consumer Agency announced that it confirmed this after conducting quality, safety, and economic evaluations on 14 products from 10 companies with highly preferred water-saving toilets. Although there were differences between products, the Consumer Agency calculated that the water bill savings would range from a minimum of 74,169 KRW to a maximum of 103,183 KRW. In particular, the Consumer Agency added that for seven products tested, the water bill savings were sufficient to recover the initial toilet purchase cost within four years of replacement.

The products evaluated in this test included Gyerim Ceramics C-974F·C-7901, Daelim Bath CC-280·CC-281G1, Theinus IC859E, Dobidos DC-604, Royal & Co RWC508, Serim Industry C-164, American Standard C209800C-6DAKGS50S·CCAS2025-111A41K0, KCC Glass HI-C500, Hanssem TY-300, and Toto C887RE·C889DRE.

As a result of the evaluation, all products showed no issues regarding safety, including harmful substance content. However, there were some differences in cleaning performance. In particular, seven products including Gyerim Ceramics C-7901, Daelim Bath CC-280, and Theinus IC859E showed relatively excellent cleaning performance, with over 99% of fecal substitutes being discharged and transported in the test evaluation items. The Consumer Agency also noted that the Gyerim Ceramics (C-7901) product demonstrated excellent cleaning performance despite being a Grade 1 product (using 4L or less of water).

Among the tested products, three including Theinus IC859E and Toto C887RE·C889DRE were found to have violated the Water Supply Act by failing to attach mandatory water-saving grade labels. The current Water Supply Act requires that water-saving equipment manufactured or imported for sale in Korea after February 18, 2022, must mandatorily display water-saving grade labels. Additionally, toilet seats are classified as household goods subject to safety standards and must indicate model name, material, manufacturer name, etc., but all products omitted some or all of these required markings, indicating a need for improvement.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Agency surveyed plans for installing water-saving toilets in apartments sold by major construction companies and found that most apartments planned to install Grade 3 (6L or less) toilets with 179 units (77%), followed by Grade 1 (4L or less) toilets with 50 units (22%), and Grade 2 (5L or less) toilets with 3 units (1%). The Consumer Agency recommended installing Grade 1 toilets instead of Grade 3 in new apartments, as the test results showed little difference in cleaning performance between Grade 3 and Grade 1 toilets. They explained that this could save about 5 million tons of tap water annually, which is enough to fill Seokchon Lake (6.36 million tons) more than 11 times over five years.

The Consumer Agency stated, "We will continue to provide safety and quality comparison information on eco-friendly products to support consumers' rational consumption in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.