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A urinal (, ) is a sanitary plumbing fixture similar to a toilet, but for urination only. Urinals are often provided in male public toilet in Western world (less so in Muslim world). They are usually used in a standing position. Urinals can be equipped with manual flushing, automatic flushing, or without flushing, as is the case for waterless urinals. They can be arranged as single sanitary fixtures (with or without privacy walls), or in a trough design without privacy walls.
Urinals designed for females ("") also exist but are rare. It is possible for females to use stand-up urinals using a female urination device. The term "urinal" may also apply to a small building or other structure containing such fixtures. It can also refer to a small container in which urine can be collected for urinalysis, or for use where access to toilet facilities is not possible, such as in small aircraft, during extended , or for the bedridden.
In busy public toilets, urinals are installed for efficiency. Compared with urination in a general-purpose toilet, usage is faster and more sanitary because at the urinal there are no additional doors or locks to touch, and no seat to turn up. Consistent use of urinals also keeps the toilet stalls cleaner and more available for persons who need to defecate. A urinal takes less space, is simpler, and consumes less water per flush (or even no water at all) than a flush toilet. Large numbers of them are usually installed along a common supply pipe and drain. Urinals may also come in different heights, to accommodate tall and short users.
Public urinals usually have a plastic mesh guard, which may optionally contain a deodorizing urinal deodorizer block or "urinal cake". The mesh is intended to prevent solid objects (such as , feces, chewing gum, or paper) from being flushed and possibly causing a plumbing stoppage. In some restaurants, bars, and clubs, ice may be put in the urinals, serving some of the same purposes as the deodorizing block without dispensing odorous chemicals.
Urinals in high-capacity public toilets are usually arranged in one or more rows directly opposite the door, so that users have their backs to people entering or standing outside. Often, one or two of the urinals, typically at one end of a long row, will be mounted lower than the others; they are meant for the disabled and other users who cannot reach the regular urinals. In facilities where people of various heights are present, such as schools, urinals that extend down to floor level may be used to allow anyone of any height to use any urinal.
Instead of individual fixtures, trough urinals may be installed. These designs can be used by a number of people simultaneously, but they do not allow for much privacy. They are often installed where there is a high peak demand, such as in schools, music festivals, theatrical events, sports stadiums, discos, dance clubs, and convention halls.
Urinals were once installed exclusively in commercial or institutional settings, but are also now available for private homes. They offer the advantages of substantial water savings in residences with many occupants, and reduction of "splash back", making cleaning easier.
This system does not require any action from its users, but it is wasteful of water when toilets are used irregularly. However, in these countries users are so used to the automatic system, that attempts to install manual flushes to save water are generally unsuccessful. Users ignore them not through deliberate laziness or fear of infection, but because activating the flush is not habitual.
To help reduce water usage when the urinals are not being used, some urinals with timed flushing use a water-saving device. The cistern will be connected with a passive infrared sensor, which makes the cistern stop filling unless the urinals are being used. The sensor can be wall or ceiling-mounted, and will detect movement within the range of the urinals.
Alternatively, a flushing system connected to the door can count the number of users, and operate when the number of door opening events reaches a certain value. At night, the door never opens, so flushing never occurs.
Automatic flush facilities can be retrofitted to existing systems. The handle-operated valves of a manual system can be replaced with a suitably designed self-contained electronic valve, often battery-powered to avoid the need to add cables. Older timed-flush installations may add a device that regulates the water flow to the cistern according to the overall activity detected in the room. This does not provide true per-fixture automatic flushing, but is simple and cheap to add because only one device is required for the whole system.
To prevent false-triggering of the automatic flush, most infrared detectors require that a presence be detected for at least ten seconds, such as when a person is standing in front of it. This prevents a whole line of automatic flush units from triggering in succession if someone just walks past them. The automatic flush mechanism also typically waits for the presence to go out of sensor range before flushing. This reduces water usage, compared to a sensor that would trigger a continuous flushing action the whole time that a presence is detected.
The first waterless urinal was developed at the end of the 19th century by the German-Austrian Wilhelm Beetz using an oil-based syphon with a liquid that he called Urinol.
Waterless urinals can save between of water per urinal per year, depending on the amount of water used in the water-flushed urinal for comparison purposes, and the number of uses per day. For example, these numbers assume that the urinal would be used between 40 and 120 times per business day."Going Green Pays Off", Buildings magazine, July 2004
Waterless urinals allow the collection of undiluted pure urine which can be used as a fertilizer.von Münch, E., Winker, M. (2011). Technology review of urine diversion components – Overview on urine diversion components such as waterless urinals, urine diversion toilets, urine storage and reuse systems. Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Chapter 4
Waterless urinals may also use an outlet system that traps the odor, preventing the smell often present in toilet blocks. Another method to eliminate odor was introduced by Caroma, which installed a deodorizing block in their waterless urinal that was activated during use.
Odor control in waterless urinals is also achieved with simple one-way valves which are manufactured as a flat rubber tube (the tube opens when urine flows through) or with two silicone "curtain" pieces. The former is used in the waterless urinals by the company Keramagvon Münch, E., Winker, M. (2011). Worldwide listing of suppliers for waterless urinals – Appendix 1 for technology review of urine diversion components. Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Germany (model Centaurus) and the latter is marketed by the company Addicom in South Africa who called it the EcoSmellStop device.von Münch, E., Dahm, P. (2009). Waterless Urinals – A Proposal to Save Water and Recover Urine Nutrients in Africa. 34th WEDC International Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Waterless urinals have become rather common in Germany since about 2009 and can be found at restaurants, cinemas, highway rest stops, train stations and so forth. It was estimated in 2009 that there are about 6 million urinals in Germany, and about 100,000 of those were of the waterless type in that year. Oeko-Innovationen: Wasserlose Urinale. Kein Wasserverbrauch und mehr Hygiene (in German), 2009
Due to high-level water restrictions during about 2005–2008 the city council of Brisbane, Australia mandated conversion to waterless urinals. Flush urinals are nowadays rarely seen in Brisbane.
Most waterless urinals do not prevent odorous staining on the surface of the urinals, and periodic cleaning of the fixture and its surrounds is still required. When maintained according to manufacturers' recommendations, well-designed waterless urinals do not emit any more odors than flushed urinals do. However, some odor-trapping devices work better than others in the longer term. Regular, thorough maintenance of the respective odor control device is needed for all types of waterless urinals, as per the manufacturer's recommendation.
Plumbers' Trade union initially opposed waterless urinals, citing concerns about health and safety, which have been debunked by scientists who have studied the devices. Facing opposition to their attempts to have the devices allowed in plumbing codes, manufacturers devised a compromise. The Uniform Plumbing Code was modified to allow waterless urinals to be installed, provided that unneeded water lines were nevertheless run to the back of the urinals. This allows conventional water-flushing urinals to be retrofitted later, if waterless models were judged to be unsatisfactory over time.
In March 2006, the Associated Press reported that the plumbers' union in Philadelphia had become upset because developer Liberty Property Trust had decided to use waterless urinals in the Comcast Center. Many in the union believed that this would lead to less work for them. The developer cited saving the city of water per year as its deciding factor.
In February 2010, the headquarters of the California EPA removed waterless urinals that were installed in 2003 due to "hundreds of complaints", including odors and splashed urine on the floors. Cal/EPA headquarters flushes waterless urinals. news10.net (22 February 2010). Officials blamed the failure of the project on incompatibility with the building's existing plumbing systems.California Environmental Protection Agency, "CAL/EPA Issues Statement on Waterless Urinals", 1 April 2010
The first 'pissoirs' were installed in Paris in the 1830s, and the idea gradually gained popularity in other European cities. From a peak in the 1930s when there were over 1,000 in Paris alone, historic urinals have gradually disappeared, in favour of facilities for both sexes. In the 21st century, public urination by men in some locations was again seen as a nuisance, and modern versions of street urinals have been installed.
The Netherlands has a number of strategically placed street urinals in various cities, intended to reduce public urination by drunken men. Amsterdam has the largest collection of historic urinals, with about 30 'Plaskrul' ('pisscurl'), a flushless urinal with a curved privacy screen, in the central city. In recent years, urinals that can be retracted into the ground during the day or between special events have been installed, in order to save space when they are not expected to be needed. When closed they look like a large manhole in a sidewalk. Similar retractable models, such as the model by the Dutch company Urilift, are also seen in the UK and other countries. At night when bars are open they rise out of the sidewalk; some time after the bars close, the urinals return to their manhole configuration so that they are unseen by people during the day. In the Philippines, Marikina was the first city to install street urinals in the late 1990s. When Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando was appointed chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, he installed street urinals in the rest of Metro Manila as well.
Interactive urinals have been developed in a number of countries, allowing users to entertain themselves during urination. One example is the Toylet, a video game system produced by the Japanese company Sega that allows users to play video games using their urine to control the on-screen action.
The urinals were re-introduced in Paris after 1834, when over 400 were installed by Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau, the Préfet of the Department of the Seine. Having a simple cylindrical shape, built of masonry, open on the street side, and ornately decorated on the other side as well as the cap, they were popularly known as 'colonnes Rambuteau' ('Rambuteau columns'). In response, Rambuteau suggested the name 'vespasiennes', in reference to the 1st century Roman emperor Vespasian, who placed a tax on urine collected from Public toilet for use in tanning. This is the usual term by which street urinals are known in the French speaking world, although 'pissoir' and 'pissotière' are also in common use.
In Paris, the next version was a masonry column that allowed for the pasting of posters on the side facing the footpath, creating a tradition that continues to this day (as a Morris column, a column with an elaborate roof and without the urinal).
Cast iron urinals were developed in the United Kingdom, with the Scottish firm of Walter McFarlane and Company casting urinals at their Saracen Foundry and erecting the first at Paisley Road, Glasgow in October 1850. By the end of 1852, nearly 50 cast iron urinals had been installed in Glasgow, including designs with more than one stall. Unlike Rambuteau's columns, which were entirely open at the front, McFarlane's one-man urinals were designed with spiral cast iron screens that allowed the user to be hidden from sight, and his multi-stall urinals were completely hidden within ornate, modular cast iron panels. Three manufacturers in Glasgow, Walter Macfarlane & Co., George Smith (Sun Foundry) and James Allan Snr & Son (Elmbank Foundry), supplied the majority of cast iron urinals across Britain and exported them around the world, including Australia and Argentina.
Back in Paris, cast iron urinals were introduced as part of Baron Haussmann's remodelling of the city. A large variety of designs were produced in subsequent decades, housing two to 8 stalls, typically only screening the central portion of the user from public view, with the head and feet still visible. Screens were also added to Rambuteau columns. At the peak of their spread in the 1930s, there were 1,230 pissoirs in Paris, but by 1966 their number had decreased to 329. From 1980 they were replaced systematically with new technology, a unisex, enclosed, automatically self-cleaning unit called the Sanisette.
In Berlin, the first pissoirs, in wood, were erected in 1863. In order to provide a design as distinguished as in other cities, several architectural design competitions were organised in 1847, 1865 and 1877. The last design, proposed by a city councillor, was the one adopted in 1878, a cast-iron octagonal structure with seven stalls and a peaked roof, known locally as a Café Achteck ('Octagon Cafe'). In common with British designs, they provided complete enclosure, and were provided with interior lighting. Their number increased to 142 by 1920,Bärthel, Hilmar (2000): "Tempel aus Gusseisen: Urinale, Café Achteck und Vollanstalten", Berlinische Monatsschrift Heft 11 but there are now only about a dozen remaining in use.
A similar design was adopted in Vienna, though simpler, smaller and hexagonal. They were equipped with a novel "oil system", patented by Wilhelm Beetz in 1882, where a type of oil was used to neutralise odours, dispensing with the necessity for plumbing. About 15 are still in use, and one has been restored and set up as a display in the Vienna Technical Museum.
In central Amsterdam, there are about 35 Pee curl, which consist of a raised metal screen that curls in a spiral enclosing a single urinal stall, including some two-person examples with the same details but a simpler shape. Though the design first emerged in the 1870s, an updated design by Joan van der Mey dates from 1916. All the remaining examples were restored in 2008.
Pissoirs of various sizes and designs, but mostly in patterned cast-iron, can still be found dotted across the UK, with a few in London, but especially in Birmingham and Bristol. A solitary example of Walter McFarlane's one-man spiral urinal remains in Thorn Park, Plymouth. A number have been restored and relocated to the grounds of various open-air museums and heritage railway lines.
Rectangular pissoirs, with elaborate patterned cast-iron panels, similar in design to some of the UK ones, were installed in the city of Sydney, Australia, in 1880 and Melbourne, Australia, in the period 1903–1918. Of at least 40 that were made, nine remain in place and in use on the streets in and around central Melbourne, and have been classified by the National Trust since 1998.
In recent years, temporary pissoirs with multiple unscreened urinals around a central column have been introduced in the UK. "The Pee Pod - the place to pee in Milton Keynes!". BBC News, 15 June 2010. "Edinburgh to trial 'pee pod' street urinals". BBC News, 24 November 2010. A temporary pissoir for women called the 'Peeasy' is used in Switzerland.Salzmann, Claudia. "Frauen-Pissoir: Kein leichtes Unterfangen". Berner Zeitung, 18 July 2011 .
Until the 1990s, street urinals were a common sight in Paris (France), and in the 1930s more than 1200 were in service. They were famous among foreign tourists.Harvey A. Levenstein, We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930, Chicago: University of Chgicago, 2004, , p. 31. Parisians referred to them as vespasiennes, the name being derived from that of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who, according to an anecdote, imposed a tax on urine. Beginning in the 1990s, the vespasiennes (renowned for their smell and lack of hygiene) were gradually replaced by . Today only one vespasienne remains in the city (on Boulevard Arago), and it is still regularly used. They still exist in other French cities and in other countries.
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