No, toilets don't flush the other direction in Australia.

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There's always Renaden (spelling sorry), Raleigh, Penelope Longstocking, and April Violets.

I wish Dillogic would come back.

I'm in Australia and I've heard of this where due to the coriolis effect whirlpools will form in the other direction to those in the northern hemisphere. Cyclones/hurricanes also go in the other direction in different hemispheres.

Our toilets here also have a somewhat different pan to those in America. Ours have a very low water level that covers a small area. American toilets I think the outlet works differently and the water level is much higher with a large surface area. I suspect it's to keep sales of toilet brushes higher for us Aussies

You've heard of it...but what do you observe on a daily basis? When you flush the toilet, does the water spin clockwise or anticlockwise?

I'll take a look when I go next and report back.
It may also be influenced by the jets at the top of the bowl as to which way they face or are facing straight down. I've got two toilets in the house which are the same brand but different models. They both have a low water level which is different to all of the toilets I saw the USA.
I can do the same thing in the kitchen and laundry sinks when there's water in them and see which way it drains when it forms a whirlpool on the way out.

Living in northern Australia I have been through cyclones and they all move clockwise, so at the northern margin of the cyclone the winds are moving to the east and the bottom the winds move to the west. My understanding is they go the other way in the northern hemisphere

I would have figured it's to accommodate for the massive food babies birthed every day in the USA.

Gosh. Didnt think that it would be so hard.

Aussies and Kiwis on WP would just ...go to the bathroom and look down...or look in the kitchen sink to see which way the water is turning when it goes down the drain...and then report back to this thread!

Not trying to alienate Chileans, and Argentinians. Just that there arent many on this site. And they may not speak English.
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Hmmm...the difference in Australian toilet bowls (apparently they arent even 'bowls', but 'pans' over there)is probably to conserve water. Australia is like 80 percent desert if I am not mistaken. The US is 80 percent NOT desert...Canada has no desert except for the tundra of the north AFAIK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okanagan_Desert

I knew someone would find some flyspeck sized rain shadow mountain valley in British Columbia to point to and say gotcha.

I knew that nieghboring Washington State has such a region.

You forgot to mention that "the entire Arctic Tundra is...strictly speaking....because of its less than ten inches a year of rainfall...a "desert". And the Tundra is a lot bigger area of Canada.

So...there is no significant amount of desert, except the Arctic Tundra (which isnt usually lumped with other deserts) in Canada.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 09 Jul 2023, 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Watch out for those spiders!

Yes. There is even a song about that, believe it or not, about outhouses and red back spiders.

You'd already covered those deserts, I figured you might like to know something new.

sorry, forgot I already mentioned the tundra.

But back to the subject...gosh...cant someone on the other half of the globe just...look at their sink or commode...for...science...for a second?

Jeeze!

Not a toilet, but:



This one is more thorough:

Thanks.
Interesting both.

I didnt actually think it would work on that small as scale, but apparently I was wrong.

So the Coriolis Effect kicks in even at that small a scale. Interesting.

My toilet goes the wrong way for the northern hemisphere. So thats due to the design of the toilet probably. And most toilets. But still interesting.

That Ecuadorian girl showed how...it just goes straight down at the Equator! As well as showing that even a small sink drains counterclockwise just a few feet into the northern hemisphere, and clockwise a few paces south of the equator.

And of course the two guys in the second video did it up with scientific rigor with same results (except they didnt have third person righ AT the Equator).

So Mr. Coriolis rules!

Slim Newton. Well known Aussie song from back in the 60s I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnEqmnOfV6Q



It's not hard at all, I'm just not online everyday!

I've done my experiments this morning, location Sydney Australia.

Both my toilets are rimless Caroma ones that flush by spraying water around in both directions from the back. No whirlpool forms at all as the water goes in all directions and the water level at the bottom is already quite low. When I was in the USA I noticed that the toilets had a much much higher water level which looked strange to me. I expect it would have formed a whirlpool on top of the water as it drained.

Bathroom sink has a large outlet with a built in plug. Tried twice filling and draining the basin and the water just slips down from all directions without forming a whirlpool.
Kitchen sink. Two tries both times it formed a whirlpool that goes clockwise.
Laundry sink. Two tries both times it forms a clockwise whirlpool.
Outdoor BBQ handbasin, both times it goes clockwise.

If anyone wants a video I can film it on my phone and share.

Thank you.

Finally got a witness.

So your sinks swirl clockwise. Which is what they are supposed to do in the Southern Hemisphere.