It’s an issue that most men have to deal with on a daily basis.
Urinals, first invented nearly 200 years ago, still have a notorious flaw – splashback.
Now, experts have come up with a design that solves this problem using the basic principles of physics.
Researchers tested a range of urinal designs to find out which was the most effective at ending ‘tinkle sprinkle’.
They found the key factor was the ‘impinging angle’ – the angle at which the liquid stream hits the surface of the urinal.
They discovered that when a stream hits a surface below a critical angle of around 30 degrees, splashback is dramatically reduced – by about 95 per cent compared to a perpendicular impact of 90 degrees.
Then, they designed two urinals to fit the brief – the Cornucopia and the Nautilus – and measured splash under various conditions.
Results showed that while conventional designs created splatter that travelled up to one metre away, the new designs produced almost no visible splash.
The different types of urinals tested as part of the study. While both Cornucopia and Nautilus were found to drastically reduce splashback, Nautilus was deemed the most user-friendly
Under ‘high-splash’ conditions, the Nautilus design reduced splashback by 85-95 per cent compared to current commercial urinals.
Nautilus also is low, meaning it is accessible to users of all heights – including children.
‘The Nautilus tolerates poor aim and as such it may prove beneficial on aircraft and boats where the stability cannot be taken for granted,’ the researchers said.
‘The Cornucopia is a mathematically ideal design given a user with a certain height but, as with many existing urinals, is sensitive to urinal height, and therefore it is not suitable for all users.’
The team said if they were adopted across the US, approximately one million litres of urine would stop splashing onto floors every day.
This would be preferable to current attempts to fight the issue, which include urinal screens and mats which simply catch, rather than prevent, splashback.
The study was carried out by scientists from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and Weber State University in Utah.
Writing in the journal PNAS Nexus they said: ‘The male urinal’s design has remained stagnant for over a century.
Urinals have been around for hundreds of years but their design hasn’t changed much, meaning men have to regularly encounter splashback issues
While their design hasn’t changed much over the years, bizarre models include urinals shaped like a woman’s mouth
Musician Kid Rock recently revealed he has a gold bathroom, complete with a gold urinal, at his ‘mini White House’ home
Turning their experiment on its head, the team also devised a ‘urine-no’, designed to provide the maximum amount of splashback and to prevent people urinating in unwanted places
‘Existing designs generate significant splashback, creating hygiene issues of their own and requiring human and material resources to clean.
‘The widespread adoption of the urinal designs described in this work would result in considerable conservation of human resources, cost, cleaning chemicals, and water usage.’
To take their findings one step further, the researchers even designed a ‘hostile anti-urination surface’ to help prevent people urinating in unwanted areas, such as the side of a house.
Called the ‘urine-no’, it is designed to provide the maximum amount of splashback – deterring would-be urinators.
The concept of public urinals, or ‘Pissoirs’, originated in Paris in the 1830s, with the city government installing them on major boulevards.
The design spread to other parts of Europe and the first in the UK were installed in Glasgow in 1850.
There have been plenty of weird and wonderful urinal designs ever since – from ones shaped like open mouths to even those made of gold.
