Urinals are Not Just for Men

April 29, 2011 at 2:00 am Chad Upton 1 comment

By Chad Upton | Editor

Urinals are common in most men’s bathrooms, but they’re rarely seen in the ladies room. But, Urinals.net maintains a short list of ladies rooms with urinals built just for women. It’s not a complete list, but it’s a curious one.

Ladies’ urinals haven’t caught on for a variety of reason. First of all, they’re confusing. They are often very different from men’s urinals, so women aren’t sure if they should be used forward or backward. Also, they’re not as practical for females because of differences in anatomy and the types of clothing that men and women wear.

Urinals are very common in men’s rooms of course. But, there are some surprises there too.

For example, most guys have probably come across this in a bar at some point, whether they remember it or not: some bars and clubs fill the men’s urinals with ice during busy times.

People are inherently bad at flushing public toilets, likely because they want as little contact as possible with these appliances. Therefore, many public restrooms have automatic flush toilets. But, a much cheaper option is to use ice. You see, when urine melts the ice, the water from the melted ice dilutes the urine and flushes away the smell. It’s a low-tech automatic flush system.

Also, melting ice is fun, so it improves aim and that reduces the number of bathroom cleanings that are required.

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Sources: Wikipedia (Urinals)

Photo: Christian Church (cc)