Splash-free urinals (2025)

readme

I'm honestly passionate about this topic. For a while, around the time that urinals started to appear without water, I dealt with some serious splashback issues. I forget when I started aiming for the back of the urinal. I'm assuming that's the deflection angle the paper discusses. At one point I realized, I was sometimes getting some pretty bad splashback. Perhaps because I stood close to the urinal. So I asked a colleague. He said he aims for the hole, and was confused why anyone would piss on the back of the urinal. I started doing that -- problem solved. I am for a direct hit, every time. The problem is that some urinals have a protector over the hole to prevent really smart people and children from putting paper towels in there. That thing is dome shaped, and multiplexes the stream like a lawn sprinker. All of this, would not be necessary, if there were water at the bottom of the urinal.

LorenPechtel

The basic problem is that making the angle low makes the urinal take up more space. Businesses don't like that.

u1hcw9nx

Design through physics and differential equations. This paper is Ig® Nobel Physics Prize Winner 2026 https://improbable.com/ig/winners/

danjc

Worth noting that this study was partially funded by the university of Waterloo

manarth

TLDR: The "Cornucopia" has the least amount of splashback, however the "Nautilus" is the recommendation of choice, to accommodate ease of cleaning and variations in the height of the user. https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/4/pgaf087/80987...

plasma_beam

The secret to splash free male urination is..sitting down.

nelox

It’s not much help if the aim is off

masfuerte

Traditional urinals [1] are very effective. As are the steel variants [2]. The latter tend to become very grim over time. [1]: https://www.hlwashrooms.co.uk/healey--lord-niagara-urinals--... [2]: https://acornthorn.co.uk/urinals-wcs-cubicles/urinals/ur068-...

shafyy

Somebody tell Larry David about this

ahoka

I really like the inverted version, where it's almost guaranteed to splash yourself as a deterrent.

b3lvedere

This reminded me of some scenes in the videogame Dispatch [1] [1] : https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dispatch/images/c/ca/Dispa...

falcor84

> droplets which travel back onto the floor and user I suppose this disproves Tufte's "There are only two industries that call their customers 'users': illegal drugs and software."

danw1979

The recent introduction, in the UK at least, of splash-back reducing urinal … mats (?) has basically solved the problem in my opinion. They’re a disposable (but not single use…) plastic freshening insert with loads of short rubber strands, closely packed. You can pee on one of these mats and the stream almost aerates itself on impact and you get basically no splashback, I guess with a similar mechanism to how an aerating tap produces a stream of water that doesn’t splash off whatever it hits.

asdfasvea

Sustainability? What resource will we run out of if we continue to piss in traditional urinals? Has bullshit marketing terms invaded scientific papers now as well?

y-curious

Direct link to the designs (c and d, with d being practical). Great paper honestly. https://academic.oup.com/view-large/figure/512223725/pgaf087...

d-e-r-e-k

Global sustainability and accessibility seems a bit grandiose lol. It’s just a urinal after all. That being said, it’s been 4 years since Waterloo first determined this and it’s still unavailable to purchase. I’ve been patiently waiting for one to install in my shop but it seems like it’s not all that important for the globe if it’s still unavailable 4 years later.

fguerraz

The previous design was piss-poor

harvie

Sometimes i am using an urinal and i feel like no engineers were involved in the design. Glad to see someone is actually approaching this with proper science. There is more to it than the splashback tho. Sometimes it seems that the surfaces that already have splashes on them are not angled properly to lead the water to the drain. This seems to create need to have sharp edge/lip rather than round one, which might be tricky to make resilient in porcelain. But the rounded lip certainly allows for droplet flow towards the user rather than the drain hole.

ButlerianJihad

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

walthamstow

Just aim at the sweet spot where your stream smoothly swirls into the plughole. No spray, minimal sound. Most toilets and all urinals have this spot you can hit. In Amsterdam airport they even mark it for you with a crosshairs!