Inventor of toilet-leak prevention contraption hopes to be flush with cash

Entrepreneur Wally Berry holds up a Siphon Flush, a mechanism that eliminates leaks in toilets. Mr. Berry and manufacturing advocacy agency Magnet are projecting the device to be a big hit. Photo credit: PHOTO PROVIDED + PHOTO ZOOM

When Wally Berry looks in the toilet, he sees ... about $20.

Mr. Berry has studied the matter at length. He estimates there are more than 400 million toilets in the United States, and he figures he can get that $20 out of more than 1% of them. In return, he promises, they will never leak again and will flush better than ever before.

“Mom always said I'd end up in the toilet, and I guess I have,” Mr. Berry jokes.

Meet the inventor of the Siphon Flush, which might be the first device to revolutionize the most ubiquitous and necessary of porcelain fixtures since the “flapper” was introduced in 1953.

The device is a floating siphon on the end of a collapsible rubber hose that is attached to the hole in the toilet where the flapper is normally attached. Unless the toilet is flushed — in this case, by beginning the siphoning action with a downward push from the handle to collapse the rubber hose — it is a closed system that cannot leak.

Mr. Berry beamed recently while showing how his prized invention could swallow 30 golf balls in a single flush at Magnet, a Cleveland manufacturing advocacy agency. For those not in the know, golf balls have become a common measure of how much solid stuff a toilet can digest. Manufacturers who sell toilets based on their flushing ability — as opposed to their water savings — often brag that their fixture can swallow 20 or 24 of the dimpled orbs.

Magnet, along with Cuyahoga County, lent Mr. Berry $88,000 to develop the product and then helped him extensively on its design, patents and production. Magnet and Cuyahoga County are counting on Mr. Berry to succeed, and not just so he can pay back his loan. That's because $1 from every unit Mr. Berry sells will be put toward a fund Magnet will administer to support other entrepreneurs.

The product is priced at $28 retail and is offered to institutional buyers for $20 per unit.

“Wally is still at early stage, so we can't say for certain he's going to be the most successful (company backed by the loan program to date), but I think it's safe to lump him in with at least our most successful,” said Wayne Zeman, vice president of venture development for Magnet. He said Siphon Flush “could sell millions.”

Tam Pham, owner of Talent Tool & Die in Berea, hopes Mr. Zeman is right. Talent Tool makes the plastic parts for Siphon Flush and was preparing last week to ship the first 500 units. Mr. Berry contracts the final assembly out to Cleveland-based Solutions at Work, a nonprofit that employs workers with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

“We see great potential in this,” said Mr. Pham, who plans to expand and add to his staff of 43 if Siphon Flush even approaches Mr. Berry's expectations.

Water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity, especially in regions such as the Southwest and Florida. Mr. Berry's initial marketing efforts are aimed at municipal water departments, water authorities and others seeking to save water on a wholesale level, and so far the reaction is positive.

“We're hoping to get our hands on some (Siphon Flushes) — so if you talk to that manufacturer, tell him we're anxiously waiting to get some,” said Ed Kelley, chairman of the Volusia Water Authority. Mr. Kelley's members, which are individual water companies, serve about 400,000 residents around Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Housing Authority for the City of El Paso also wants to see the product and is waiting for test samples, said spokesman Shane Griffith. The housing authority could install them in at least some of the 6,500 housing units that it owns and operates, as well as in about 6,000 others for which it administers some form of housing assistance, Mr. Griffith said.

Mr. Berry said he initially hoped to get the Siphon Flush into about 1% of the nation's toilets, or around 4 million toilets. Even at $20 per unit, that would be more than enough to make Mr. Berry a wealthy man. Now, he thinks the initial 1% estimate is way too low.

He declined to say what it cost to make a Siphon Flush, but smiled and said “you're not far off” when a guess of $4 was put forth.

But folks such as Volusia Water's Mr. Kelley, who refers to toilet leaks as “the silent thief,” say the device just might warrant such a success for Mr. Berry.

“Personally, I'll probably buy a half a dozen of them for myself,” Mr. Kelley said. “It looks like it could be the next new mousetrap.”

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