My toilet violently exploded
Thankfully this happened 10 seconds after my wife left the restroom and not when my kid was in there, hence the "mildly infuriating" post that could easily have been a Final Destination situation.
The back tank of our toilet suddenly exploded with enough force to shoot huge jagged porcelain shards hard enough to hit every wall in the room, shatter the sink, and send shrapnel into the hallway. It sounded like a pipe bomb. My first thought was a sewer gas explosion or something. After turning off the water to stop the fountain spraying in the air, it took me 10 minutes to figure out what the hell happened.
The big black plastic device laying on the floor seemed to be the culprit. I googled it, and sure enough, it turns out the previous homeowners installed a "Flushmate pressure assist flushing system." It's a plastic tank inside the porcelain toilet tank that uses air pressure to flush (why?). And apparently this exact model was recalled a few years ago because people were getting seriously injured by exploding toilets.
From a 2018 CBS News story:
"Flushmate is recalling more than 1.4 million toilet-flushing systems due to complaints that the units can explode, with reports of people being injured and property damage, according to federal safety officials.
Flushmate, a unit of Illinois bathroom equipment maker Sloan Valve Company, has received more than 1,400 reports in the U.S. and seven in Canada of the toilet systems bursting, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said Thursday. The incidents have resulted in about $710,000 in property damage and 23 injuries, one of which required foot surgery."
Pretty sure we're too late for the class action settlement at this point.
Right now, there are still thousands of these pressure systems out there, waiting to explode and either mildly infuriate or majorly injure people. Watch your back y'all.
wtf