I've noticed that commercial toilet seats are shaped differently than
home toilet seats.  Commercial toilet seats are horseshoe shaped, that
is the round shape is not fully enclosed-- home toilet seats are.  Why
are commercial toilet seats a "U" shape as opposed to the full ellipse
of home toilet seats?

jmd97-ga:

You are not the first to wonder why commercial toilet seats are
horseshoe shaped. These seats are more properly referred to as
open-front toilet seats. In the USA in particular, commercial toilets
are required to be equipped with such a toilet seat by something known
as the Uniform Plumbing Code, referred to here:

http://www.toiletmuseum.com/faq.html#Q6

This is also referred to under the "Other toilet seat miscellany"
section of the following page:

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/inftoi/inftoi10.shtm

This begins to answer the question of "Why". For more, we turn to one
of the leading manufacturers of toilets in the world, Toto:

http://www.totousa.com/toto/ProductPage.asp?pid=142

Note in particular the bullet:

"-Designed with open front and modified open back for added sanitation."

Without going too deeply into the details of how a closed-front toilet
seat can easily become unsanitary when used by the wrong person (often
referred to using terminology that would be censored in most polite
circles), the easiest way to prevent unsanitary conditions for the
part of the seat that is most likely to be exposed to contamination,
is to remove it.

Not convinced? Well, as long as you are not too delicate of mind, read
the following 'rant':

(warning: if you can't handle references to human excrement, etc,
don't click the following!)

Toilet Etiquette - HogNutz Motorcycle Shop
http://www.hognutz.com/soapbox/etiquette/Default.asp?page=2

In particular, the part before the bolded Note in the last paragraph
regarding open-front toilet seats.

The other added benefit is to aid in access for 'blotting' purposes, a
term used in several toilet seat patent applications to describe the
activity that requires toilet paper.

I hope that this answers your Question! Please use the Request
Clarification button above if you would like any part of this Answer
clarified.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

---

Clarification of Answer by aht-ga on 12 Feb 2004 17:57 PST

My apologies, I accidentally submitted the Answer before including the
Search Strategy:

------------------------
Search Strategy

"open front" "toilet seat" reason
://www.google.com/search?q=%22open+front%22+%22toilet+seat%22+reason

I'm a man living in the USA. No matter the shape, it's the rare public
men's toilet seat that I find clean. The vast majority have urine,
even at establishments that are otherwise clean. Why? My guess is that
most men simply can't be bothered to put the seat up in a public
restroom. (Yes, many men urinate in a stall instead of using a urinal.
Sometimes the urinals are occupied and the men can't--or don't want
to--wait. Some men have shy bladders and need the privacy.)

I try to avoid sitting on a public toilet seat. My girlfriend didn't
understand ("Why don't you just go here?") until I told her why in
no-holds-barred detail. If we have a day bag with us, we'll usually
throw in a small bottle of alcohol-based gel hand cleaner. It'll
quickly clean and disinfect most dirty toilet seats.

And the floors around a public men's toilet or urinal? Yes, they,
too--well, you can guess.  :-)

dtc

Excellent answer, aht-ga! 

I tackled the same subject here:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=210555