While there’s no point reinventing the wheel, a husband has found several reasons to reinvent the common toilet – saving his marriage being a key one of them.
Twenty-three years ago Thomas Hohepa walked out on a fight with his wife.
It had been a common domestic dispute, one fought out in households across the globe for centuries – he had once again left the toilet seat up, Stuff reported.
Billie Jo Ropiha (left) and her dad Thomas Hohepa (right) have teamed up to bring the foot peddle to life
The lifters arm attaches to the seat and opens it when the foot peddle is pressed (pictured)
He left the age-old argument to tinker in his shed, emerging hours latter with a invention that would would put an end to the fight forever.
Thomas had invented a foot-pedal operated toilet-seat lifter. The lifters arm attaches to the seat and opens it when the foot peddle is pressed.
It’s even fitted with a ‘soft close’ mechanism to make sure it comes down gently.
To the envy of visitors, Thomas fitted it to the family toilet and resolved the controversial ‘seat up’ issue forever.
Now, he’s partnered up with his daughter Billie Jo Ropiha to bring the product to the rest of New Zealand.
‘A lot of the demand is from women. Lots of men say there’s no problem here. But with women you get them instantly saying ‘I want it’ and you get a really strong reaction,’ she said.
Billie said the major interest has come form wives who have an ‘instant reaction’ to it
‘It’s the ultimate No 8 wire invention that will save marriages, and spread the love.’
She said her dad initially looked into getting the product on the market in the early 1990s but it was going to be too expensive to launch.
Now, manufacturing costs have made it feasible and the family duo have been given the support to launch it from government agency Callaghan Innovation.
Billie said they’ve already had interest with a bar owner looking at installing the device in the unisex toilets.
But she’s is hoping it will be picked up by a major bathroom supplier and has ambitions to get the product into every home in Australia and New Zealand.
‘We know the design’s been working for 23 years. We’re pretty proud of it, it looks great and it does its job,’ she said.
She said her dad initially looked into getting the product on the market in the early 1990s but it was going to be too expensive to launch
Billie is hoping it will be picked up by a major bathroom supplier and has ambitions to get the product into every home in Australia and New Zealand