More Kirby Air News

July 8, 2005
Section: Main
Page: 1A
Man hopes invention will end bathroom odor
Scott Wartman
Staff
The Herald-Dispatch
By SCOTT WARTMAN
swartman@herald-dispatch.com

HUNTINGTON -- When David Kirby didn't like the smell in a bathroom at a country club in Naples three years ago, he decided to do something about it and maybe make a tidy profit.
"They didn't have a bathroom fan. It ran me out of the room," Kirby said. "I thought, man, that is just nasty."

The Huntington resident set to work two years ago designing an odorless toilet.
Kirby, 47, spent a year developing a prototype complete with a hollow toilet seat and adapting a vacuum motor with filtration system. For the past year, he has run tests on his product and used his odorless toilet system in his home.

Now Kirby hopes to go to market with his odorless toilet system
"The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno filmed Kirby demonstrating his invention at an inventors convention in Pittsburgh in June and aired the segment Thursday night (check your local TV listings for possible repeats of the episode). Kirby's system had won a silver medal at the Pittsburgh inventors convention in the bath/accessories category.

The system works by using a hollow toilet seat with holes on the bottom connected to a small pump via a hose with a filter.

The pump hangs below the water bowl and draws the foul smelling air through the toilet seat, a filter and out the pump.

Kirby, a landlord by trade, said the idea to eliminate bathroom odor came from divine inspiration.
"Maybe God wants mankind to not be living with this anymore," Kirby said. "I thought, well thank you God. He wanted me to tell the world about it. There never has to be another bathroom odor in any bathroom again."

Kirby claims the filter also captures bacteria with a zeolite filter, though some local experts remain skeptical of this claim. Some analysis was performed on the system at Microbiological Consultants Inc. in Huntington but no definitive studies were done there to confirm these claims, said Dr. Frank L. Binder, vice president of Microbiological Consultants Inc.

Kirby currently makes the toilet seats by hand using a mold for the seat. Each seat now takes him seven hours a piece to make by hand, but Kirby hopes to get them mass produced.

Kirby said he was not the first person to come up with a hollow toilet seat and pump system. There are already 300 different patents already existing for different styles, he said. Instead, Kirby said he is the only one with a filter in the hose.

When Kirby demonstrated his product on the sidewalk along 5th Avenue Thursday, he drew attention from people passing by.

"The world loves it," Kirby said of the attention his invention has gotten. "That is what I found when I was at the international convention."

He dropped incense sticks in the bowl of the toilet and turned on the pump. The incense smoke initially rose above the bowl then was sucked into the toilet lid.

One local business will soon put Kirby's device into use. When Chili Willi's Mexican Cantina in downtown opens its new location this month, two toilets in the women's restroom and one toilet in the men's restroom will feature Kirby's odorless toilet system.

Chili Willi's owner Ron Smith said he was impressed by Kirby's passion for his device.
"He approached me, showed me his invention, and I thought it was very novel," Smith said. "I had a measure of skepticism, but when I saw how genuine he was, how enthusiastic he was, I thought, you know, this guy is for real. He deserves a showing."

Kirby said he hopes his appearance on the Leno show will get a response and some investors to help him mass produce his product. He said a firm in Houston can produce the molds for the seats in China for a relatively low price.

Kirby said he hopes to start selling his seats on e-Bay next week. Since the seats are handmade, the bidding will start at about $250. If the seats become mass produced, he hopes to bring the price down to $69.

"As soon as this hits Wal-Mart, I'm throwing the town a party," Kirby said. "I would love to throw a party for my hometown."

Kirby Air Purification System

What it is: A hollow toliet seat with a hose and electric pump.
What it does: The pump sucks the foul-smelling air through the toliet seat and filter and out the pump to eliminate odor.
For more information: Visit www.kirbyairpurificationsystems.com/patented or call (304)522-ODOR.