If you ever changeover to the lowflush for whatever reason, (I think I was forced to change mine before selling a home in CA) you should know they are designed to contain three mini-flushes stored in the bowl. A single mini-flush is wholly inadequate as has been documented by the vast dissatisfaction and black-market "old" toliet market in the US.

A talented and trustworthy plumber (or an inventive home handyman) can rig the lo-flo toilets to flush all three flushes at once, effectively giving one a larger flush than even the old toilets had. (the irony of this is not lost on me or the environment) This takes care of the primary drawback of the lo-flos. However, the bowl size issue remains. The old toilets provided larger bowls with more water in them than the new ones. So the key is to specify the slightly higher height toilets intended to better enable the handicapped - these have a very slight increase in bowl size over the standard lo-flos, though they cost a little bit more.

Hang on to your old toilets as long as you can, but if you move and buy any new or old house - expect the people's republic of California to put you into a lo-flo zone!

I expect this post to be informative to all the frustrated low-flow-ers out there and may itself rise to the surface after it hits the google search engines and attracts both praise from the frustrated and ire from the environmentalists to whom such subversion is account to Whale hunting and baby seal killing.

Viva la revolution!

;-)

SDAI-Tech1

PS
Your yucky description (and accompanying mental image) brought poor Bowser to pity you and your plight...and share his own personal toilet horror story - now don't you feel just a tiny bit guilty?