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No busted flush
Toilet Duck first appeared in 1980. This world famous household product traces back to a Swiss patent that was originally owned by the Düring family from Dällikon and their company.
The product’s founder Walter Düring Orlob was strongly advised against naming the product “Toilet Duck”, but he ignored that advice. “In retrospect, it was a brilliant decision, because a duck for the toilet was a very unusual and eye catching idea,” says Heinz Düring, the inventor’s son. Despite the originality of the concept, Walter knew that the product could be copied, so almost all of the budget was spent on patents. The remaining funds were just enough for a TV advertisement. The invention then took on a life of its own: from 1980, it conquered the domestic market and gradually spread around the world.
A “durgol” family invention
The foundation for the product was created by the inventor’s mother, Maria Düring Keller. Searching for additional income for her family, she first attempted to produce potato crisps. When she realized that the company Zweifel was already out pacing her efforts, she turned her attention to tackling limes cale problems in the home. She experimented with various ingredients in her garage, sometimes calling on the support of a chemist. Once she had perfected her new product’s effectiveness and smell, she named it “durgol” a combination of her last name Düring and the suffix “-ol”, which was often used when naming industrial products at that time.
The businesswoman then embarked on a sales tour of buildings with large numbers of toilets, such as schools and major companies, presenting the product herself.
The concept was a success, but growth as a one woman enterprise was limited. In 1964, her son Walter Düring Orlob
joined the newly founded Düring AG, where he continued developing durgol and experimented with plastic bottles, which were completely new at the time. His first attempt was durgol WC. More than 10 years later, he focused his efforts on working out how the cleaning fluid could be squirted directly under the toilet rim. Eventually, he found the winning solution was to give the bottle a curved neck like a duck and the Toilet Duck was born. The first formula for the descaling fluid was produced by his wife Vera Düring. Working in the company’s basement, she developed a product that has a fresh scent, removes heavy limescale and is thick enough to stick to the toilet bowl and remain effective for longer. And this innovation has proved to be anything but a busted flush: today, the household product is still sold around the world under the name of Toilet Duck translated into each country’s national language, of course.
