To this class of closets belong the Philadelphia valve closet, the Bartholomew valve closet, Harrison's "Empire" water closet, Carr's "Monitor" closet, the Lambeth pan closet, Underhay's pan closet, Banner's closet, Craigie's "Eu-eka" closet, Craigie's "Century" closet and many others.

The name "valve " closet is an improper one, and leads to confounding these closets with those of the second type. The name is derived from the usual manner of supplying the flushing water to the closet, by joining the supply pipe to a more or less slow shutting valve, worked by the pull or handle of the closet. These valves are mostly unreliable, wear out and leak, especially when subjected to varying pressure from the street main. Pan closets may, however, be flushed by a special cistern with lever arrangement, and therefore the above serious defect is not one characteristic to these kind of closets.

The real defects of the pan closets will be at once apparent by inspection of. Fig. 4. A. The excrements are received in a bowl, closed at the bottom by a copper pan, holding a few inches of water and forming a seal against the air from the container. The contents of the bowl or pan are discharged by tilting the pan by means of a lever, while a flush is simultaneously started. This pan works in an iron receiver or "container," upon which the bowl is usually fastened with putty. The outlet of the receiver is trapped by the common S-trap, although it is not uncommon to find in old houses a D-trap under the water closet, a second "container" of foul matters. The foulest part of the pan closet is the receiver, for the solids gradually accumulate on its sides, as these receive no washing from the flush. The filth soon undergoes decomposition, and the resulting gases, having been confined by the double water-seal of the pan and the trap, are expelled into the apartment at each use of the closet. They also frequently find an exit at the hole, through which the spindle, tilting the pan, passes. And finally, the putty joint between bowl and receiver may become untight and afford means for the passage of sewer gas. The flush is insufficient in most pan closets to clean the bowl; it certainly loses all its force before reaching the container, foulness accumulates here and excremental matter lodges in the trap, as the flush is not strong enough to drive it out through the dip or water-seal. Some of the enumerated defects may be obviated by enameling the inside of the cast iron receiver; by ventilating it by an inlet pipe for fresh air and a vent pipe; by having special flushing arrangements for the container; by using a bowl with an improved flushing rim or a fan spray, the water for the flush being derived from a special tank. But by all these costly improvements the only merit of the pan closet, its cheapness, is annihilated, and a better water closet may as well be used. As long as a house is fitted with pan closets, of whatever pattern, it may be said not to have reached the standard of safety from a sanitary point of view.