Will Dragons give toilet device the brush- off ?

IT COULD mean the traditional toilet brush is about to go down the pan.

A young entrepreneur will unveil what he claims is the UK’s first self-cleaning loo brush on tonight’s edition of the entrepreneurial TV show Dragons’ Den.

Tom Keen’s silicon Flush Brush has a detachable head which is placed under the rim of the toilet after it has been used. His invention sparks an outbreak of ‘toilet wars’ among the show’s divided judges. While some of the Dragons are convinced by the convenience of Keen’s invention, others give the idea the brush-off.

The head is cleaned by the repeated flushing of the loo, which Keen claims helps make it more hygienic than a conventional brush. When it’s time to clean the toilet again, the detachable wand, which is kept by the side of the toilet, is simply reconnected to the head.

Keen, 27, who asks the Dragons to invest £50,000 in his business, says the traditional toilet brush, which dates back to 1933, is a ‘dirty, disgusting, outdated product’. He was inspired to design his self-cleaning brush after he moved into a flat.

He says: ‘There was a secondhand toilet brush in that flat and that was one of the most gruesome things I’d ever seen. It got us discussing over some beers why [the traditional loo brush] was in so many homes when it was so obviously deficient in its design.’

He hopes the brush will sell for £12 to £18 – and new Dragon Sara Davies is in no doubt the product might be a winner for its young inventor, saying she can see the potential as her two-yearold son once mistook the toilet brush for his hair brush.

But fellow Dragon Peter Jones is less inclined to spend even a penny on a project he thinks is flawed. Their verdict can be seen in tonight’s edition of Dragons’ Den which begins on BBC2 at 8pm.