As a water-free urinal salesman whose territory covers the Southeast, Robert Turner is accustomed to having North Carolinians doubt his company's product.

In the Triangle, water-free urinals remain a novelty, found mostly on college campuses, in Whole Foods stores and in a smattering of other businesses eager to bolster their green credentials.

While the current drought has increased interest in the water-saving devices, Turner and other salespeople say the Triangle remains a tough market to crack.

"In Florida and Atlanta and with the federal government, with them it's no longer a question about the technology," said Turner, whose Falcon Waterfree Technologies shipped more than 1,000 urinals into drought-stricken Atlanta last month. "That's not the case in the Carolinas and Tennessee."

Water-free or waterless urinals work by filtering urine through a special drain that traps the odor but not the actual liquid. Early adopters in the Triangle say the technology works but is not without problems.

"In many of our campus buildings, the water-free urinals have been favorably received," said Cindy Pollock Shea, director of UNC-Chapel Hill's Sustainability Office, which has installed 160 of them since 2002. "In some of them, they've been less favorably received."

Such mixed reactions could be one reason waterless urinals have yet to arrive in the Triangle's most highly trafficked restrooms. While Dolphin Stadium in Miami has had water-free urinals in place for six years, no major athletic stadium in the Triangle uses them.

Turner said the initial response to water-free urinals is often extreme skepticism: "That's nasty. There's no way that will ever work."

Widely used in Europe for decades, the technology arrived in America in the late 1980s. Lately, it has been given a boost by the U.S. military, which has started installing the urinals at many of its bases.

A California manufacturer, Waterless Co., offers different shaped urinals with names such as Yukon, Sierra, Kalahari and Del Mar.

The United States uses about 5.8 billion gallons of water daily to flush waste, and toilets and urinals account for about one-third of building water consumption. Depending on the urinal it replaces, a waterless urinal can save 1.6 gallons to 3.5 gallons of water per use.

A waterless urinal looks like a traditional one, except with a high-tech drain. When urine enters the filter, it first passes through a compartment filled with a special liquid. Because that liquid is more buoyant than urine, the urine is able to pass freely through to the drain without letting any odor escape.

Falcon sells water-free urinals for between $232 and $399, with each filter, or cartridge, costing $35. A flush urinal can cost anywhere from $200 to $800.

Most problems with the water-free urinals arise from faulty installation or improper maintenance, said Jerry Mielnikiewicz, an installation engineer with urinal maker Sloan Valve Co.

Once installed, the urinals are supposed to be regularly wiped and sprayed down with a cleaner or deodorizer. The cartridge should be replaced after about 7,000 uses, as sediment builds up inside it over time.

Raleigh-Durham International Airport removed waterless urinals from its Terminal A after they stopped working properly and began emitting an odor, said airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin. The airport will not install them in its new terminal but will continue to use the urinals in its administrative office bathrooms.

"It's not quite as busy in there, and we haven't had the same problem," Hamlin said.

At UNC-Chapel Hill, Shea said the key is to make sure maintenance people know when to put in new cartridges, which can be unpredictable if there's a major event on campus.

"There's no physical alert to housekeepers that it's time to replace the cartridges," Shea said.

Gary Rogers, whose Charlotte-based Rogers Sales Co. has been selling waterless urinals for about a year, said he expects the technology to gain in popularity as companies and institutions ramp up their conservation efforts in response to the drought.

"We've started gaining a little ground," said Rogers, who has sold a couple dozen so far. "If nothing else, it's a conversation piece."