It's funny, my wife can hear it upstairs when I flush. That thing is the best purchase I've ever made.
New Toilet?
- Thread starter dmclone
- Start date
I have a couple of older American Standards (Cadet or Champion?) with 1.6 gal flush. Master bath remodeled in 2020 and wanted this sleeker look but it only came in 1.28 gal and was a bit skeptical. Been three years and it has not clogged once. The smooth side make it a lot easier to clean around the outside base. "Comfort height" and elongated. Really like it.
Most of the remaining complaints are voiced by folks with agendas on the topic that are not really based on facts, at least based on what is currently available to consumers. Some of the early low gallon models were bad. Bigger diameter traps solved a lot of that. The current models really do work well. My 1.28 gpf model has a MaP score of 1000 grams, in other words it will pass a 2.2 pound Jayhawk.
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Think they went to a 1.2 gal flush, didn't work, so now they are at 1.6 gal. Old toilets were 3 gal per flush. So hopefully your sewer lines are in good shape, Old clay pipes to street can cause some problems, and need cleaning out more often with the reduced flush. If new, you have PVC and no problem.
I recently put in the tall, elongated toilet advertised to flush 20 golf balls because my son was constantly clogging the toilet. He defeated it within days.
I got the Titan, that says it can flush a whole bucket of golf balls. My son has medical issues that have been causing him to clog the throne 9 BMs out of 10. With the new one he is only clogging it 1 or 2 times a month. Definitely a huge improvement.
The federal law since 1992 is a max of 1.6 gallons per flush. The feds have not lowered that. They do have a national water saving rating called WaterSense that is like the Energy Star for electrical use.
A number of states, including California, Texas and New York, do require the 1.28's for new construction or replacement. With three of the most populous states in the union requiring it you will see those models marketed and for sale nationwide.
I installed the toilet last Friday and i constantly thought how smart @Jeremy was to have someone else do the install. In typical Youtube fashion, it was much harder than it's made to look.
- Unlike the rest of the toilets in the house, this one had 10" rough in instead of the standard 12". This brought down the list of option drastically.
- Two Piece Kohler that I ordered through Home Depot. Heavy as hell.
- The old toilet came out with no issues.
- The bolts were just barely long and one side kept spinning
- It was a little uneven, so I had to add shims
- I should have turned off water at the master level. I shut it off right before the toilet and it slowly leaked for 3 hours while I was installing it.
- My legs hurt for the next 3 days.
- I was sweating like a ***** in church
- I'm afraid if i wait a month or so, I'll regain my confidence and do the other 2.
I feel for you. I think I've replaced at least 1-2 toilets at each of our 4 houses over the year and it's a lot more physically straining than one would think. There are certain things that I've just realized I'm going to have to spend more on in the future to have others do for us, unfortunately.
I've seen a couple different toilet jacks out there. They cost about as much as a toilet themselves, but if that's the difference between hiring it out and DIY it might still be worth it over the long run.
I just replaced a toilet with a chair height, elongated Koehler from Lowe’s. We like the toilet, but it was a pain to install and I ultimately called a plumber to finish the job correctly. I have installed several toilets and it has never gone as smoothly as they show on “Ask This Old House.” Every one that I’ve installed has been on a not original tile floor. The problem is that the flange should be level or near level with the floor, but when they lay the floor, they don’t raise the flange. Sometimes a thick wax gasket will work, but if it doesn’t, you have to put in a riser kit. If you are as unlucky as me, the ceramic tile won’t be trimmed correctly to allow the riser and you will have to grind the tile off. This last time that was the case. In addition, the valve was frozen open, so I had to shut off the water to the whole house to replace the toilet. After I failed, it still took the real plumber over two hours to raise the flange, set the toilet, solder a stub on the water pipe, and install a new valve. I’ll never do it myself again.
This can be said about pretty much any home improvement project. I do handyman type work on the side and my wife always gives me **** because the night before even a small project, I end up spending like two hours or more in the garage loading up the crap I need. Most of that is processing everything that could go wrong and making sure I have what I need in case it does.
